I recently learned about Elizabeth Perkins Wildes Bourne. She was apparently a talented weaver in #Maine, widely known for her counterpanes (coverlets). Reportedly one was in the White House with the Madisons.
Someone overpainted her portrait at some point, and I want to do very bad things to that person. I cannot fathom why they did this to her.
Painting is at the Brick Store Museum in Maine and I plan to visit her soon. I need to see her lace up close.
This #mural artist puts huge #lace on the sides of buildings. I want one for #IpswichLace so much, but I wouldn't invite anyone from outside the US to come here right now.
Anyway, she's giving a talk for #IOLI soon and I will store that in my cheek pouches for some future grant writing when we get out of this phase.
https://lacelectures.internationalorganizationoflace.org/lace-lectures/nespoon-03-26
The cat who wrecks lace. For some reason, this Belgian lace pillow makes my cat lose her mind. She rubs it with her face, she paws the top from below, she chews the threads and she pulls pins out with her teeth (although she didn't pull pins this time).
I finished this piece, it's a reproduction I'm trying to create from a museum sample. But she didn't help.
Although we have original #IpswichLace samples documented from the 18th century period, we are discovering new ones around New England. We published a couple in PieceWork magazine recently.
I discovered one that is shockingly red! All the other known ones were white linen or black silk. So I've been meaning to re-create the red one. It has this tricky crescent that's hard to trace the thread paths in my photos. It's still giving me trouble, but I think I'm close.
The web article that accompanies our Piecework magazine article is available. We talk about our #Rev250 event last spring with the tale of the Revolutionary lacemakers.
#BobbinLace #IpswichLace #Massachusetts250
https://pieceworkmagazine.com/lace-lives-on-bobbin-lace-in-ipswich-past-and-present/
I have an article coming out in the spring issue of Piecework Magazine. It's about #IpswichLace and it has stories of the women we are researching who made or used the lace.
The issue has a #Rev250 theme. Another article is about Abigail Adams and the accompanying pattern is a needlepoint of her house and a phrase:
To be Good
and
To do Good
I gasped when I saw it and thought of #ReneeNicoleGood . Patriots--the real kind.
There was an American set of lace stamps. This site shows them and the backstory.
I feel like we need a new one for the American #IpswichLace now, but that's a battle for another day.
I spent yesterday at Smith's Castle in N. Kingston RI. Doing a #BobbinLace demo in a home of the right period for #IpswichLace makes me happy.
But they have this mystery painting, with a sitter draped in black lace that haunts me.
They say they think they have the painter and the likely sitter's sister IDed, but the woman I talked to couldn't recall it in the moment. I will email her after the festivities and hope to learn the outcome.
After a very hectic #Rev250 commitment schedule for April and May, I can finally get back to my own projects. I bought pre-tariff yarn for this, but it was waiting in the shadows....
For #WIPWednesday I have made my first "big" #BobbinLace. It's just a swatch now, I needed to feel how the yarn behaved. It's going to get bigger. I have a massive roller pillow to use for it.
It's a 300% sized #IpswichLace pattern.
LOLOL! I just found out that our upcoming #IpswichLace demo at the #MarbleheadMA museum will have sea shanties too! I love sea shanties.
This Saturday, or Sunday if they have to move to the rain date.
The singers are called "Scurvy Fellows Indeed" and I can't stop laughing.
mem_somerville
