Victorian Lace, Luncheon, and Tea

The Prairie Mill Lacemakers outdid themselves putting on a beautiful day full of activities.

It was like being transported back in time.






They greeted us in their lovely Victorian-era costumes at the Historic Chamberlain Hotel in Midway Village, and bade us relax and do our handwork.

Many types of lace were represented: bobbin lace, crocheted and knitted lace, tatting of course, and many varieties of needle lace.



The luncheon was incredibly delicious! All made by the group, nothing catered...a superb quiche, delightful spinach salad, fresh fruit, sparkling non-alcoholic champagne.




We also enjoyed a tea with plates and cups that were collectors items. Even the sugar was shaped and colored like violets to match the decor!

There were homemade scones, candies, a cake baked from an authentic Victorian-era recipe, and other goodies.









Goodies for our lace craft stash were also available for purchase at the trunk sale provided by "The Lacemaker" shop.
We even received a visit from the "widow" in full Victorian deep mourning garb, who gave a well documented presentation on the funeral customs of that era.


















Door prizes were given out throughout the day... I won a stained glass suncatcher that featured violets and lace on it.

We were given handmade parting gifts of a pincushion with a bobbin lace flower, a cute bear pin, and violets and lace decorated cookies.

A day I will never forget!

Butterfly bookmarks

Simple and quick! I took the pink butterfly and some of my other tatted bookmarks and jewelry to the consignment boutique where I sell some of my work. The shop owner, (who loves my tatting) didn't want to carry bookmarks at first -- "I've had other bookmarks here, and they just sit..." but couldn't resist keeping just a few of mine at the shop. I got a phone call a few hours later from the shop owner, "I just sold the pink butterfly! The lady would also like one in purple!"
So I did a variety of purples!
These are done like the flower bookmark here.
R 2-2-2-2. T. Ch 5-5, sj to p of r.
Ch 7-1--1-7, sj to next p of r.
Ch 2---1---2, sj to same p. Ch 7-1--1-7, sj to next p of r.
Ch 5-5. J at the bottom same as the flower bookmark.

For a pdf copy of this pattern Click Here.

Easter Eggs

This is my attempt at doing tatted Easter eggs. The green one with the yellow cross I just finished; the blue egg in the background I did last year. Both are done in size 20 cotton pinned to satin eggs purchased from Handy Hands.

There are many beautiful eggs shown by tatters on the Internet. I very much admire the ones that are done using real, blown eggshells. However, in my household, I think real eggshells would get broken very quickly! So it's good that satin eggs are available.

By the way, the cross pattern is pretty much the same as the center of my shamrock pattern listed on the Tatting Calendar for March 11. I just used a smaller stitch count.