August was a very busy month, starting with special birthday celebrations. I was treated to a massage and a facial, so I felt refreshed and beautiful for a while! My musical friends and I also enjoyed several of my favorite restaurants, especially the ones featuring calamari and fried oysters. It was culinary treats for everyone!
We topped it off with performances at the Brevard Summer Music Festival, a Puccini opera and the Beethoven closing concert.
The middle of the month brushed the remnants of hurricane Fred over Western North Carolina and I was without power for one day and without internet and phone for 2 days. About that time I was scheduled to demonstrate at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway and managed to set up my display and worktable in the semi dark, since their power had not been restored yet. It finally came back during the night and we were able to open the next day; however, there was no AC for a couple of days, which made some visitors a bit grouchy. Finally everything was back to normal and I had a pleasantly cool Saturday and Sunday.
At home of course it always takes a few days to get everything back to working order and I was behind with my restoration work. The beautiful Irish lace tablecloth I am working on is coming back to life with each section I complete. You can see the “before and after” images of one of the sections. This will take several more weeks to complete; it is such a joy to work on a very old example of superior Irish lace craftmanship.
I believe that originally several nuns worked on this project together, because it would have taken one person several years to design and create all the areas using tiny stitches to create the designs and fill in between the actual design elements. It was probably done like the old quilting bees, where a roomful of ladies worked tens of thousands of tiny quilting stitches (11 stitches per inch) gathered around a rather large, sometimes room size, quilting frame. The quilt itself had to be moved frequently in the frame for the ladies to reach all the areas that needed to be worked on.
The nuns most likely designed and worked their preferred technique: floral, scrolls, figurines etc. or picked the solid areas and then tacked them together as per their master plan. Then other ladies did the background and fill in work to tie it all together. I can feel their joy and creativity as I work on the piece. It reminds me of my time in Ireland as an exchange student many decades ago when I was able to watch some Irish ladies create delicate designs and floral trims. Fast forward to a few years ago when I did extensive research for the Irish Lace section in my “Heritage Crochet Lace in a new Light” book. ( is also a link to the book on the home page)
September will bring cooler days and hopefully calmer weather. Our annual Heritage Day event is back at the Folk Art Center for one day only, September 18th. We usually have lots of special animals come and visit, but because the critters just refuse to wear masks, they will have to stay home again! I especially miss the sheep herding and shearing, but our main event, the annual world famous Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle competition will be held as usual in the auditorium on that afternoon. This event is not to be missed!
All our fiber artists are looking forward to being back together in the auditorium, welcoming our masked visitors. There is so much to see and do, come and join us if you can. I will be back at the Folk Art Center the following week, September 23rd. through 26th. to demonstrate in the lobby.
Have a happy end of summer and stay well!
“I do what I love and I love what I do.”