Your challenge this time is to participate in Maggie Hensel-Brown’s Community Lacemaking Project.  If you have never made needle lace, this is an opportunity to learn by making a small leaf.  If you have made needle lace before, this is an opportunity to demonstrate your skill.  A page of leaf patterns, 38 pages of instructions and two video lessons are provided.

After you make a leaf, please remember to take a picture, and send the picture to challenge@internationalorganizationoflace.org with your name, location, size of leaf, materials and your comments.  Instructions for mailing the leaf to Maggie are available through her website.  There is a link to the website near the end of the details that follow.  

You are welcome to contribute as many leaves as you want for this challenge and for Maggie Hensel-Brown’s Project.  Deadline for mailing leaves to Maggie is mid-March 2024.  Deadline for emailing pictures to IOLI is March 31, 2024.  

WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY LACEMAKING PROJECT?

The community lacemaking project will be a single, large piece of lace to be exhibited in Sydney in mid 2024. It will measure at least three square metres.

A tapestry of small needle lace motifs, designed and pieced together by Maggie Hensel-Brown, but made by hundreds of others. 

Needle lace is a centuries old tradition whose practitioners are severely dwindling in numbers. The aim of this community project is to introduce the basic stitches of needle lace to a broad range of new lacemakers, work together in small community sewing groups, and create a single large physical piece. A visualization of all of the hands and thoughts and moments that have gone into the stitches. 

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE

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IN PERSON: Maggie will be hosting a series of sewing circles. Stitchers will be introduced to the basic principles of needle lace, and will each produce a small motif to add to the overall piece. These circles will pop up between September 2023 and April 2024, mostly around NSW Australia, but also in other areas around Australia and overseas. You can be updated via the mailing list or on instagram on when and where these classes are happening.

ONLINE: For those unable to make it to any of the in-person sessions, there are digital instructions. Participants can gather materials, download a pattern, and stream a video lesson. They can then post the sampler to Maggie to be joined onto the tapestry. 

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The video links are now live, and you are welcome to start stitching. Any samples for the finished project will need to be sent to Maggie by mid-March.  Video links are on Maggie’s website at: https://www.maggiehenselbrown.com/community-lacemaking

There you will find a form to use to contact Maggie for Postal details, questions and updates on the project. 

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All instruction, whether in-person or online, will be free for participants.

Challenge 8 : Variety is the Spice of Lace

I.O.L.I. is a vibrant organization because of the variety of laces made by the variety of lace makers. Several types of lace are made using more than one technique.  Romanian point lace combines needle lace stitches with a crochet cord. Battenburg lace has a woven cord (bobbin) with needle lace stitches. Close inspection of a piece of Czech bobbin lace edging showed that the leaves were made with needle weaving.

For Challenge #8, make something using at least two lace techniques, knitting, crochet, tatting, needle lace, bobbin lace, sprang, knotting. You may partner with

another lace maker for this challenge with each lace maker contributing lace in one of the techniques.  Here are some ideas to start you thinking about possibilities.

● Knit a scarf and add a crocheted or tatted edging

● Knit a shawl and create a clasp/pin/button using a different technique.

● Decorate a project bag with small pieces of lace in different techniques. Then when you go to demonstrate you will be prepared to show the difference between looped, knotted, woven and/or twisted laces.

● Embellish a crazy quilt placemat with lace in different techniques.

● Make a sampler using at least 2 techniques.

● Make a pendant in one lace technique and its cord in another - crochet cord / bobbin lace braid / fingerloop braid.

● Make a sprang bag with bobbin lace braid drawstrings.

Challenge 7 : Nature

Have you picked up a pretty leaf or rock or seashell?  Have you taken a picture of something lovely or interesting in nature? Go for a walk. Look around and find your inspiration.  Here are some ideas to start you thinking:

● Knit in sunrise/sunset colors.

● Tat a waterfall

● Crochet a leaf

● Weave the lines of a crystal in bobbin lace

● Make a bird in fleco knotting

What is your favorite part of nature? What is the most intriguing part of nature? What is most fun? What is most beautiful? What is most amazing?

You may choose a pattern someone else has designed or you may design your own pattern. Always give credit to the designer. Your entry may be two or three dimensional. There are no size requirements. The choice is yours. When you take pictures of your entry, be sure to have a plain, contrasting background so that your entry is easy to see and the background does not distract from your work.  Send your pictures and descriptions of challenge entries to  challenge@internationalorganizationoflace.org .

Challenge 6 :  What's Next

Challenge 6 is to use your creativity and suggest challenges for the next year.  

How long do you want to work on a challenge?

Do you want one challenge at a time or parallel challenges to work on through the year?

Send your suggestions to challenge@internationalorganizationoflace.org  .

Thank you for participating in challenges. 

Members' Lace Challenge 5 :

 Sampling Something New

The next challenge is to try a lace stitch that is new to you.  For example there are books with oodles of variations of rose ground.  How many rose ground variations have you tried?

Submit a picture of your sample showing the lace stitch that you tried.  The physical size of the sample will vary with the technique and size of thread. Your sample must have enough repetitions of the stitch (at least 3 is recommended) so that others see the pattern created by the stitch.  The shape of the sample will depend on whether you are making a tape or ground with your bobbins or if you are knitting or crocheting or tatting or stitching with a needle.  

Document your sample.  Describe how the sample is constructed with the notation that is appropriate for the technique you are using.  You may refer to a book for the description or diagram or you may create your own stitch.  

You may submit multiple samples trying out the same stitch using different fibers.  You may submit multiple samples trying out the same stitch and fiber on different scales or grids or arrangements.  You may try out more than one stitch that is new to you.  

I.O.L.I. members, please send your entries to challenge@internationalorganizationoflace.org .  This challenge will remain open through July 2022.  

One source for bobbin lace stitches to try is GroundForge at https://d-bl.github.io/GroundForge/ .

In the right column there is a list of Catalogues.  If you click on Literature you will get a list of book authors and titles.  If you click on one of the other Catalogue labels you will get collections of stitches.  If you click on TesselLace Index, for example, then click on one of the pair diagrams, you will be taken to a page where GroundForge will draw both the pair diagram (one line per pair) and the thread diagram (one line per thread).   Pick a stitch and try it out. 

Contact challenge@internationalorganizationoflace.org if you have questions.   

Members' Lace Challenge 4 :

 UnCon 2.0 Finishing

At UnCon we missed seeing the bits of lace we’re making in classes because we were not walking around the convention site.  Let’s celebrate the great classes at UnCon 2,0 by sharing our work online.  The next challenge is to finish something from class and show everyone what you made.  This may be a piece of lace, samples of stitches you practiced or learned, a diagram for lace you designed.

I.O.L.I. members, please send your entries to challenge@internationalorganizationoflace.org .  Provide the name of the class you took at UnCon 2.0, pictures of what you made, and a description of your work.  This challenge will remain open until June 2022 so that members working on larger projects have time to finish.  

We look forward to celebrating the first pieces made by lace makers who learned a new technique.  We look forward to celebrating the samples made by lacemakers who were practicing challenging stitches like tallies and leaves.  We look forward to celebrating the pieces that lace makers have been working on from one convention to another and are finally finishing.  We look forward to seeing what everyone did during UnCon classes.