Edinburgh Lace Making

Scottish Lace Newsletter
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News of lace days and courses in Scotland and articles supplied by subscribers.
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Edinburgh Lace Club
2008 Autumn Newsletter

Once again, the Edinburgh Lace Club has had a busy and successful year with a course with Kitty Mason in January, members attending the Glasgow Lace Day in March and a display of City & Guilds Embroidery by Cherrie Noble in April – to mention just a few events. Ar the meeting in June strawberries and raspberries were served and enjoyed by all. Jean Inglis won the summer competition – congratulations!

We would also like to thank Norma for creating and updating the Edinburgh Lace Club website. A presence on the internet is very important to the club and ensures that any visitors to the area contact the club and hopefully join us in the future.

Over the last year, we have been selling and auctioning off the late Jean McEwan’s lace bobbins and the money raised has been split between Cancer Research and the club funds. There are still more bobbins and patterns available – these will be available for the members to purchase over the next few months.
As well as the usual weekend courses, we will be offering two extra courses over the next year. These will take place on Saturday afternoons after the club meetings. More details will be available later.

The AGM will be held in November - nominations are needed for Chairman and Course Co-ordinator this year. If you are interested or know someone who is, then please speak to any of the committee members.

The theme for this year’s Christmas competition is ‘Threads of Gold’.

A Message From the Man in the Corner

When I was asked to write a short article for the Edinburgh Lace Club web site and started to make notes I was surprised to find that I had attended every Lace Day but one since 1995 and that this year, 2007 would be the 10th anniversary of my bobbin spangling stall. We moved to Edinburgh from Aberdeen in 1995, attending the 1995 Lace Day as visitors. Somehow, as I had done at Aberdeen Lace Days, I ended up in the kitchen washing dishes. In 1997, because one cannot spend all day in the kitchen, I also brought along some of Jane-Beths's collection of un-spangled bobbins.

Bobbin spangling has a fascination that draws a crowd. I soon had an audience. 'How do you do that?' 'Why do you do it that way?' A brief "spangling class" followed. A number of ladies agreed that they hated spangling bobbins and one lady made the statement "I'd pay someone to do that for me."

After some (brief) discussion with the committee I offered to provide a spangling service at the 1998 Lace Day. I would provide the spangles; lacemakers would queue up (we hoped) to have their bobbins spangled, in return for which they would make a "donation" to the National Osteoporosis Society. It was a success, and every year since then I have appeared at the Lace Day or Friendship Day where I spangle bobbins, meet lots of people and am fed coffee and cake.

One of the most common questions I am asked is "how much of my donation goes to charity?" Thanks to your invitation to write this article I can explain how it works. I provide the beads and wire at my own expense and make up the bangles in my own time. Every penny you give goes straight to the National Osteoporosis Society. With the price of beads it would not be cost effective to only donate a "profit". The spangles would end up costing much more than they do and people would be less likely to use the service, or the final amount going to the NOS would hardly be worth posting off to them.

Thanks to your dislike of spangling your own bobbins, and your generosity in trusting me with your precious pieces of wood or bone we have averaged year on year about £100, so in the 10 years (and here I am trusting that you will bring bobbins again this year) we will have donated £1,000 to the National Osteoporosis Society to assist in their campaigns and research into a condition that may affect many of us now or in the years to come.

I send my thanks to you all for having me at your Lace Days.

Jonathan

October '06 Lace Day

Our biannual lace day was held on the 21t October 2006 at St Anne's Parish Church, Corstorphine and we were delighted to welcome fellow lacemakers from all over Scotland. Altogether over 100 people attended and as always our members all contributed to making the day a great success - donating homebaking, raffle prizes, selling tickets, serving teas, providing lace for and manning the display etc. etc.

This year's display theme was Birds and Butterflies, with a small section showing Lavender and Lace entries from last June's club competition. As always it was a beautiful display showcasing our members wide ranging skills and interests.

A lovely range of 'goodies' was brought by our suppliers Central Scotland Lace Supplies, Acorn Bobbins and The Lace Guild. We also had a courier parcel from Posh Bags. Many people left with much lighter purses.

Jonathon Brown once again spangled bobbins in aid for the National Osteoporosis Society raising approximately £80 this year.

Our speaker, Louise Martin, gave us a fascinating talk entitled "Weaving the 'Hunt of the Unicorn' tapestries at Stirling Castle" which gave us an insight into the painstaking preparations and processes involved in weaving this amazing project. Louise generously bought samples of the weaving along for us to see and inspired several members to visit Stirling Castle to see the project and completed tapestries in situ.

Throughout the day our members were kept busy serving teas and coffees and after the talk there was just time for the raffle, a last look at the suppliers and a quick cuppa before it was time to start clearing up after a very good day.

Finally before I finish this report I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to our Friendship Day on the 20th October this year. More details will be put on the website soon.

Robina Melville

**See the 'gallery' page for photos

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