2010 IOLI Convention

This year’s lace convention was hosted by the Portland Lace Society in Oregon. The hotel was located along the beautiful Columbia River; we were able to watch the river traffic out of a wall of windows…that is, the few times we raised our heads from the work on our pillows! Ha! Each room was equipped with a refrigerator and a microwave and free Wi-Fi. A grocery store was three blocks away and we - Heather Norris and Sherry Mathers – took Heather’s rolling duffel bag to the store and loaded it with food that covered all breakfasts, all but two lunches (two were part of the convention registration) and all but three dinners (the three also part of the convention package).
Heather and I took ‘s Gravensmoerse in the morning with Susan Wenzel and Milanese in the afternoon with Louise Colgan Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. We took Lia Baumeister-Jonker’s mini-class on Saturday morning to make a half-stitch butterfly brooch with rolled paper antennae and lower wings. We also attended a program on Ipswich Lace in Wednesday evening given by Marta Sprout, author of a book on Ipswich Lace. She has written a new book, Homespun Valor, with the personal stories of the women who built the lace industry in Ipswich; PBS has bought the rights to a film based on the book! We worked very diligently but our greatest success was the sales room! We bought spangles for the remaining unspangled bobbins belonging to the group. We also bought a number of "must haves" for ourselves but were able to keep out luggage under fifty pounds per bag.
Heather and I took a tour on Wednesday along the magnificent Columbia River Gorge to the wine country and toured two wineries (with tasting!). We returned along the gorge again, but this time stopping at amazing Multnomah Falls which we had seen only from the van window earlier. It’s huge and very majestic.
We missed the "tat off" which is always great fun but we did get to see the "lace off." Our own Jane Richmond was on one of the teams of three. Two members of a team held two bobbins (a bit smaller that bowling pins!) each wound with twine while the third held the knot of the four pieces of twine tied together. They had a limited time to make a braid working together to do the "cross twist" and received extra points for picots! The longest was a prize winner as well as the neatest. Jane’s team made almost the longest and it did win the neatest. Heather and I received a surprise at the Tuesday night dinner…"generations of lace makers" were honored and there were quite a few mother-daughter attendees and one four generation family!
We hope you consider going to convention yourselves in the future. 2011 will be held in Bethesda, MD. And 2012 will be in Minneapolis, MN. Check out the details for 2011 through the www.internationationaloldlacers.org website.