Lace Embrace 2017 part 1

I look forward to the Lacemaker's Guild of Oklahoma's Lace Embrace Day every year.  All year guild members plan different things to put into goodie bags.  We also try to plan interesting classes, contests and displays. There are always demonstrations of lace-making (which turn into a first lesson if the watcher is interested.)    There is also the added pleasure my husband's attention far enough away from his many responsibilities that he is "mine" for about 36 hours.  There is no housework to do, no laundry or dishes.  I always enjoy hotel rooms--they are so free of clutter (until I move in - haha!  I had a friend at Camp Good News who said that she always knew which bunk was mine, because I brought so much stuff....however, when they needed something, I always had it!)

There are trials in life, which remind you how blessed you are to have particular people in your life.....a) My husband tripped on Sept 9 at the farm, falling into a gulley where we have dispose of broken concrete and other stuff we needed to "make go away."  He landed on his right (had to be his dominate hand) wrist and broke both bones and crushed the little wrist bones all out of place.  He basically lived on pain killers for a week, then had surgery where they installed a steel plate and 8 screws.  Over two months later, this man who handles pain really, really well (he walked on a broken leg for 3 days once) is still hurting on a daily and nightly basis.  The dr. says this may very well be permanent.  b) My 82 year old father came down with appendicitis on 10/7,  the day after Lace Embrace.  (Very unusual, the dr. said if you have had your appendix that long, that you usually keep it.)  Because he was on plavix (sp?) and blood thinners, they had to build his blood up with plasma and platelets before he could have surgery.  By the time he wouldn't bleed to death during surgery, the appendix perforated.  Already having very serious heart problems, his heart rate decided to beat around 200 times a minute.  So we started a very complicated game, fix the heart rate and the blood pressure would drop.  Fix the blood pressure and the heart rate went up.  After a few hours, we started fighting infections as well.  The father I know, has always been very aware of who he was, where he was and what he was doing.  Well, EVERY night in the hospital, he had hallucinations.  They put him on sleeping pills, anxiety drugs, depression drugs....it only seemed to get worse.  I would have hated to be member of the medical staff the night he dreamed the his nurse was trying to kill him.  His room changed often, medical/surgical floor, step-down from ICU, ICU, Step-down from ICU, in=house rehab.... It was such a relief when on 10/31, he was able to come home--where he had no hallucinations.   He still received IV antibiotics from a home healthcare nurse for a week, and therapy sessions will continue for quite awhile strengthening his respiratory system, endurance and balance issues. (More information than you ever wanted to know!) Anyway--lots of things to occupy my head and time.  I have stayed out of the hospital.  That doesn't mean I have been healthy, the bad days still outnumber the good days.  But the good days seem to be slowly increasing.

Crazy...I "tried out" doing my very short nails with a lace theme a month before Lace Embrace.  I painted them a lovely burgundy color and then stenciled a doily pattern on them in gold.  They were so pretty!
I was so busy the week  of the event, that I had bare nails

This was a very different year for me--a)  I taught the tatting class  b) My husband and I ran a table for Tatting Corner selling the things that they uniquely carry. The event was waaaayyy back the first weekend in October.and I haven't posted anything here since August...  but I do want to put down my thoughts and memories about Lace Embrace....

Friday night of Lace Embrace, we had a hard time getting out the door...   It was one of those "if it could go wrong, it did" things.  We finally left home, about the time we had hoped to be finished getting the Tatting Corner merchandised displayed, as well as putting out my personal tatting display.  My husband was also acting as IT person, fixing power point projectors,, etc.   We eventually made it to Bartlesville (a two hour drive from home), where the event is held, checked into our hotel and after visiting a very nice member of their local constabulary about a mechanical malfunction with our vehicle (one of our headlights needed a new bulb) we met Paula and her husband for dinner.

 I enjoyed our room at the hotel.  I was able to (now calmly) unpack and repack so that I only needed (what felt like) a couple dozen totebags and boxes the next morning.
                                      
I  am so very blessed to have such lovely tatting friends.  Seeing them and spending time with some of them is one of the many reasons why I look forward to Lace Embrace each year.  I was so surprised when I received gifts this year!  I hadn't been putting up my display very long when Paula (chair of the Lace Embrace committee) came up and gave me this gorgeous antique turtle pin cushion.  l  He looks so adorable holding some of my turtle stick pins!

Brigitte was next--(last year she brought me a pair of tatted turtle earrings!)  First she gave me two jars of her handmade cherry preserves.  (She remembered I liked it from the "weekend at Sonya's' a year ago!  Isn't that awesome!?!  I can't tell you what we ate a year ago!)  Then --ooooh   sooooo cooool!! She gave me the cutest little pair of beaded turtles!!  I wore them again yesterday and they were quite the topic of conversation around the table for awhile.  Brigitte was one of my first Lace Embrace friends...years ago, she volunteered to be my partner during a tatting olympics event at my first Lace Embrace.  She has a wonderful blog--it has been neglected but she has some wonderful entries http://tattingandbeading.blogspot.com/

 My dear husband surprised me, by buying a book missing from my library.  It was one of the few remaining things on Sue Groh's table.  Sue had the shop "Unique Expressions" and is retiring.  I will miss her.  She was the first tatting retailer that I ever had "talked to in person" if you know what I mean.

I want to talk about goodie bags, demos, classes, etc in the next post....   Here is an article that I put into our guild's newsletter.
 

This shows my first experience tatting with hand-dyed silk (actually silk thread of any kind).  PROS:  I love the crisp but soft ( like petting fur) rings this thread made.  The soft transitions from color to color are lovely.  CONS:  I did have trouble keeping the thread’s twist.  I also had trouble getting large rings to close.  I bought this 5 yd skein of beautiful thread from Kathy Kirchner at Lace Embrace.  I will have to see if she has more or this will be a permanent UFO!*  The pattern came from ( Lace Embrace purchase ) “ Just Marking Tome” a book by Julie Patterson.  I have wanted this book for several years but the shipping costs from Australia kept the book out of my budget.  After expressing my frustration to Lisa at Tatting Corner, she arranged to have exclusive rights to sell three of Julie Patterson’s books in the United States.  This particular pattern is almost all split rings!  http://www.tattingcorner.com/search/results.html?search_in_description=1&keyword=patterson&referrer=CNWR_30711492117529

*I "talked" to Kathy via email.  The company that provided this silk thread is no longer in business/  I have a UFO that isn't totally because I am a great procrastinator!