I was totally delighted this last weekend to have been asked to teach a class for the International Old Lacers Inc 59th International Conference.  No, I am not a lace maker.  I got to be the technology geek and teach a class on digital self publishing patterns, specifically for fiber artists.  (aka How to lay it out, what format to put it in, where to sell it and how it all works.)  I had 11 students in my class, with some from as far away as Germany and Australia.  (Hi class!)  They were fantastic!  They asked great questions and were a very congenial group, which was good because the room we were in was tiny and we all got to be good friends.

I got just a few minutes to walk around the exhibitions and Vendor Fair at the conference on Monday night before I did my shift at “Meet the Teachers” night.  One of the exhibitions was a challenge to take one particular motif and render it in your style or technique of lacemaking.  The “Poppy Project” had about 30 different interpretations.

Ursula Bohtasch, Austria, needle lace

Ulrike Voelcker, Germany, mechlin lace

And then there were the bobbins!  Hundreds of colors, styles, materials, sizes and shapes of lace making bobbins.  This was just one display.

I hope the rest of the conference goes well for them.  I bought a pretty vintage hanky and some buttons from a vendor and a pair of socks with tatting shuttles on them.