Mystery Lace- 1
September 11, 2009 by Noreen Crone-Findlay
Filed under lace
As I was strolling past a rather wonderful old table in our favorite thrift shop, I felt like a hand reached out and grabbed me by the scruff of my collar and said, ‘Look at this!!!’
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Sitting on the table, under a rather
dreadful flower arrangement,
was this wonderful table runner.
It’s 50 inches long (about 125 cm)
and about 12 inches (30 cm) wide.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
I am in awe of this lace.
I have no idea how it was made.
Clearly, some parts of it were
woven.
Some parts are worked in
buttonhole stitch over
connecting threads.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
I am wondering if
the motifs were
worked separately
first, and then
stitched to a backing
cloth….
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
The central medallion
was worked 3 times
and 2 other sets of
medallions were
placed between them.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
The flowers in the medallions
look like they were woven.
Now…
were they woven on pins?
or in the air?
I love the assymetry of the flowers.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
I think that this flower
was worked from the
center out, with
buttonhole stitches
worked over supporting
strands.
Hmmm… the outer petals
look to me like they are series
of buttonhole stitches over
small loops.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
I wonder if each leaf
or petal was worked
from one template
or pattern piece, then
turned and the next one
worked in sequence.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
These motifs were
worked with braid
forming the edges.
The braid is integral
to the structure of the entire
piece.
This is a truly lovely piece
of work.
This piece of lace has some damage that I will gently repair. I will enjoy using and studying this fascinating and mysterious piece of the lacemaker’s art for years to come.
I would love to learn more about this style of lacemaking- do you know anything about it?
It’s needlepoint lace. If you google it, you will come up with lots more information, and there are books to learn it from, like “Starting Needlepoint Lace” from Amazon.
I’ve only made a couple beginner designs, but started out with a design outline on paper, which was reinforced with contact paper, and I believe had another layer of felt or fabric underneath. The design is outlined (I think I couched the outline thread) and then the separate sections are embroidered with different designs, with some being kin to buttonhole stitch, but stitched in rows that are attached only to each other, separate from the base.
When the design is complete it is separated from the pattern, so the pattern can be reused.
Yes, it certainly looks like needle lace to me also. I’ve done a bit and taken a couple of workshops. Detached buttonhole stitch is the name of the stitch described by Lynn.
A lovely piece.
There are lots of useful lace books and articles over at the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics. Have a look at: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/lace.html for the lace-specific stuff. I’ve spent way too many hours wandering through the weaving and lace items there.