December Holiday Lunch

Cranberry Lacers gathered at the Stage House Tavern in Somerset this past weekend for our traditional December "meeting" - the holiday lunch.  We shared wonderful conversation and great food in this historic restaurant.  Part of the fun of the afternoon was continuing a 20 year old tradition of reading "The Night Before Christmas" and doing a gift swap.  Everyone brought a gift and every time during the reading the word "the" was said, the gifts were passed to the next person around the table until the last "the" was said and the gift in your hands was the one that you opened and kept.  The book that has been used for all these years was gifted to the group 20 years ago in 1997 by Trish, sadly no longer with us.  It is believed that the idea for this was started in 1996 and then Trish bought the book the following year.

October meeting

The unofficial theme of the October meeting of the Cranberry Lacers could certainly be "Scarves and New Starts!"  It seems like most of us were working on one or the other!  At the last meeting, the idea of some Milanese projects/lessons had been proposed and so some members were taking advantage of our teacher Pat's wealth of knowledge and wealth of books and patterns of that type of lace to begin work on something new.  As it turned out, two others were engaged in scarf projects - perhaps influenced by the turn of the weather, the fact that fall had finally arrived?

There was also much conversation about the recently opened exhibit "Lace Not Lace" at the Hunterdon Art Museum.  Some members had attended opening day, others have been there since, and others have future visits planned.  We are so lucky to be here in NJ and close to this first-ever-in-the-US exhibit of lace of this kind.  We also welcomed a visitor who gave a try to bobbin lace and has decided to join us!  So excited to bring a new friend into this wonderful hobby/craft/art of ours!

We meet every third Saturday of the month for a day of lacing and conversation. We are a group of friendly lacemakers with a range of experience - we are lucky enough to have a professional instructor to teach the beginners and work with the experienced.  Anyone is welcome to join us!  The room we meet in at the library is large with lots of light.  Feel free to email us at cranberrylacers@gmail.com for more information.Cranberry Lacers has been a chartered chapter group of IOLI for 25 years. 

September meeting

After a rainy week, the Cranberry Lacers were very glad to gather in lacemaking and friendship on this Saturday at the Franklin Township public library.  Pat and Beth shared stories of their lace adventures this August in Europe, attending the OIDFA Congress in the Netherlands and then the World Lace Event Brugge in Belgium.  Pat brought lots of show and tell by way of books and patterns!

Today, Mary was busy tatting and has found herself quite engaged in tatting lately.

As per usual, Beth was working on beautiful Binche, but today brought a piece that involved a bit of color - quite unusual!

Other pieces on our pillows today:

As always, Pat is an incredibly patient and kind teacher, always helpful, as she is here with Veronica.

We meet every third Saturday of the month for a day of lacing and conversation. We are a group of friendly lacemakers with a range of experience - we are lucky enough to have a professional instructor to teach the beginners and work with the experienced.  Anyone is welcome to join us!  The room we meet in at the library is large with lots of light.  Feel free to email us at cranberrylacers@gmail.com for more information.Cranberry Lacers has been a chartered chapter group of IOLI for 25 years. 

July meeting

An enjoyable time was had by all today, here on the third Saturday of July, as the Cranberry Lacers gathered for our monthly day of lace.  As always great conversation and lacemaking were a part of our hours together.  Such different types of lace adorn our pillows!

We meet every third Saturday of the month for a day of lacing and conversation. We are a group of friendly lacemakers with a range of experience - we are lucky enough to have a professional instructor to teach the beginners and work with the experienced.  Anyone is welcome to join us!  The room we meet in at the library is large with lots of light.  Feel free to email us at cranberrylacers@gmail.com for more information.Cranberry Lacers has been a chartered chapter group of IOLI for 25 years. 

June Meeting

Cranberry Lacers were in for a special treat today at our June meeting at the Franklin Township library as Pat, our wonderful teacher, had prepared an excellent lesson about different types of starts and getting us to think about analyzing different patterns from many different sources.  The seven attendant lacers/students were so appreciative of the effort she went to in pulling together all the materials for us and for imparting all her wisdom and knowledge.  We tried out three different starts and looked at different patterns and discussed ways to tackle them.  Thank you so much, Pat!

Rosa came wearing her BEAUTIFUL top adorned with the lace that we have seen her working on at previous meetings.  What a stunning way to show off our art/craft!

A little bit of other lace on our pillows, but truthfully, Pat's lesson really did enthrall us all.

We meet every third Saturday of the month for a day of lacing and conversation. We are a group of friendly lacemakers with a range of experience - we are lucky enough to have a professional instructor to teach the beginners and work with the experienced.  Anyone is welcome to join us!  The room we meet in at the library is large with lots of light.  Feel free to email us at cranberrylacers@gmail.com for more information.Cranberry Lacers has been a chartered chapter group of IOLI for 25 years. 

April Meeting

Ten of the Cranberry Lacers enjoyed a wonderful day of lacemaking today, with Torchon, Binche, Tonder, and tape lace just some of the kinds on our pillows today.  As always, we love chatting and sharing the various books and magazines and lace related goodies that members brought.  Here is what our pillows had today:

We meet every third Saturday of the month for a day of lacing and conversation. We are a group of friendly lacemakers with a range of experience - we are lucky enough to have a professional instructor to teach the beginners and work with the experienced.  Anyone is welcome to join us!  The room we meet in at the library is large with lots of light.  Feel free to email us at cranberrylacers@gmail.com for more information.Cranberry Lacers has been a chartered chapter group of IOLI for 25 years.