Playing with String- Solving Puzzles- Making Vintage Lace from Antique French Pattern Books

 

Taking a printmaking break here!  The weather's been really cold and wet, and it seems a great time to stay indoors and enjoy a different activity. It's also a good time to go looking for inspiration.

I dove into my studio library, and my favorite online library, and found loads of ideas!  I have never made it through the entire alphabetical listing of the catalog for the Antique Pattern Library, there are so many wonderful titles:

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/catalog.htm

It's a fun rainy day activity for anyone interested in old books and especially art books, design books or historical drawings and reference, there's even woodworking!  Different from Project Guttenberg in that everything in the antique pattern library relates to art somehow.

I went in search of alphabets for woodblock printing, antique Art Deco and Art Nouveau floral embroidery patterns (again for woodblocks), and to look again at my favorite vintage lace making books.  I got stuck on this one, (only got as far as the letter C this time):

 http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/pub/PDF/B-YS033Franges.pdf

Who wouldn't love lace that has flowers and leaves (at least, what botanical artist wouldn't?)!  I decided to figure out one of the patterns.  Yes they are written in French, and yes, Google translate made a mish-mosh of the translation, but I love a good puzzle. I am greatly indebted to my friends on Ravelry and my CGOA mentor, Susan Lowman for helping me in the places where I got stuck!

Here is the beginning, it's made in three stages, there are two of these:

 It looks so seamless in the pattern photo I didn't realize at first that it was made in parts.

 

 I tried to go here with it but it was wrong, so my friend Susan, who is a Bruges Lace expert helped out!

 

 

 

Looking better but still had a few errors.  I do know a (very) little about making Bruges lace, but not enough to have recognized this stitch pattern. 

 Finis!

I've included pattern notes on my Ravelry project page, and there is a discussion of this sample in the Cyber Crochet of CGOA group:

https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/cyber-crochet-chapter-of-cgoa/3992346/151-175 

Now I am anxious to find a use for this lace!  And to start another one from this book!!!  I've already chosen one!

Looking forward to the gardening season

 Spring can't be far away when the catalogs for seeds and bulbs start arriving.  It's still snowing and blowing on this early February day, so I thought it would be fun to reflect on the gardening year of 2020.  Since we were not able to travel, or basically leave the house, I went all in with growing food and flowers. The pictures are roughly in order from early April until September.  

We grew Russian Kale, arugula, two kinds of spinach, two kinds of eggplant, two kinds of tomatoes, two kinds of beans (green beans and scarlet runner beans), beets, okra, hot chili peppers, Genovese basil, cilantro, too many kinds of herbs to list, and tons of flowers.  I filled in with annuals when the perennial flowers faded.  Bees and butterflies abounded!!  We could only visit with friends on the outdoor porches, so we had loads of container plants to make them into outdoor rooms.  

My original goal had been to grow 50 pounds of produce.  At almost 250 pounds I stopped counting.  We had enough to give food away to friends, the food bank, and to put away for the winter.  It was a lot of work but so surprising to see how much food you can grow in a small space garden!  I should add that we worked together every day for at least 5 hours in the garden.  This was also our fitness plan!

Starting seeds-

We built new raised beds for the tomatoes.

The salad greens were grown in pots off the ground.

The garden walk in early spring.

Truly the best roses I've ever had because it was a cold wet spring!

Flowers and Herbs and vegetable plants grow together in shared beds.

Cut flowers from the garden!

Romas and Big boy tomatoes-

Japanese eggplant-

Tomatoes getting taller than I am!

 

 

Studio shade garden-

Green beans and Herbs, later I replaced the beans with beets.

Great season for Hollyhocks, I had them everywhere!

Produce!!!

Container gardens-

The beginning of the tomato harvest.  This was one day's worth.

Even in late summer the garden walk looked lovely.  At the end the okra is now taller than the fence!  Urns contain beet seedlings.

Studio garden-

Peppers and prickly pear fruit-

 

 

It took all summer but the begonia baskets on the front porch finally came through when the weather got cooler!