My tatting-heaven weekend

This last weekend I had the joy of going to a Lace-In/Retreat/Workshop in Concordia, Kansas (a 3 hour drive from my home of Omaha, Nebraska).  One of the joys of going is the car ride with friends to get there and back, it being a great time to ‘catch up’.  This time I traveled with my lovely friend, Jennifer Bartling (seen as the left-most person in the group of 4-ladies picture).
It is hosted by The Sunflower Lacers and includes Lacemakers from all over Kansas, plus a few of us from Nebraska and Iowa.  At least 4 states were represented this weekend.  There were 30 lacemakers there working on bobbin lace, tatting, Romanian Point Lace and beading projects.

Russian Tape Lace (Bobbin Lace) class project in progress

Hallway of the retreat center that used to be a hospital. (Note the tile floor.)

Retreat center sleeping room that used to be a hospital room

The retreat center is wonderful and unique.  It is called the Manna house and is run and operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph, a nun sect that has its historical roots as lacemaker in France (centuries ago). The Sunflower Lacers found this place because the sisters had an interest in revisiting/learning bobbin lacemaking as a part of their heritage. Ronna Robertson, the president, founder of Sunflower Lacers helped the sisters revive this heritage of their sect and now The Sunflower Lacers have a lovely place to have a retreat for a weekend.  The building is an old hospital. The interior views of the rooms and hallways are reminiscent of that bygone era. (See other photos).  We each had a private room that was beautifully decorated with matching sheets, bed covers, and curtains as well as antique furniture and old linens.

The retreat/workshop is wonderfully organized.  There is always a class/workshop for bobbin lacers.  This time the project was Russian tape Lace in a paisley shape.  Saturday morning we could choose between learning how to crochet the tape for Romanian Point Lace, create beaded bobbins or a scissor-keep, or work on our own projects.  There was a table full of food goodies such as chocolate.  I think I ate my weight in chocolate that day.

Esther Miller and Serena ?—the Des Moines, Iowa Tatting representatives. I’ve known Esther for decades….she is almost ‘tatting royalty’. She is good friends with Pam Palmer, the renowned tatting designer and author from England. These two ladies knew and tatted with Mary Sue Kuhn, a major figure in tatting history for being the first designer/author to make Split Ring Tatting Technique usable (since Anne Orr published the technique) by creating patterns and a book. Mary Sue is the one who named the technique ‘Split Ring Tatting’.

The 3 ladies on the left are part of the 5-person Omaha, Nebraska tatter/lacemaker group at the retreat. The gal on the right is Susan Groh from Kansas City…our lacemaking supply supplier for the weekend. These ladies are creating beaded decorations for bobbin lace bobbins.

Manna House Retreat Center in Concordia, Kansas

We had one big conference room where ‘lacing’ took place. This photo shoe the bobbin lace class in action. They were learning/working on Russian Tape Lace.

Madame President–Shemene & Gail (from Omaha) working on bobbin lace projects. In the back you can see the area of the room that the ‘tatters’ and the ‘needlelacers’ hung out in. Shemene is the IOLI President this year.

This is a photo of the Saturday morning workshop. The topic was learning to crochet the tape for the Romanian Point Lace classe that will be taught/done at the Fall Lace-In. The two RPL pieces are mine and are ones that I purchased in Budapest, Hungary on my honeymoon trip in Sept of 2013. Romanian Point Lace is one of the needlelaces that I teach and study.

This is my ‘Sienna Square’ Quilt-Inspired SRT piece that I completed (the tatting!) while there. This is a photo of the newly-done piece on my lap, threads ends awaiting finishing. I think this will be my cover photo on one my 2 ‘Quilt-Inspired Fun with Split Ring Tatting’ books that I am planning to have published by this summer.

Anybody else see a tatting pattern in this tile work???? One of the floors of the hallway of the retreat center that used to be a hospital.

2 books that I won as door prizes at the retreat. One of the former members was downsizing her collection to go into a nursing home and donated them to the retreat.