Nicolet

I'm interrupting the posts of my Paris trip to talk about another trip entirely. Every year a few ladies from the Lakeshore guild go to Nicolet to attend La Journée des dentellières which is organized by l'Association des dentellières du quebec (The Quebec Association of lace-makers).

I've heard about this event from guild members before. There are usually vendors from all over Quebec who come to sell not just for bobbin lace-making but also for embroiderers. There are also demonstrations as well as people just sitting and stitching or working on their bobbin lace. When the weather is really nice they all sit outside in the park across from the center and you can walk around and chat or just sit and work. So with all that, I obviously really wanted to go and so we went on Saturday June 11. Nicolet is a two hour drive from Montreal and an hour out of Quebec City.

Unfortunately the weather was really bad that day, so we spent it inside all day, but the building itself is really gorgeous on the inside. Look at this ceiling:

There was a room with some of the works done by l'Association des dentellières du quebec and I took a few pictures of my favorites.

The event itself is great for stash enhancement, but I'm not the type to buy threads and fabrics unless it's for a specific project so I really didn't buy much. I did concentrate on the books that were being offered and collecting vendor business cards for the future.

I bought two books (I really need to control myself, I'm running out of space). The first is Nature by Marie-Thérèse Saint-Aubin. I've always loved this French designer and my biggest regret is not buying her books when they were available. Sadly a lot of her books are now out of print, so I quickly snagged this one. The second is Traditional Japanese Embroidery. This book was published by Search Press of which I already have a number of their RSN books and it's great because it's spiral bound and you can lay it open flat. Concerning books at this event, prices were WAY out of line with what is available on the internet even when you factor in shipping. I've even noticed quite a few vendors with the same books and each had a different price. So I'm going to be very careful when buying from these vendors.

I also scored a Tanja Berlin full kit called Flight of a Butterfly and looking at the price online (not to mention shipping) it was a major score. To round it all up I got the cutest little bobbins. Although I don't think bobbin lace would ever be added as one of my hobbies, I would still love to learn the technique.

A cute story I heard from the vendors, there are bobbins called fuseaux de marrié as well as fuseau de fiançailles. The first has two rings and the second one. It was a way to distinguish married lace-makers from those that were engaged or single. The bobbins were usually made by their husbands, or by their fiancés to show they are interested in marriage. I could only find a picture of the fuseau de fiançailles which can be found here. The tradition comes from d'Auvergne.

While eating lunch we met a lady who stitches envelopes for posting. She does this with family members and other stitchers and they are the cutest thing I've ever seen. She numbers each one and have made over 200!

That's it for today, tomorrow I will be back with more of my Paris trip :)