Sally Olsen


Sally Olsen

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Member of IOLI Northern Region, Doris Southard Lace Guild, OIDFA & Lost Art Lacers

I joined IOLI to attend the 2003 convention in New Jersey and took a beginning bobbin lace class. I have enjoyed many conventions since then. In 2015, Doris Southard Lace Guild was the local host for the convention. In 2019 I completed the Torchon Proficiency Program.

This year Sue Babbs organized a class with Pierre Fouché of South Africa. When it could not be held in Chicago, Sue arranged to have the class online. We studied how stitches connect to each other and how stitches can be used to shade a piece of lace. Pierre suggested designing a sampler in a circular format.

I have a piece of freezer paper that I used as a drop cloth when I applied ink to fabric for embroidery. I was fascinated by the pattern on the freezer paper after the ink dried. The ink spots immediately came to mind. I overlaid a portion of the ink spots with the grid we were using and then used the ink spots as a guide for placing stitches. The first pattern has snowflakes/spiders. The second pattern has Mechlin ground. The third pattern is based on different sizes of hexagons. The passives that flow through the larger hexagons were worked so that they form long narrow hexagons within the regular hexagons.