This is a gift “towards my next quilt” from a warm generous woman who lives here in Canberra. In fact this lace comes from Margaret Roberts who among other things taught me how to do a French knot properly! 


Margaret Roberts is very well known in the local fiber and textile world as she worked at the National Gallery for years. Just one of her interesting tasks was working to repair and conserve the Ballet Russe costumes 


Margaret has been an active Embroiderer’s Guild ACT member for years and also was part of the team that worked on the Parliament House Embroidery. Once you get chatting to her you realise not only does she have oodles and oodles of stories to tell she has been active with a thread in her hand most of her life so she has acquired a tremendous amount of skill and knowledge.  


Anyway I went visiting on Friday and came away with a huge gift as she has been de-stashing. Margaret probably has no idea how thrilled I am to have it. 


I have been thinking about it all weekend and have decided that my next crazy quilt will definitely use and highlight lace in all its forms. Apart from this wonderful gift I have accumulated quite a few interesting pieces over the years and now this massive gift of lace has pushed me to use it. 

I have started to make a few decisions about the approach I will take, the first being that I will dye much of it. Although some light and ecru/cream blocks are good I am not a pastel colour scheme person.  

I just have to decide if the blocks will be regular squares or some other interesting shape. I enjoyed the finished result of the diamond quilt  but I am not sure if I want to work diamonds again. Anyway I will keep you posted as it is my next project! I have even created a new category for it. Having a category means it has to become real and be more than an idle thought. I has to exist rather than remain in my imagination only.