In Memoriam: Ele Schwartz – Leader, Teacher and Creator

by

Eleanor Schwartz, affectionately know as Ele, passed away on July 3, 2023. She was an exemplary leader for The Lace Museum, an extraordinary teacher of lace techniques, and an energetic creator in various lace methods.

Ele was an integral part of our museum’s day to day operations. She encouraged so many students and intrigued countless visitors with her vast knowledge and dedication. Ele will be sorely missed, but fondly remembered in all that she created around her.

There will be a memorial service for Ele on Friday, July 28 at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 15885 Los Gatos Almaden Rd., Los Gatos, California 95032. The memorial service will take place at 10:30 AM in the sanctuary followed by a luncheon in the Fireside Room. All who knew Ele are welcome.

In lieu of flowers, Ele’s family welcomes donations either to Holy Cross Lutheran Church or The Lace Museum. Donations made be by check or online. Details can be found here: Holy Cross Lutheran Church or The Lace Museum.

Please visit our memorial page for Ele for an in-depth view of her contributions to The Lace Museum and her students.

Book Launch: Clones Lace: The Story and Patterns of an Irish Crochet 3rd ed

by

Màire Treanor’s new edition of Clones Lace: The Story and Patterns of an Irish Crochet (3rd edition) is available at the IOLI convention booth and on our Shopify site.

The book details the story of Irish Crochet and its unique interpretation by the Clones lacemakers. The secrets unfold through detailed instructions, traditional motifs and patterns with the temptation to be challenged by the creative aspects of this Irish lace.

This edition is in full color and all motifs have been diagrammed. The history of Clones has been updated with new discoveries and plenty of new photos. 200 pages (previous edition 125 pages)

For related items, please visit our Irish Lace Collection on Shopify.

Re-Opening & Vintage Sale May 13 and 14!

by

We are excited that the museum has successfully moved and is settled in our new location. There is some contract work scheduled to be completed prior to our re-opening. The first exhibit in our fresh, new space will be titled “New Beginnings”.

Our re-opening event will be both days of Mother’s Day weekend, May 13th and 14, from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm. We are also holding a Vintage Sale full of one of a kind items! The Museum’s new location is 200 Brown Rd., Suite 300, Fremont, CA 94539. Driving directions, public transit information and a hotel recommendation are here.

After the re-opening weekend, regular Museum hours will be from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month.

Just in the Nick of Time…

by

It took a while, but we have three new tea blends for people who have been waiting for tatting and some decaf options. You might recognize the tatting photo from a Museum Monday post a few months ago. Adagio stops making the custom tins from “a couple of days before Thanksgiving” until shortly after Christmas, so if you would like some for gifting or for yourself, you’ll want to get your order in by Monday or Tuesday – just a few days from now. Then check back in January; there are a few twists on the horizon.

The small tins are about 2 x 3 x .75 inches and hold about five portions of tea. They’re sold by Adagio.com and The Lace Museum receives 5% of the sale price for each tin sold. The whole Lace Museum set is here: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/group.html?group=22649.

Lace Inspired Teas

by

Are you a tea-drinking lace aficionado? Adagio Teas has a program where fans can design tea blends with a theme, and The Lace Museum has just debuted nine tea blends celebrating antique laces. The loose teas are available in pretty little tins, and if a blend catches your fancy, also in larger pouches and even larger tins. Adagio sells the teas as part of their vast offerings, and The Lace Museum, as a non-profit organization, will receive 5% of the sales of the lace teas. This is the link to the Lace Museum’s signature blends: www.adagio.com/signature_blend/group.html?group=22649. If you have any questions, feel free to contact tea@thelacemuseum.org.

Most of the teas in the first set are black teas, with one green, but we do have more greens, herbals and decafs in the works already. Go ahead, treat yourself or your friends to some interesting blends and keep the lacy tin, because what lacemaker can’t fill a tin with supplies?  One caveat, Adagio stops producing the custom tins in early November each year and resumes in early January. So if this sounds like a good holiday gift, you’ll want to order them before November. We hope you enjoy them!

Exciting News for The Lace Museum

by

Here in Silicon Valley there was a brisk change in business and traffic patterns in the decade leading up to 2020.  We have been planning some changes to keep our business relevant and our mission strong. The pandemic accelerated some of those changes as we created a robust online presence with our web shops,  virtual workshops, virtual exhibits,  social media and even virtual volunteers.  We are very proud that The Lace Museum has thrived as we supported and connected the global community of lace makers.  We happily announce a new location for the museum at 200 Brown Road, Fremont, CA.

Making this move is a great opportunity, putting us in a position to begin implementing other plans that the pandemic had forced us to pause.

  • Putting our collection online. Since 2010 we have catalogued our entire collection of lace into a database with the goal of putting it online.  We will now focus on producing high quality images of each piece as the next step to prepare for the online database. The scope of this endeavor will make it a multi-year project.
  • Moving to a nicer facility. Our new headquarters will allow us to support all of our volunteers, as well as continue the conservation of our collection, run in person classes and workshops, house a permanent display, and provide a meeting place for local makers. The new location will have dedicated space to facilitate photographing the collection.
  • Introducing new member benefits. In 2024, we plan to provide members with personal viewings of pieces from our collection and the ability to use our research archive.

We will continue to be open in our current location through October 1st, 2022.

We will re-open in Spring 2023 at 200 Brown Road, Fremont, CA. At our new location, we will be open the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month, as well as by appointment.

As a teaching museum, we will continue our in-person workshops and classes as regularly scheduled throughout the transition.

Street Parking Restriction

by
construction work icon

City of Sunnyvale – Citywide Waterline Replace Project

There will be no street parking and intermittent water shut offs beginning August 22, 2022. The driveway to the parking lot in front of the museum will remain open during the construction.

For more information, read the notice from the construction contractors here.



Dove of Peace in Milanese Technique

by

Exquisite “dove of peace” design available from Martina Wolter-Kampmann, an instructor at UnCon 2.0. You can purchase the step-by-step instructions with 3 bobbin lace letters (12 pages) as a download. The price is 14 Euro (approximately $15 USD). Martina is donating 5 Euro of the purchase price to current war victims. Click below to go to Martina’s website.

https://shop.wolter-kampmann.de/products/dove-of-peace-in-milanese-technique

The Vintage Sale Is Back!

by

New Location, Same High Quality Items

The Lace Museum will have a Vintage Sale in TRACY, CA, on

  • Friday, March 25: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
  • Saturday, March 26: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
  • Sunday, March 27: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

Location is at the beautiful Tracy’s Nursery and Gardens, 29181 S Lehman Road, Tracy, CA.

The vintage inventory will be spread out on tables outdoors and in a large barn – socially distanced for your safety as you look at tablecloths, napkins, household linens, costumer and collector laces, clothing, accessories, insertions and trims and much more!

Sale items include:

  • Tablecloths, Napkins and Household Linens
  • Costumer and Collector Laces
  • Clothing, Accessories, Insertions and Trims
  • And much more!

Cash, check and credit cards accepted. All sales are final.

Hope to see you there!

New Museum Hours

by

The Lace Museum is changing its Sunday opening hours to 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

The Lace Museum will now be open

  • Wednesdays from 12 noon – 2:00 pm
  • Saturdays from 12 noon – 3:00 pm
  • Sundays from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Passing of Co-Founder Cherie Helm

by

Cherie Martineau Helm, one of The Lace Museum’s co-founders, passed away in January 2022. Throughout her life, Cherie was an avid collector, specializing in antiques, textiles, and especially handmade lace. It was her interest in lace that she, along with Gracie Larsen, became co-founders of The Lace Museum in Sunnyvale. The museum is devoted to preserving, displaying, and teaching the art and history of lacemaking. Cherie enjoyed making bobbin lace, tatting and needle lace. She developed her own style of lace that she named Martineau Tape Lace. She shared her interest in lace with enthusiasm, demonstrating and teaching others how to make needle lace. She was known during her time at the museum for her exquisite Christmas ornaments.

Please visit Cherie’s memorial page for more details of her life.

Corporate Match

by

Now through Giving Tuesday (November 30), all donations will be matched dollar for dollar by a generous corporate sponsor. Help The Lace Museum continue to meet their mission. Please donate.

A Year’s Worth of Sprang

by

Sign up for a year’s worth of sprang. The SprangLady 2022 subscription offers you access to more than two dozen sprang lace patterns, at least two per month, as well as instructions for making fingerless mittens, or neck scarf, or tam, and a monthly Zoom session. Sign up for the SprangLady subscription $120 CAD (that’s about $95 USD) at www.SprangLady.com

New Virtual Workshops – Some For the First Time!

by

We are happy to announce that we have 11 virtual workshops scheduled for September, October and November. Some are short one session projects. Others meet a few times for more in-depth learning and projects. A few of our brand new workshops are Ipswich Lace, Beds Lace for Beginners and Continuing, and Lucet. Find all the details on our Workshops page.

Please note that we are changing our registration process slightly. The “Register” links for each workshop take you to a signup form so we can gather the right information for our virtual presentations. After you fill out the form, you can click a link on the confirmation page and purchase the workshop and any accompanying kit.