Western New York Lace Guild

05/21/2026

Our Tuesday night meeting featured Joan Brash's popular petite needle lace flowers. A few flowers are based on traditional designs and some are Joan's creation. We had a sizable 13 students over the 2 meetings, three brand new to needle lace. I can't wait to see them all and what our lace makers will do with them. Our June meetings include the opportunity to create name tags a perfect place for a little flower. Joan created patterns for Lizbeth 10, 40 and 80 we started with the largest thread. Needle lace is extremely portable and these little guys just mount up, before you know it there's a garden.

05/04/2026

Our Saturday meeting was Joan Brash teaching her petite needle lace flowers. Joan's original class used size 80 tatting cotton but she kindly re-sized all the flowers to use size 10 Lizbeth cotton or 40 or 80! Some of these flowers are based on traditional needle lace flowers which decorate laces such as Alencon. A few Joan just created! This is pretty much just buttonhole (or blanket stitch) once you get the concept they can work up quickly and are lots of fun. A second class will be held Tuesday May 19th 6:30-8:30 pm both new comers to the class and those who took the first class are welcome. There is a small kit fee and if you need a kit you must email [email protected] by 5/13. Meet us a Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst 6320 Main St Williamsville for this and other exciting laces!

04/16/2026

This month our lace guild contributed to a new public needle lace project lead by Maggie Hensel-Brown for the Columbia Gorge Museum columbiagorgemuseum.org This project titled 'Lacing Communities Together' features needlelace triangles designed by Maggie and meant to be made by beginners and experts alike. Even if you have never done needle lace before you can be part of this community project. We had several brand new lace makers and with Maggie's excellent videos and pdf's we were able to make lots of progress. Finished pieces were from Susanne Sardella (triangle with stripes) and Vickie Okerlund (Pine tree). If you are interested in trying just email [email protected] we can help!

04/11/2026

The WNY Lace guild is offering a free introductory class in bobbin lace making. Learn the basic stitches while making a simple key fob. All materials are provided (with the pillow and bobbins on loan). This class is appropriate for adults and teens. Bobbin lace is a weaving technique, the basics are easy to learn. We are holding free classes at the Shirley Chisholm (formerly Audubon) Library. Spaces are limited so please call the library 716-689-4922 to reserve your place at one of the sessions.
Tues April 21 12:30 PM - 2 PM or
Tues May 5 6:30 PM - 8 PM or
Tue May 12 12:30 PM - 2 PM

If you sign up and are unable to come please call and cancel since we may have a waiting list. If you are unable to make these times but would like to try, email us at [email protected] we'd love to teach you!

03/10/2026

Another fun needlelace project from Maggie Hensel-Brown. We worked on the needle lace leaf project and are seeing if our group is interested in participating on this one too!

     The Columbia Gorge Museum: Lacing Communities Together project with lace artist, Maggie Hensel-Brown, is an initiative to engage curiosity and educate about the heritage artform of lacemaking. As ubiquitous as lacemaking is, and perhaps you have a lace story in your family that hovers around...

03/09/2026

I am sharing this from a group 'Bobbin Lace Makers' What a great idea and I hope to see you there!

Announcing: LACEMAKERS OF TOMORROW - please share!

Dr Catherine Lillie and I are delighted to announce the line-up for this exciting Zoom event taking place on Sunday 22nd March 7-9pm GMT. I am pinching myself that we will be hosting UK lacemaking legends Jean Leader and Gil Dye to share their experiences, not to mention special guest Elena Kanagy-Loux . All our speakers are donating their time free of charge so this can be a free community event for all lacemakers of any age and experience to attend and have their say in the future of bobbin lace. I'll be sharing more info about our speakers and their talks soon but don't delay signing up: bit.ly/lacemakersoftomorrow This event is for anyone who cares about the future of bobbin lace in the UK any beyond, how to access learning to advance and develop their own lacemaking skills, and how we ensure a steady stream of bobbin lace teachers for future generations. Please, join us. Hear from experienced teachers and join the discussion to share your own thinking: what would help you? What can we do collectively? If we had funding, how should we use it to help grow and develop the lacemakers of tomorrow?Do not miss this

01/15/2026

Since wintery weather is the norm in WNY we have decided that if Williamsville schools are closed on a meeting day we will cancel the meeting. Cancellations will be posted on this page and an email sent to our 'interested people' list. We LOVE to see new people so send us an email at [email protected] if you can come, with advanced notice we can better prepare. Check out our upcoming events pages.
Tatted snowflakes made by lace guild member Mary Torres.

01/08/2026

This 3d bird was made by Marilyn Calandra from a pattern in the book Roses for Bobbin Lace by Eeva-Liisa Kortelahti

12/08/2025

At our Saturday meeting we held our annual ornament exchange. The romanian needle lace Santa Hat (original design) by Pat Pike. The German Advent bobbin lace ornament by Susanne Sardella. The Red and White Teneriffe ornament by Bonne MacLeod. 2 Bobbin lace candy canes by Patty Carlin. Tatted Snowflake by Mary Torres. 3D Bell by Barbara Walsh. Battenberg Heart by Marge Marcille. We hope you can join us next year....there are 12 months to learn a lace technique....Join the guild and we can help!

12/04/2025

This is the ornament exchange from 2008. So a walk down memory lane for us all and members who are no longer with us.
Gold bobbin lace star Susanne Sardella
3D bobbin lace angel Barb Walsh
Teneriffe snowflake, orig Bonnie MacLeod
Bobbin lace pink ornament Judy Bongiovanni
Carrickmacross snowflake, orig Mary Lou Sulecki
Tatted ball Becky Ziegler
Romanian tree, orig Pat Pike
Bobbin lace bell Joanne Wieand
Bobbin lace Joy, orig Joan Sulecki Brash