Have you heard of Sophie Digard?

 

It's all Lisa's fault :) It is through her that I heard of Sophie Digard and her creations! As Lisa says, they will never go out of style. I had to see them in person to really appreciate why Lisa is so mesmerized with them. And I do not blame her!

The Selvedge stand at l'aiguille en fete were displaying some wonderful pieces and I could not possibly stop myself from buying a couple of the beauties. I think we all need to treat ourselves every-once-in-a-while :) N'est ce pas?
       

All beautifully handmade from very fine pure wool ... Handspun ... Hand-dyed ... And as far as I am concerned, naturally dyed. Stunning!

   

   

While visiting the show l'aiguille en fete, I met wonderful people. Among them are Hélène and Valérie. Two exceptional ladies

Hélène Magnússon
TRICOTEUSE D'ISLANDE

Hélène has various books but the one for us is "ICELANDIC KNITTING using Rose Patterns".

She is currently working on a second knitting book about old Icelandic knitter Aðalbjörg Jónsdóttir and her amazing lace dresses, expected 2012.

I am looking forward to her new book and am aiming to be one of the first to order :) Do not also miss to visit her blog and look for her at Ravelry ... If you see her, please say hello from me :)

The other lovely lady, neighbouring Hélène was Valérie Lejeune ... Valérie would be known to any stitcher but incase you have not yet heard of her, DO NOT miss her books ... They are a stitcher's bible! And they are worth every penny. It is so very stupid of me that I missed taking her contact details :( but just google her name and you will have loads of links to her books.

           

   
I want to present you with a few pictures of the antique lace exhibitions by two Belgian companies mentioned earlier. Both 't Apostelientje and Serena were very generous and kind to allow us visitors to freely picture their collection. I was very impressed with their peaceful, welcoming and comforting attitude. Dank u!

You can contact them by clicking on the titles. 't Aposelientje has a webpage where you can see what they have to offer but Serena can only be contacted via her e-mail address for inquiries, if any.

't Apostelientje

Serena

   

                   
The Treasures of Lace

Beautiful antique lace samples in a small chamber and wonderfully presented. I missed looking at the name of the collection but I believe it is of DMC - Les trésors dentelliers de Thérèse de Dillmont.

   

    

 
My rep in the US, and a good friend Lisa of Frenchneedle is also the US distributor of Rouge du Rhin who had a stand and were very kind to provide me with an entry to the show l'aiguille en fete ... The first day was packed with people and I would not be wrong if I said thousands of them ... The fastest speed one could walk around and between the lanes was the speed of a penguen swinging left & right.

Luckily, I made another visit to the show and comfortably had a chance to breath and enjoy all the wonderful art on display. As mentioned earlier, I was a bit disappointed that though lace was to be the hit of the show, it wasn't at all, grace to two Belgian lace companies who had some wonderful antique lace exhibited in their stands.

Anyone into cross stitch would know the brand Rouge du Rhin but if you are not familiar, please do not miss to see the wonderful collection by Marianne & Marie at their webpage.