Back at the pillow again

My DH had to go out of town today on family business, and I opted to stay home. I put some chicken on the stove to simmer for soup stock, and dragged out my neglected lace pillow. I have socks and wristers to knit for Christmas and birthdays, but I took a few hours for myself and turned the corner on my Milanese sampler.

Trellis turned out very nice, I think I'm learning how to tension my work with only edge pins. The corner went well, too. Even though it may look the same as the others, it went smoothly and with very few corrections. I also swapped out a worker pair with a passive pair, one bobbin was starting to get a bit low on thread.

I'm trying to decide when I want to do the fillings. Since I have no instructions or pricking, just the picture to refer to, I'm not sure exactly when the fillings were done. I can see where she started and ended, but not when. I'll think about it, there are a lot of things to consider.

The next section will be Meander-in-Braid 1, page 48. I think my tension may be good enough that I can try something with the turning stitch.

Milanese Sampler - Trellis

I've been eager to get back to my lace pillow, and I worked at least 2 hours on my sampler today. I turned the corner and then worked Trellis, p.56 in Read and Kincaid's Milanese Lace. I can see every little wiggle in the sewing edges, and all the uneven stitches, but I am pleased overall. I didn't have to retro lace any large sections, and I had better control of the bobbins and thread. I'm still doing easy patterns, I have avoided 'turning stitches' to this point. I think I see progress, and that's the whole point of a sampler - trial and error until you learn. Do you hear that little 'toodle-doo' in the background? Yes, I'm tooting my own horn, but just a little.

Lace on my bolster pillow

I'm back from my holiday and want to work on my Milanese sampler, but I have mountains of laundry and floors to mop or vacuum.
I did take a minute to add a bit to the edging on my bolster pillow. I have 13 inches now; it's my longest edging ever in bobbin lace. I plan to give the lace to my mother when I run out of thread or patience, whichever comes first.
I'm still getting used to the bolster pillow. I like the way the pins slide through the wool, and it's a good size, but the bolster pillow rolled toward me with the weight of the bobbins. A lacemaker from the Arachne list suggested that I pin a bag of pebbles as a counterweight. I did, and that took care of the problem.

Sampler - Arches

I finished Ovals, turned the corner and did three repeats of Arches. Three repeats is not enough for me to do a good job; I'm a slow learner on this one. I will have to give Arches another try. Later. Much later.
I'm ready to turn another corner, and then I will probably try Trellis or Little Spiders. I think I had trouble with Arches because I'm not good with the tension, or the turning stitch. I have to decide how I'm going to turn the corner, too. Perhaps I should have made a plan , or at least a sketch of what I wanted to do, but I'm not afraid to cover the pillow and think things over for awhile.