Work on Pattern 5 started on September 23rd, 2016 and finished on October 25th.

Picots on the cotton, linen and silk pieces are all double twisted picots.
Picots on the gilt twist piece started as simple loop picots, but moved to a underhand loop to make them neater.

There were two potential approaches to handling the 'flowers' in the middle.

Method 1, suggested in the Paney/Levey book ( Le Pompe, 1559:  Patterns for Ventian bobbin lace, Santina M. Levey & Patricia C. Payne, 1983 ISBN 0-903585-16-2)

I dislike this approach.  The braid coming in from the left gets sewn into the central column.   As it loops back to the left, it would have to cross over the existing braid without connecting - overlapped.  Even though a pattern like this would be couched down on a garment, there is too much opportunity for the piece to get squished/deformed if there isn't a stable connection.

Approach two,  promoted by Bury Palliser ( History of Lace, Ed. 4, Bury Palliser, 1911 ISBN 0-486-24742-2 ), is the one I prefer and have used.

The center of the flower gets dense as each braid gets windmilled at the center.  Temporary pins are placed, removed, and replaced as each new braid gets worked at the center.

The next area to talk about is the edges - the  circle loops extending from the straightaways.

23 days until the project is due, not including event day.
I still have a sample on the pillow before starting the final piece.
This puts me into serious crunch territory, but I'll be fighting to the end - for better or worse.

On a brighter note, I met with the final receipient and presented her with the samples completed - we have selected a pattern for the final piece.
I'll be producing Pattern 2 (the simple mouse ear edging) in linen.

​More back posts to come, so stay tuned.