Karen Augusta Auction * 10 November * St Pauls, NYC

There are some lovely items in the upcoming Karen Augusta auction and Lot 123 is - would you believe - a Belle  Époque walking outfit of between 1890-1920. This fabulous antique white two-piece has a ground of embroidered dots on linen. The bolero-style jacket has bell sleeves and, like its trained skirt, has large, lace panels insets. It has been deaccessioned from Brooklyn Museum and comes with an estimate of  $400 -$600.

Here are two items that are beautifully crafted with techniques of Irish lace and crochet - I can imagine the wonderful weight of these. They are lot: 115 which includes an ivory lawn jacket with roses and leaves in dimensional Irish crochet plus a long-sleeved, V-neck, embroidered net blouse trimmed with heavy Irish lace from Brooklyn Museum. The estimate is between $200 - $300.

Free Jigsaw Download

Louisa Frances Pesel (1870-1847) from my hometown of Bradford and an old girl of my school was dedicated to advancing the knowledge of needlework. She produced a number of hand-charted libraries of motifs and bands, this is taken from her Double-Running Stitch of 1931, a copy of which was owned by my mother. I hope you enjoy this free jigsaw. However, sadly, this is not going to work for Mac users. Instructions: Click here next Click Open, then click the .EXE file name and click Run, when you see the jigsaw puzzle, click Play Too many pieces? Try clicking on Trays on the top tool bar to create any number of resizeable trays to sort your pieces ........ you can also click the Cheat button and watch the puzzle solve itself! The software is by David Gray designer of Jigsaws Galore - the powerful jigsaw player and creator for Windows.

L'Aiguille en Fête * Paris * 10 - 13 February 2011

It's that time of year to start planning ahead for the fabulous L'Aiguille en Fête event which will take place between 10 - 13 February next year. The venue is the Grande Halle de la Villette near the Porte Pantin in Paris. There are a number of handy hotels nearby where you can stay including a Mercure, Etap and Ibis. This is the best needlework market and exhibition event in the whole of Europe and is not to be missed - and certainly don't forget to travel with an empty suitcase. The spotlight this year is on Lace. Click here for more information.

If you fancy dipping into the history of Paris in preparation for your visit, then you might enjoy one of my favourite writer's books -  Graham Robb's Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris. Graham will guide you spellbound through the most fascinating nooks and crannies, above and below Paris.

Winterthur Quilts Collection On-Line

I shall never forget my visit to Winterthur in 2008, the collections there are simply fabulous. And now you can delight in studying 148 quilts from their collection on-line. There are patched and appliqued quilts, and some stunning whole-piece quilts displaying the most wonderful fabric designs like the one below.Just click here and enjoy!