Quarterly Newsletter • Winter 2024

Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles

This Month's Contents:

A letter to our friends

A YEAR-END RECAP    LMLT's 2024 in review
CELEBRATING THE TEACHERS    who bring our mission to life

Classes @ Lacis Museum

Upcoming Exhibits @ Lacis Museum

BRIDAL EXHIBIT    coming soon

Current Exhibits @ Lacis Museum

TRANSCENDING FASHION    The Lace Accessory
DAY'S END    Personal Glamour Exposed
ARMENIAN NEEDLELACE    Poetry in Thread

Shop LMLT for One-of-a-Kind Vintage

A note from the Director


Dear Friends of Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles,

As one year draws to a close and the next one begins to unfold, we reflect on 2024 with full hearts and immense gratitude — and look forward to 2025 with much anticipation.

This year marks a significant milestone — our 20th anniversary as a nonprofit — and the joy and inspiration shared in our community have been truly extraordinary. Let's recap some of the special events that, with your participation, were so memorable and vital.

Read more about LMLT's memorable 2024 events

        

We must take this opportunity, too, to celebrate the talented instructors who helped bring our mission to life.

At the heart of Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles are the remarkable educators who share their expertise, passion, and creativity with our community. We want to extend a special thanks to these extraordinary individuals.

Read more about our very special LMLT teachers

        

Many of you will recognize a familiar face at Lacis Museum — last Fall, we welcomed back our former manager, Erin Algeo! She's returned to reprise her role and guide us gracefully into the second quarter of this century.

Erin Algeo is a dress historian, museum professional, and devoted educator who brings the past and present to life through clothing and textiles. With a deep love for lace, needlework, and fabric, she combines a sharp academic lens with hands-on expertise to explore the intersections of the needle arts, fashion, and history.
    Her career spans decades of practical and scholarly engagement with fashion history. She is a pattern maker, creating designs for historical and vintage-inspired modern, everyday, couture, and formal attire. As an avid seamstress and needleworker, she revels in heirloom, modern, and couture sewing techniques, weaving together the past and present of clothing construction and textile artistry.
    Academically, she holds degrees in the History of Art and Art Practice, a Masters of Art, and a Master of Letters in Dress and Textile Histories. She currently shares her passion with students as an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts. She is honored to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, where she advocates for the importance of needlework and textiles in connecting people to history and creativity.
    For Erin, every thread tells a story, and she delights in unraveling these narratives to inspire and engage others.

And, last but not least, let's remember the great legacy left to us by our founder, Kaethe.

LMLT was established in October of 2004 in the memory of Kaethe Kliot, who was the spirit of the Lacis Textile Center and Retail Store, a haven for the textile community and all involved in virtually every aspect of the text arts... a place where she provided support, encouragement and knowledge to all. This spirit remains, after her untimely passing in 2002, in the Museum which encompasses all that she loved.

Help us celebrate Kaethe's legacy: we're gathering memories for a special retrospective and would love to hear from you. If you have a favorite anecdote or a photo to share, please email it to us and be part of this heartfelt tribute!

As we all step into 2025, we carry the spirit of creativity, connection, and preservation that has made this past year so meaningful.

Thank you for being part of our story — for attending our events, sharing your talents, and supporting our mission to celebrate the rich world of lace, textiles, and needle arts.
    We look forward to another year of unforgettable moments, inspiring workshops, and community togetherness. Let's weave new memories together in the year ahead!

The Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles Team






Classes @ Lacis Museum

This Winter, discover the textile arts at LMLT!


Sat., January 18: Beginning Tatting with Kevin Baum

Have you admired tatting and wondered if you could be able to tat? Only a few stitches need to be mastered in order to create beautiful tatted works of art. This beginner class will get you on track for shuttle tatting by teaching you the tools and techniques.

Class Time: 12:30 PM to 4:00 PM
Registration Fee: $45


Mon., Jan. 20 - Fri., Jan. 24: Embroidery Magic with Laura Tandeske

Learn the basic techniques of surface embroidery and apply them to the ancient art of intention. Explore your creative talent within a safe and nurturing community where the joy and healing of needle arts will be embraced. All levels of experience welcome.

Class Time: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Registration Fee: $340


Sat., January 25: Beginning Sashiko with Pattie Klimek

Learn to do the traditional and beautiful Japanese craft of Sashiko. This functional embroidery started as a practical mending stitch for textiles and, over the decades, has become an art. ★ CLASS SOLD OUT! ★ It will be offered again in March!

Class Time: 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM
Registration Fee: $46 / Kit Fee: $15 (payable in cash directly to instructor)


Sat., February 8: Tatted Hearts with Kevin Baum

Come celebrate Valentine's Day with this festive tatting class designed for students with some tatting experience already under their belt. Elevate your skills to create a precious tatted Valentine!

Class Time: 12:30 PM to 4:00 PM
Registration Fee: $45


Sat., February 8: Visible Mending the Boro Way with Pattie Klimek

Threadbare jeans, a hole in your favorite jacket, a worn spot in your tote bag — let these awaken your creativity. Learn to mend with embroidery and Sashiko techniques. New to sewing? Never fear! This class is appropriate for beginners!

Class Time: 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM
Registration Fee: $46


Mon., Feb. 17 - Fri., Feb. 21: Surface Embroidery Sampler Workshop with Laura Tandeske

This extended course dives deep into surface embroidery. Make your very own stunning sampler, and gain insight into your progress with an optional 1:1, 1-hr. feedback review.

Class Time: 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM
Registration Fee: $340


Sat., Feb. 22 & Sat., Mar. 1: Regency Corset Workshop with Catherine Scholar

Jane Austen and Bridgerton fans, this is your chance to create the essential foundation garment that will give your historical costume that silhouette it needs!

Class Time: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Registration Fee: $180


Sat., Mar. 1: Beginning Sashiko with Pattie Klimek

For those of you looking to explore the beautiful and mindful world of Japanese Sashiko embroidery for your mending and textile-embellishing projects, look no further!

Class Time: TBA
Registration Fee: TBA


Tues., Mar. 4 -or- Sat., Mar. 8: Intro to Embroidery: Magpie with Laura Tandeske

This will be a fun and interactive surface embroidery course that is perfect for the first-time embroiderer.

Class Time: 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Registration Fee: $38


Sat., Mar. 15: Beginning Tatting with Kevin Baum

This beginner class will get you on track for shuttle tatting by teaching you the tools and techniques.

Class Time: 12:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Registration Fee: $45


Tues., Mar. 11 -or- Sat., Mar. 15: How to Embroider on Clothes Laura Tandeske

Embroidering on clothes is a great way to express yourself! The embroidery can be a decorative border, a meaningful symbol, fun flowers, or anything else you can think of. We will go over the best clothes to embroider on and how to do it, including how to transfer a design.

Class Time: 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Registration Fee: $45


Tues., Mar. 18 -or- Sat., Mar. 22: Embroidery Lettering with Laura Tandeske

Speak your truth with words and thread: learn how to create stunning messages in embroidery!

Class Time: 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Registration Fee: $45




Upcoming Exhibits at Lacis Museum

Opening in Spring 2025

A bridal exhibit is coming to LMLT!

To this day, we receive visitors who share with us their stories of how our founder, Kaethe Kliot, lovingly and expertly repaired — or even entirely reconstructed — their heirloom bridal gowns.

Kaethe was not only a gifted textile artisan but also a discerning collector of extraordinary textiles, including remarkable examples of bridal fashion. This collection, stewarded to this day by her husband and our Museum Curator and Director, Jules Kliot, continues to inspire and captivate.
    Lacis Museum honors Kaethe's legacy by celebrating the art and history of textiles. Next year, we'll be exploring bridal fashions through the ages. Be sure to check back in Spring, and join us on a journey into the world of fabulous dresses, lovingly chosen and crafted for a momentous celebration of love and commitment.



Currently on Exhibition at Lacis Museum

Available for viewing by appointment

Transcending Fashion: The Lace Accessory

Accessories define us and set us apart from others in the world of fashion.

From the Middle Ages to the present day, collars have been a significant part of fashion. The great ruff, a collar worn in the Renaissance, was the most outlandish statement of costume. Over time, collars evolved into many related objects of adornment that made timeless statements about our personality.
    We invite you to experience a tour highlighting the stunning artistry of European lace collars and handkerchiefs, and their use as a means of expression, with pieces from the 17th century to the early 20th.


Available for viewing by appointment

Armenian Needlelace: Poetry in Thread

As strong as it is delicate, Armenian needlelace is among humanity's oldest and most intricate forms of needlework, evoking mountains and rainbows of home, and connecting ancestral lines dispersed throughout the Armenian diaspora worldwide.
    Made with knots and loops of cotton or linen thread, the lace's distinctive interlacing patterns, thought to trap or confuse evil spirits and intentions, also appear on ancient Armenian architecture and stone carvings, depicting Earth-honoring elements of culture and place to protect and adorn the sacred.

Through this exhibition featuring exemplary works in Lacis Museum's collection, we can imagine the Armenian needlelace makers' stories as we celebrate their immense skill and handiwork, their exuberant creativity, and their exceptional persistence.


Available for viewing by appointment

Day's End: Personal Glamour Exposed

This exhibit is closing in the New Year, so see it while you still can! Day's End is a joyful exploration of the sensuous and gorgeous things we wear in private, such as nightgowns, robes, and pajamas. It celebrates our most intimate items of clothing: the things never worn around strangers or out of the house.





Shop LMLT For One-Of-A-Kind Vintage

For sustainability and uniqueness, think vintage

Cozy up with quilts

Glam it up

Dance the night away






A Message from our Director


Growing and ageing are ways of describing the inevitable cycle of living. The Museum now entering its twenty first year is engulfed in this process as many changes are taking place which most of our dedicated customers have noticed. Christine, the manager for the last three years, succumbing to external pressures made the decision to retire to a lesser role with lesser responsibility. The Manager establishes the identity and creates the aura that every visitor must relate to. Christine exemplified this role, reenforced by the Monthly Newsletter where she was editor and where she captured not only museum functions and events but the friends and visitors that defines the Museum. While Christine will continue to serve as editor, the newsletter will become a quarterly event, this the first issue, with the more time sensitive news announced and promoted by timely announcements. Along with this retirement, four of the other familiar staff members have also retired. If visiting you will meet a mostly new staff including Rachel, Tasya, Hannah and Lisel contributing amazing new energy and enthusiasm.
     With our good fortune, Erin Algeo has returned to the Museum, again as Manager, the role she assumed at its establishment in 2002 after the passing of Kaethe, who created this sacred place in 1966, making it the center for the textile arts community that it soon became. Erin understood the magic of Kaethe and fostered the transition into the Museum that it has become, dedicated to the spirit of Kaethe.
     As Director and creator of the legal Museum identity, I too have aged, no longer jumping over fences but dealing with the physical limitations of ageing, standing erect impossible, but continuing to participate in tours and contributing to concepts for a future. This is my dedication and "as long as I can." Two daughters, Storrie (President) and Aleso (Secretary) continue to contribute time and skills, offering direct support to me, to assure the continuity of this special place.

— Jules Kliot