Member Lace

Meet some of the members of the Minnesota Lace Society and enjoy their journey in lacemaking.
Members will be added as their information becomes available. Please come back often to enjoy their lace.

  • Darlene Mohrland
  • Kathleen Baldwin
  • Jerry Sandmann
  • Rhonda Grobe
  • Lace Exchange 2020
  • Fair Entries
In Memoriam

Hi I am Darlene Mohrland and I do all the different laces. I mostly do bobbin lace and crochet.

She had been a member of the Minnesota Lace Society for – years and a member of IOLI since 1978.

Bobbin Lace was her passion and she loved to design lace and share her knowledge with others. She would freely open her home to teach individuals the art of bobbin lace making.

At the UnCon Banquet Darlene was with Amy and Nancy from the Minnesota Lace Society and discussing what project was going to be her next one to design and get up the gumption to get started.

Darlene was that person who is invaluable to a group–someone knowledgeable, talented and always willing to share. She mentored many Minnesota lace makers by opening her home to drop-in lessons, frequent consultations and reassurances even when the tangles seemed too complicated to be set right. As a teacher, Darlene was open, patient, had materials prepared and was ready with a variety of ways to explain the same idea until she found one that clicked with the student. She seemed to never pass up an opportunity to offer encouragement and support a good idea. She always volunteered to demonstrate and gave wonderful explanations to our audiences. She created eloquently simple bobbin lace patterns, which she freely shared with everyone. I especially liked her red-nosed reindeer head. Darlene was a delightful companion at IOLI conventions. She was fine on her own but enjoyed company. She knew so many people from all over. She was astutely observant but always kind in her comments about people

Darlene had experience making lace in a myriad of ways, yet she never tired of taking classes to learn more.
I’m pretty sure that Darlene was the first person I ever saw making bobbin lace. (If not THE first, she was one of the first!) She was always energetic and enthusiastic, especially when demonstrating!Always ready to talk about lace and to give her views, she said two things at demonstrations that I quote quite often:

  • When asked what she did about a [small] mistake:
    “I figure if someone is looking that hard for a mistake, they deserve to find one!”
  • When someone expressed interest but said (whined?) that they didn’t have the time:
    “Do you watch the games?” (This was often at State Fair at the beginning of football season.) – “So do I, and while I’m watching I make lace. At the end of the week, I haven’t missed a game, and I have a piece of lace. What have you got?”

My name is Kathleen Baldwin. I live in Falcon Heights, MN and have been retired for 16 years, giving me LOTS of time for gardening, crafts, projects, grandchildren, and LACEMAKING.

My Lace Journey:

I have enjoyed handwork and crafts since my teens including cross stitch, crewel embroidery, trapunto, and crochet (but not knitting; I get too tense doing that!). When my mother (an exceptional knitter) turned 80 in 2001, she regretted not having learned tatting from her mother. I searched and found Noreen at a local senior center who was willing to teach us to tat. After an hour we were both struggling, but that evening the ‘flip’ finally happened consistently for me and I was off. Mom never mastered the flip, so I learned and then taught her needle tatting, and she had me make the things she couldn’t (clever of her…). When I moved beyond Noreen’s ability to help me, I chanced upon the Minnesota Lace Society demo at the Minnesota State Fair and was invited to their meetings. There I met a cadre of wonderful women, and a few men, who provided support, help with problem patterns, and an introduction to new techniques. A few even became great friends! After 16 years of tatting I became interested in the work of those who made bobbin lace. The generous donation by a past lacemaker provided me with the supplies to give bobbin lace a try without having to invest in all the tools, in the event I didn’t enjoy it. But enjoy it I do, and the MLS members continue to teach and support me, and challenge me to improve my skills as a lacemaker.

Hi. I’m Jerry Sandmann.   

I have been a lace maker from my teen years. I joined MLS in 1986-87? 

I mostly crochet but also do tatting, bobbin lace, needle lace and knitting. I enjoy threads. 

In the photo are this year’s projects including bobbin lace snail and book markers, crochet bowl basket, and various doilies.

Rhonda Grobe | My Lace Journey

When I was very young, my paternal grandmother started teaching me how to sew, do embroidery and crewel work and to crochet and knit with yarn. I first encountered lace making in 3rd grade when my cousin’s grandmother gave me a small tatted doily. After some persuasion, she agreed to teach me the basic tatting stitches but insisted that I would have to do it right-handed. I loved the tatting and started making small motifs by adjusting sections of the doily I had. I had some old Workbasket magazines but was not able to figure out how to read the patterns, so I made up my own. One day, I found the pattern for the doily I had been given and was able to use it to teach myself how to read the patterns. I continued through my teens and early adulthood doing needlework, but tatting became my area of expertise. 

When I found the Minnesota Lace Society, I joined in the hopes of learning other lace techniques. Thanks to the lace society and the I.O.L.I. conventions, I have done some bobbin lace, Teneriffe, Romanian point lace, and needlelace. 

Although I am known for my original design, three-dimensional tatted flowers, recently I have enjoyed making a variety of designs in needlelace, including a garden during the Spring and Summer of 2020.

My Original Designs in Tatting

My Original Designs in Needlelace