Linda Kay Benning and Karen H. Thompson, Instructors
Saturday June 21 & Sunday, June 22, 2025
Saturday: 9 AM – 5 PM & Sunday: 9 AM – 3 PM
Students will learn the two movements and three stitches used in all bobbin lace. Three-4 fours lace samples will be completed.
Linda Kay Benning
Linda Kay Benning has been on a fiber journey her entire life exploring work done primarily by women. She believes the fiber work enriched their lives with color and beauty. Often their skills provided supplemental income for the family, regardless of what continent they resided on.
“I am an inch deep and a mile wide in the realm of fiber arts, focusing primarily on the heritage skills,” she recently explained. “My understanding and appreciation grows every time I try something new, often laughing when I examine my first attempt.”
She is currently president of the Chesapeake Region Lace Guild, a charter chapter of the International Organization of Lace, Inc., (IOLI), a member of IOLI, and a member serving on the administrative council of the International Bobbin and Needle Lace Organization, based in Paris. She is a member of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America, the Smocking Arts of America, and the Nelly’s Needlers who support the Woodlawn Needlework Show, now preparing for their 62nd show that will be held March 2025.
Linda Kay is a frequent teacher for these groups and also teaches virtually with The Lace Museum and with the Smithsonian Associates. She resides in Arlington, Virginia.
Karen H. Thompson
Karen H. Thompson, originally from Denmark, has been making lace for many years since learning from her Mom. With the onset of COVID, she worked with Kim Davis, Executive Director of The Lace Museum, Fremont, California, and Linda Kay Benning to develop a four week Beginning Bobbin Lace curriculum that could be taught in person or virtually. This curriculum has been used successfully over the past four years for virtual classes through The Lace Museum and through Smithsonian Associates. She is looking forward to teaching it in person for the Waterford Craft School.
She is a member of the International Organization of Lace, Inc., where she is a regular teacher at their annual convention. Locally, she is a member and Past President of the Chesapeake Region Lace Guild. She is also a member of the International Bobbin and Needle Lace Organization, based in Paris.
Additionally, Thompson is a lace designer and longtime volunteer (over 20 years) at the
Smithsonian American History Museum lace collection. Her research includes the historic American Ipswich Lace, made in Ipswich, Massachusetts in the late 1700s. From the Ipswich black silk lace samples at the Library of Congress, she has recreated them, along with detailed working diagrams. Her Ipswich book is a favorite of lace makers around the world.
She and her husband live in Springfield, Virginia.