The IOLI convention is the annual meeting of North
American lacemakers. Each year it is held in a different location. This year, Dentelle
Quebec Lace, with the support of the Association des Dentellières du Québec Inc., was
hosting the convention in Montreal (Canada) at the comfortable Hyatt Regency hotel. Louise
Senécal is the president of this IOLI charter chapter.
Two floors were necessary for this event. The particularity of this building, was to
understand the difference between floors and levels: front desk is located at level F,
also called 6th floor or Street level depending from which area you are coming from!
The convention stand for 1 week, numerous classes are traditionally offered. This year 247
attendees registered to 24 different classes. Rosanna taught level 1 and 2 of Valenciennes
lace. Something unique about this event is that everything goes on in the same building:
vendors, challenge, exhibition, classes, conferences, meetings and even our room on the 12th
floor. You just needed to use the elevator to move from one place to another.
Would you wish to visit Canada, do not forget to stay in Montreal for a little while, it
is a very contrasting city, you will find buildings near
churches, Chinese quarter where the streets have their
typical door,… but mostly, wonderful people still fighting to save their French
language: do not ask for a table “set”, but for a napperon, do not expect
“stop” signs at the street corners, you will only find “Arrêt”
signs…
This report is build just like a story, we will share with you, chronologically, these
wonderful days spent in the very good company of IOLI members and their president Louise
Colgan, as well as the Quebec lacemakers and their president Louise Senécal.
