This is my Bobbin Lace Pillow.  I inherit it from a lady in my BIL's church.  She passed away a few months ago and the family was looking for someone who knows bobbin lace.  So my BIL told the family and they gave it to me.  It's old and the pins on it are all rust.  I have to take them of and check if the fabric is still good.  If not I'll have to replace the fabric too.

Now a day not a lot of people are practicing laces.  It's time consuming and also can be expensive.  People find easier and cheaper to buy a yard of the syntetic thing that is sell by yards at Walmart or other stores.  Sometimes you're "lucky" and can buy real lace very cheap; but the story behind it is that it's usually made in "sweat shops" in small communities, paying just a few cents to the workers.  And yes, we're in the 21st century and these "sweat shops" still exist!  I knew a woman here in PR who sew for a company associated with K-Mart and they pay her only a few cents for the pieces that she was sewing. 

Anyway...  Here in Puerto Rico the "Mundillo" (as it's called in Spanish) is traditional.  It was brought to the island in the Spanish Colonial Era by the catholic nuns and was taught to the slaves to produce in big ammount, tho the high class ladies practice it but was more of a show-off.  The young girl who wanted to marry must show high level of knowledge in laces, sewing, cooking and all that stuff; even if later she was going to do nothing because was going to have a servant. 

The Bobbin Lace style that is practiced here in Puerto Rico is the "Torchon"  supossely to come from France.  Still nowaday there's a pretty big community of lacers in PR with internationally renown fame.  There's even a municipality were every year a festival is dedicated to the Bobbin Lace:  Moca.  Also they have a museum and a monument to "La Mundillera"  (Bobbin lace maker).  In the theater of the Puerto Rican History Museum you can see a curtain made completly in bobbin lace, worked my national lacemakers and designed by a Puerto Rican painter.

I learned to do Bobbin lace when I was studying in the University of Puerto Rico.  I took the course as an elective class and I fall in love with it right away.  I have always been crafty.  My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was around 5-6 years old and from there I learned by myself to do a lot of other crafts like embroidery, macrame, cross stitch, etc.  But I never found someone to teach me Mundillo.  So when I saw that the university was offering a class I signed up right away.  After I finished the course the teacher told me about Borinquen Lacers, the PR chapter of IOLI (International Old Lacers, Inc.) .  I started visiting the Carolina chapter and there I found a lady who was Tatting and that's when I learn Tatting.  But that's another story. 

Here is a good link about the history of the Bobbin Lace in Puerto Rico:  http://www.suite101.com/print_article.cfm/lace_making_collecting/52403

Also you can find how to make your own lace pillow if you're interested on it:  http://lace.lacefairy.com/PillowsBobbins/PuertoRicanPillow.html

This is the curtain in the Museum.  The speaker is the former governor Hon. Pedro Rosello and was on the opening of the Museum.