New Bed For Our Baby

Bob's other compulsion is taking care of his baby! No, not me (although he does take care of me!). His baby is Mandy! He's been rather compulsive about buying her a new bed so we stopped and picked one up! She's loving it!

Today or tomorrow I'm hoping to go to the Winter Fine Art Fair @ Tiogi. This appears to be similar to the Ann Arbor art fair but without the heat and humidity of Michigan in August. There are tons of different types of artists such as fiber, mixed media, sculpture, watercolor...looks really interesting and weather is perfect today. Mid to upper 70's, slight breeze and NO humidity! Perfect for this menopausal lady!

Food Fight

Yesterday morning while having our coffee we looked out the window and spotted a hawk on the lawn eating 'something'. Bob did go out later and confirmed it was a fish from the DRA. Anyway, crows surrounded the hawk and later turkey vultures came! It was a hoot to watch. Check out the video's I took below! You never know what you'll see!

Wed. Margarita Night

Another spontaneous decision last night to go out for dinner and where else to go on a Wed. night but El Toreo's for 99 cent Margaritas! YUM! When Bob got home from golf I had veggie lasagna to heat up but he suggested we go out. Back home, we don't eat out but once or twice a month. So why not take advantage of it where we're on 'vacation'. So off we went and we had a great night of just the two of us. We each got a combination plate rather then our usual chicken quesadilla.
Bob's knee is doing really better using the brace. Today, again, he has no pain and wants to go without the brace...but I'm going to nag him to wear it anyway just for a few more days. We'll see!
Nothing more to report. Amber is practicing at school for her spring concert. She said today they are meeting with their music teach for one hour and 15 min. to learn some more songs. I won't be home for the concert but dad or mom will tape it for me.
Another beautiful day here for us to enjoy. We're getting ready for the March 1st countdown on our days left in beautiful Florida!

More food and fun

This morning, Bob and I took off to guess what! SHOP! Yep. Well, we haven't been shopping for a few weeks! Bob found some great bargains and did get some new outfits. This is the first year I haven't found any thing in the stores, which is ok.
Bob's left for golfing now so I'm doing some laundry (the washer here is quite small so you are doing lots of laundry!), computer work then to work on my Klimt challenge piece!
Yesterday, I took Mandy to the dogie park here in the community. We met up with Bailey and his mom, Cheryl. Bailey is the cutest dog!! What a sweetheart and he has his own golf cart! Yep, the name on the golf cart is 'Bailey's Cart'! Do we spoil our dogs or what! But that's OK. Here's a picture I took of Bailey (left) meeting up with Mandy from my cell phone. Of course, Mandy doesn't play with any dog other then Cody so she and Bailey just walked around the park. They were so cute!!! I don't have connections to upload from my cell phone so this picture will have to do.

Marilyn and John invited us to their house for dinner last night. I'm going to call Marilyn the Crock Pot Queen! She can cook anything in her crock pot including Sangria! When we went to Marilyn and John's for a New Year's Day celebration she made a fantastic taco dish called 'Breakfast Migas' in her crock pot. Last night Marilyn started us off with some wine from Michigan! and appetizers that were puff pastry with artichoke filling in one and a spinach/cheese filling in the other. Yum! Her main course was Coq Au Vin which she cooked in the crock pot and was it ever good! Chicken and wine, what could be better! Here's a picture which represents what we had, plus, Marilyn had roasted potatoes (sweet and white) and carrots along with oil and some great spices for dipping our bread.

I made the old cherry cheesecake standby for dessert, using fat free cream cheese and fat free evaporated sweetened milk. We finished our meal with coffee and dessert and then talking, which for those who know Bob and I was right up our alley!

All in all we had such a pleasant evening with food and conversation! We didn't get home until almost 10 so you know we were enjoying ourselves! We did get to listen to the end of President Obama's speech when we got home. He is so eloquent and certainly gives you a feeling that he is a leader! So until tomorrow!

What happened to Monday!

Yikes! Not sure what all I did yesterday other then I some quilting (after my cleaning and a load of laundry) but I was delinquent about a blog entry! Guess nothing of note worthy was happening. Bob and I did run some errands this a.m. and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It's only 58 but feels like 70 with a breeze. Bob's leg and hip are feeling better so he decided to golf after all today.
So here's what Bob's wearing on his leg now. Looks pretty cute doesn't it! OK, so it's not Bob's leg! But you get the idea! We did pick up two other small braces today which he'll try tomorrow. Actually one of them is for an elbow (for a giant by the size of it!) and it appears it would work for his leg. So he'll try that one and another smaller version. Bob's love of golf is like my love of creating fiber art. He's willing to try anything to keep himself on the golf course. So between Tylenol Gel tabs, Glucosamine and braces we're hoping for the best!

I want to try and get some more work finished today on the Inspired by Masters challenge our small fiber group is doing. In this challenge, there are six 'painting masters' ; Klimt, Beardsley, Hokusai, Mucha, Hundertwasser & one more TBD. We are then creating an art quilt from our interpretation of that artists work. What's nice about this challenge is you don't have to do all six, you can do one or five or three...whichever artist inspires you. I finished my piece inspired by Aubrey Beardsley which you can see here. Now I'm working on a piece inspired by Klimt. I made good headway yesterday afternoon now I'm just tweaking some of my free motion quilting then I'll add some embellishment(s). I would post the pictures the pieces some of the ladies have finished but they are looking at putting an exhibit on for next fall so I'll wait until our first showing. We're hoping to have at least 20 pieces completed for the exhibit. So I better get to work! Until tomorrow!

Sunday - day of rest?

No, today won't be a day of rest...I did that yesterday. For my Michigan friends and family, I'm having some of my health issues I had last fall...so not to sound like a complainer we'll leave it at that! UGH!

Here is my nature journal quilt (8 1/2 x 11") for February. The background was chalk applied on milk soaked muslin. I free motion quilted the leaves then painted some of them.
This is my March nature journal quilt. The dark hole at the top is actually the quilt cut away and beading around the edges. I used paint sticks on freezer paper stencil to make the trees.

So, I finished the start of (now that sounds strange doesn't it!) my latest project which is creating an Art Diary. Back home I have some large, plastic sleeves that I keep different techniques I've tried, which is nice. But I got thinking after seeing Linda Kemshall on QA tv showing a fabric book she made of her art quilts. Why not challenge myself to make an art diary of my techniques rather then small pieces put into plastic sleeves. So I did..hence, the "finished the start" of comment. I made the cover and 1st page of my Art Diary which I'm showing here. I'm going to put a slide show on m blog for those who are interested in the process/progress of each page. I really had fun with this 'self challenge' and perhaps it will inspire others to do the same either with their journal quilts (8 1/2 x 11") or similar to mine which is approx. 18" x 18".
Here is the cover of my Art Diary. I took a pieces of commercial fabric and free motion quilted it; I added metal washers then I used a foam roller and applied Liquitex lt. blue violet soft body paint on top of the washers and quilted piece; I painted the wording with White Mist by Stewart Gill.

Closeup of my Art Diary cover

Cover page of my Art Diary

The 1st page started off with cotton sateen (from Joanne's) and bamboo batting with no backing; I started the quilting with a twin needle just 'willy nilly' using cotton thread; then I continued quilting using a dark blue rayon and Sulky 30wt cotton, variegated thread throughout the piece; I mixed fiber reactive dyes with print paste and covered the entire piece; after 24 hours I rinsed out the dye but decided it was too dark so I mixed up bleach and sprayed the entire piece then panic set in and I quickly rinse it! It did become a lot lighter which was ok. After it dried I added some metallic threads to outline the butterfly I had drawn with threads.

So this is page 1 of my Art Diary! I'm going to put grommets on the left edge so I can attach the Not sure what page 2 will end up being but I'm looking forward to it!

Closeup of page 1

Girls Night Out

Yesterday, Carol and I went to Girls Night Out in the downtown Ocala area, which is sponsored by 18 different shops. The timeframe was 4 - 8 but we arrived early to have lunch at the Primary Oven market and bakery. This is quite a unique place that serves different fresh made lunches daily. And the desserts! Huge and good! Funny how when we get older huge meals and desserts are impressive to us! Anyway, after lunch, we walked around the town waiting for 4:00 p.m. The downtown Ocala area is quite old and they have some pretty historic buildings as well as speciality shops. If you look at the corner of this picture, you'll see the building where the Primary Oven is now located.

Our main stop was Bakers and Cooks a store that not only carries cooking items, but also houses a kitchen for both demonstration and hands on type cooking classes. They have lots of gourmet coffee, specialty teas, and samplings of their gourmet food products. We got to 'taste' some wine and brownies (we didn't eat our dessert at Primary Oven - we took it home). This is a neat store to find unusual gifts and cooking items...which we did!

It was a beautiful day for walking and sitting out side drinking coffee and spending money. Carol and I usually plan one day each winter to walk around the downtown area and it's always a really nice day and pleasant memory.

A good dad

I've always thought my son was a good dad and tries to be a good example to Amber and Nick. I received this email today from Darrin. The kids have enjoyed selecting items for Darrin to pack up each month. I've been to the house when the kids will grab a protein bar or a new package of chap stick to place in the box. They would also go as a family to Costo (just like Sam's Club) and pick up treats to send to the troupes. Here's the email Darrin sent out this a.m.

Over the past 9+ months, our family has been sending care packages each month to the Marines in Iraq along with goodies to GySgt. Gary Morrell and this past week both of our kids received a very special package from GySgt. Morrell and the Marines in Iraq to thank them both for all the things they have done. The kids wanted to share with everyone what they had received…see the attachment. Amber received the same for her school (Clear Lake Elem. Oxford) along with the flag shown in the picture with GySgt. Morrell (on the left in picture.) On 02/19/09 GySgt. Morrell will arrive home after his 3rd tour…The Soukup’s are planning on showing up at the airport to help Welcome him home and say Thank You for all he has done.
Darrin

This is the certificate that was sent to Nick. I'm sure he was quite excited to show at his school.

I think this is a good example of showing support in our own little way to our troops. They really have sacrificed so much for us to live the life we each have.

Wednesday Dye Day

Today is going to be beautiful and perfect day for dyeing. I'm working on some new pieces and techniques which require dyeing. Oh well, someone has to do the playing, I mean work! So I get to play with dyes today! I'm thinking blues for today but I might work with some purple too. With dyeing you just never know what you'll get and you'll most likely never get that same, exact color again.

So when we were in Micanopy on Monday, I saw some small, wood sculpture pieces in the Shady Oak Gallery. They were done by Rick Cain of Micanopy. His work is stunning and the detail is unbelievable. He has a wood sculpture of an alligator that is over 10 or 12 feet! Plus, there are hidden alligators in the sculpture! There are videos and pictures of Rick working on different projects on his web site. It's worth a few minutes to check it out.

Mayberry or Twilight Zone

Mayberry or Twilight Zone were the words one merchant described the town of Micanopy, Fl. Micanopy is where Carol, Peggy and I spent yesterday afternoon walking, shopping and eating. This town is so quaint but yet some business were quite upscale. Each of the stores are located in very, very old buildings with each room FILLED to the brim with merchandise. The book stores did remind you of a Stephen King novel and you were waiting for the villain to come out and ask if you wanted to give your soul to him! I was really impressed with one of the book stores. This particular one (again was filled!) had each category listed above the books. You knew exactly where each type of book was located. How impressive for an antique book store! I lost count of the number of rooms holding books.
So this is the first building we approached upon arriving. And with 'food' on our minds we stopped in for a lunch. The cafe is on the right side and our lunch was great! We each had stuffed tomato with chicken salad on lettuce with a vinaigrette dressing. The plate was huge! But 'waste not, want not' so we ate almost the entire meal. Well, we had a lot of walking to do so we needed our energy!
The store on the left called Shady Oak Gallery looked like just a stain glass merchant but they were more then an art glass studio. They carried stain glass and did workshops in addition to fine jewelry, local art and gifts. They also have a bed and breakfast which looked quite nice on their web site.

This is where we ate our lunch.
Even Elvis was in Micapony!

We had a really nice day and it's so much fun to see different areas of Florida. I always thought of Miami and congestion whenever I thought of Florida. But coming to Ocala and visiting the surrounding areas over the past five years has certainly changed my mind. That was the first thing Bob and I noticed when we came here five years ago was seeing birch trees and pine trees and no palm trees! We thought we couldn't be in Florida! We felt like we were up north Michigan. Maybe that's why we like Florida in the winter. OK, the warm weather helps, doesn't it!

Day trip and Blogger problems today

It's a girls day out again today! We're heading off to the town of Micanopy, which is about 35 miles from Ocala. Looks like a historic town with lots of shops, book stores and just some history. It's a beautiful day so should be a fun day with Carol and Peggy. Barb can't make it today but she's on for our girls day out in March! We'll miss her but we'll share her dessert and think of her!

I'm having some problems with blogger today so I can't upload anymore pics. I'll try later tonight. Here is a Valentine I made and sent in to Fiber Arts magazine. I traced a design and painted and quilted that card. This was for my friend in Colorado who has cats. I thought it fit her. Oh, his eye has a tiny bead sewn in.

These next two I made with painted fusible webbing and painted tissue paper. The first heart is fabric paper that I made and embroidered. The heart on the 2nd one is a hand dyed velveteen which I machine embroidered.

This is the Valentine I received from Marty, one of the ladies in our CCC fiber group. She drew my name for her secret Valentine. Marty taught marbling fabric and included some of her beautiful work in my card. Isn't it great!!! This is the 2nd year Marty drew my name! I just love it! THANKS, MARTY!!

Valentine Dinner, Elvis & Taboo!

Here are our host and hostess for the Valentine's Dinner we went to last night. This is Jan and Larry. Aren't they the cutest couple! And to boot they are definitely made for one another. Fun to be around and as nice as can be.

They put on a fantastic dinner for 10! We had wonderful drinks and appetizer's (which I forgot to take pics of!) and conversation before the Asian dinner Jan prepared. After dinner Larry waited on the tables by delivering a heart shaped, strawberry filled cake along with ice cream. We all felt like we were in an upscale restaurant. Although we didn't tip Larry! Food was just wonderful! And just as wonderful was the company. I didn't post pictures of all of the guests as I didn't ask if they minded if I would post their pictures (I did ask Jan and Larry). I read in one of those 'columns' in the paper some one complained that their 'friend' posted pictures of the on their blog and they didn't like that. So...I'll wait until I find out if the other couples would mind. I only took a few pics and I'm sure they were not the ones who wrote into the newspaper! They are too nice of people!
Now does this beautiful woman look like she would have two men in her life? Well, she does! Elvis isn't only in the building but he lives at Jan's home!
In fact, this is Elivs' bedroom! Yep, he has his own room! An entire room just for him!

And he has his own bathroom! Complete with a shower curtain of himself! I told you Jan was a wonderful woman! And Larry is so sweet to allow this 'man' to live with Jan!

Only problem with Elvis was he didn't really want to sing to us! I thought that was rather rude but he did talk to us. This poster, I mean Elvis, actually talked! What a hoot!

OK, back to the dinner. This was the table setting for 10 people. It was beautiful!

Jan has several collections in addition to Larry & Elvis. She also collects vintage salt containers and vintage salt dishes. Jan also collects lighthouses which were displayed in her kitchen. She had some beautiful ones and a glass lighthouse that changed colors. Very wonderful collections.

So after that wonderful dinner and dessert, Jan talked us all into playing a game. It's called TABOO and it was fun! Everyone got into the 'game' playing and overall we did quite well with men against the women. Of course the women won! 10 to 9! If you want a good game to play with couples or family this is fun game. Taboo is a game where you try to get your team to guess the secret word, without using the five Taboo clues. So if the secret word is "kitten," you can't say "meow", "cat", "purr", "furry", or "animal". We did cheat a little and used gestures, which I guess you aren't supposed to do. It was hard at times to not use those 'five Taboo clues'.

So that was our Valentine's evening and it was one Bob and I will remember for quite sometime. Just a wonderful time with friends and we thank Jan and Larry for a memorable evening.

King Payne

No,I'm not talking about Bob here (King Payne!) but the original King Payne and his 'tribe' or family who lived and developed Payne's Prairie. The story of Payne's Prairie is so interesting, Bob is actually reading a book given to him on how Payne's Prairie came to be. I might have to read the book as well now that we've walked the land.
We had a beautiful day to walk through this preserve and see the wildlife. We didn't get to see any bison or wild horses as that walk was quite a distance from the two areas we did visit. There are so many different trails you can walk, ride a bike or horseback.

Just some lazy alligators resting.

We did see at least a dozen of these guys resting in and out of the water. We thought we might witness them getting their dinner as there was a small bird in the water eating bugs. He had no fear at all and would walk around by all the alligators heads! I kept thinking I'd be filming a sad story..but fortunately he flew away after about 10 min.

When we left the park, we decided a shake would taste good...so out came the portable navigation system and we looked up one of our favorite places, Steak 'n Shake! We were only a few miles from there so off we headed. But wait...Bob thought we were close to the Saturn dealership so change the address in the nav system and off to the dealership we went! Then back to Steak 'N Shake! This is Bob's favorite shake and it is good. I just had a boring chocolate...ok, it had chocolate chips and hot fudge in it as well! Really good.
We got home around 3, took Mandy for a golf cart ride then left at 4:30 for dinner with friends. Just a busy life here in sunny Florida...temp was 80 in the afternoon but again that nice breeze...didn't feel like 80! Today Bob is going with a friend to a car show then we off, yep again!, to dinner with some other couples. Great friends and great company in our winter paradise.

Payne's Prairie

Weather is beautiful today and since Bob's hip/leg are bugging him we decided to head out and be tourists today. We're going to Paynes Prairie north of Ocala. This park became Florida´s first state preserve in 1971 and is now designated as a National Natural Landmark. There are over 20 distinct biological communities in this state park which are perfect habitats for wildlife, including alligators, bison, wild horses, and over 270 species of birds. Eight trails provide opportunities for hiking, horseback riding, and bicycling. We're not sure if we'll take Mandy or not, as we don't want her to get bit by an alligator! So no golf or art work today! Just exercise.

Weather and playing

I've been playing with painting my quilted pieces which is a technique shown by several different fiber artists. Judy Perez (see the link for Painted Threads on my sidebar) does beautiful work creating whole cloth pieces by painting the piece before quilting. Irene Bluhm has a book called 'Quilts of a Different Color' which got me started painting my quilted pieces. Linda and Laura Kemshall also do quite a bit of painting on quilted pieces. There's so much inspiration out there! And of course I love books! Here's a piece that I colored with chalk on wet fabric, quilted it then painted the leaves. I'm working on a larger piece that I'll be sharing with my fiber groups then I'll post pics. I'm really excited about my next project.

This is a closeup of quilting and painting (I use fabric paints)

This piece is a journal quilt which measures 8 1/2" x 11"

Woke up to a drizzle this a.m., actually it was raining pretty good around 5:00 a.m. It's overcast right now but rain is suppose to stop. They do need the rain here as all the lawns are quite brown. This was mostly due to the cold winter Florida had. It's so funny that the 'cold' winter wasn't cold to us. Well, the early morning 20degree weather was cold but if you stood outside with the sun on you it didn't feel like a Michigan 20 degree. Temps always rise during the day so it never stayed that cold. Yesterday was beautiful and 78 the last I looked. Again, we have that delightful breeze. It's so nice to have the windows open at night. Sun is out now so need to get my real work done before I get to play!

Wednesday I think!

It's so hard to keep track of the days of the week when we're in Florida. Back home on Wed. I pick up the grand kids from school so that keeps me on track as to what day it is! If I've picked the kids up (& I remember!) then I know it's Thursday thru Sat.! Otherwise, I know it's Sun. thru Tues. Just the way my mind works..so back to Florida..I think it's Wed. and it's beautiful out and has been for the past few days. It's suppose to get in the 80's but there's been a breeze every day so it doesn't feel that way. Thanks goodness as I don't like hot weather! Or humid weather.
Check out our 'neighborhood' hawk. It's hard to see him but he's always on this rock or in the tree behind our house. I'll try to get a better picture of him. You can also see how brown the grass is. The entire neighborhood is this way due to the cold 'winter' they've had here. It's always so green and beautiful while we're here so this is certainly different from the past four years we've been here. I hope it will green up before we leave and the azalea's will be in bloom.
I'm going to post some more of the fiber cards I made for Valentine's Day. I love making these little cards (approximately 4" x 6" up to 5" x 7"). I made nine post cards this year for Valentine's Day but I also have several 'on hand' to send out as birthday cards, etc.
This one I machine appliqued the hearts onto hand dyed fabric. The heart on the right has dimensional hearts (I know they don't look like hearts!) on the inside along with some glued crystals. I painted over the large heart with some paint as well. I like the way this turned out. This heart was made by making 'fabric paper' which is a process where you lay tissue paper, fibers, etc. on to a fabric then use textile medium ontop, then paint or color with dye. This one has machine appliqued hearts, leaves, some fibers sewn in and an embellishment from a scrapbook store. I like the way this one turned out as well. Guess I just like 'my' fiber cards! I'm looking forward to getting my Fiber Valentine's card from the Valentine's exchange the fiber group I belong to is participating in again this year. It's always fun to receive them in the mail.

Birds and threads

So I've been working away at some projects and playing with some others. First, here is my finished Beardsley. The Aussome 6 Fiber group I belong to is having a 'Inspired by the Masters' challenge...well, not really a challenge...other then you are challenging yourself. It's not a project we each have to do. It's if you want to do it. Every two months or so one of the members picks a Master Artist which is to inspire us to create an art quilt based on their work. The first artist they picked was Klimt. This time it was Audbrey Beardsley. Beardsley created most of his work in black and white and some were a tad risque. I did find one of Beardsley's works that he did for the cover of Oscar Wilde's play Salome. This was a play based on the Princess Salome and other biblical characters. Kinda not an acceptable play at one time but guess everyone accepted it later. Anyway, I fused, machine stitched and FMQ’d the design and then I was going to cut out shapes but decided I’d cut the shapes out of some other quilted fabric I was practicing on. So I cut out the hearts and then I beaded around the edges (the black and white hearts are quilted white fabric which I painted with black). I then sewed the hearts onto the background. I'm playing (so to speak!) with a lot of beading the edges of my pieces vs beading the piece itself. This is a good precursor for another exhibit I need to create an art piece for the Art of Nature.

My label on back
Detail of beaded heart -I painted the black area with fabric paints

This past week I played with Potato dextrin and bleach resist which was fun. I took a piece of dark blue/back mottled commercial fabric and covered with the potato dextrin. The paste was really thicker then I needed or should have made. But oh well..I laid it in the sun which dried it quickly! Then I took a mixture of bleach/water and sprayed it on top of the dextrin paste. Rinsed it in vinegar water and wow! I’m really happy with this piece. If I can find more of the fabric I’ll make some more. It’s a cross between a tree trunk (which is what I was trying for) and looking like a wooded forest! I did another piece which was green but dummy me put the entire piece in a baggie with black dye and the entire piece turned a nice shade of brown.but it matches my wooded piece. I should have made a thickened black dye and applied on top of the print paste which I'll do next time.

This is the fabric before the dextrin and discharge with bleach.

Same fabric after dextrin and bleach applied

My ritual every day is to have Grace (my blue front amazon) with me as I get dressed in the morning. Yes, this is a necessity because she'll scream (& I do mean scream!) if I'm out of the room or out of her sight. I feel bad when I get upset at her for screaming because at times it's hard to take her into every room I'm in. Hence, I do allow her to 'come and play' each morning. At least she's quiet...but she does get into trouble. Check out the video of the other day.

Monday Blog Late

Well, I wanted to take off early and get some grocery shopping and errands run before I started my day. Turned out I just got back shortly ago so already I'm behind! So to catch up on my blog writing for the day....here are some pics from the Warped Weaver's show and tell this past Sat. These women are so talented! And forgive me ladies...I didn't remember all of your names!!!!

This is a beautiful smocked/beaded purse by Theo

Theo also wove and made this pillow
Caryl showed 3 knitted panels her mother made. They are beautiful. Also, Caryl has been kind enough to allow us to meet in her home for the past 2 months & also next month!

These are leaves made for the Tree Project . I'm sorry but I can't remember the lady's name!! Forgive me!!

This is just a portion of the quilt Susan has been winning at quilt shows with. You have to see this in person to appreciate it. The stars are all reverse appliqued! That's unusual for stars in a quilt. They are usually pieced and end up in rows. Beautiful work. This is another quilt Susan just finished. It's for the Keepsake challenge for 2009. The basket is woven with her fabrics.

Yep, the Queen of Purple actually works in colors other then purple! But infrequently. This is actually a pot holder. We think she has big pots in her house! This bugger is close to 10" square!

Again, not sure of the name..but this was beautiful! You'll see a closeup of the pattern in the next picture.

Here's the detail

I'm anxious for next month as one of the ladies, Theo, is going to present to us Weaving 101! She's going to go over some terminology of weaving and cover the basics. I'm really looking forward to getting a better understanding of weaving. I've always appreciated what weavers do but at least now (I hope!) I'll know some of their buzz words!