Posted on Leave a comment

December Newsletter

And the winner is ….

We know you’ve been waiting with bated breath all week to find out who our Grand Prize Winner is!

The lucky person who gets to spend 5 days immersed in weaving, eating great food, drinking good wine, and laughing with a bunch of other wonderful folks….. nestled here in the woods …

is VALERIE DZIAK!!!

Congratulations

We’ll be seeing her soon!

It was so much fun doing this contest, that once we’d picked our grand prize winner, we just couldn’t stop.  We decided we had to add two more prizes.  Claire Simons was our lovely 2nd place winner of a $100 gift certificate and Judy Sloan won the third place Namaste bag! Congratulations to everyone and thank you all so much for the enthusiastic participation!

On the Workshop Front:

 

There are only 3 spots left for Cheryl Huseby-Wiebe’s Know Your Fibre, Know Your Wheel 2 day workshop, January 21 and 22.  We’re really excited to have Cheryl back again.  Her previous dying workshops were a resounding success and now she’s ready to bring her 30+ years of enthusiasm and expertise to help us understand our wheels and favourite fibres.

If you have been spinning for a while and don’t really understand your wheel or how to tweak it, then this workshop is for you.   And, if you think protein fibres just come from four legged animals, then there is another reason to sign up!  You will be spinning a variety of wools and luxurious fibres like cashmere and fine mohair, but you will also be spinning man made protein fibres like latte, corn fibre and soy silk.

For more information click here.

Jane’s workshops for the year are almost full.  For retreats earlier in the year – Colour & Design still has 2 spots open.  February 6-10.  And we have one spot left in the B&B.  For more information, click here.

This workshop lays an exceptional foundation for newer weavers and advanced weavers, especially if designing your own fabrics is your goal or if you struggle with colour and sett decisions.

 

Holiday Shopping is Easy!

Are you wondering what to get your friend to celebrate their successful stash reduction?

Is your husband still puzzled by your favourite colours after 30 years of marriage?

Does he do all his shopping after dinner on December 24?

If you’ve answered yes to one (or more) of these skill testing questions, then have him call us!  We know exactly what you need and what colour it should be – a bright green Gift Certificate!  It goes with everything!  You can’t go wrong with this one.

 

For the younger ones in your lives you may want to consider the merits of the Harrisville Educational, Enriching and Entertaining Easy Weaver, Lap and Potholder Looms.  They will provide your young friend with an engaging, creative experience where they can learn a useful skill, apply mechanical ability and make a fun project all in one!

For these and hundreds of other titles please click here!

Posted on 2 Comments

Win a 2012 Workshop Contest Almost Over!

Well folks,

there are just 3 days left (including today) for your chance to win a free retreat with accommodation here at JST. Remember you just have to spend a mere $100 (on yarn that you need anyway ;^) to get your name in our pretty little ballot box!

We will be drawing the winning name on Wednesday at 5pm!

We’ll let the winner know immediately, and put their name in the December Newsletter due next week!

Posted on Leave a comment

November Newsletter

Win a Free Retreat!

Someone will get an early Christmas present!

For every $100 you spend in the month of November, before tax and shipping,  you get your name put in for a big draw and the prize is a 5 day retreat with B&B at your choice of an available JST workshop in 2012.  If you order $200, we’ll put your name in twice!  Order $300 and you get it in there 3 times!  Order $400 … you get the idea.

The draw will take place on December 1st and we’ll notify the lucky person right away.  We will announce the winner in the December newsletter.

Some people just take off after our workshops!  And you could be one of these happy ladies!

Sample Cards!

Jane Stafford Textiles has a beautiful sample card for each one of our yarn lines. The full set of 15 cards has over 500 six inch yarn samples for you to fondle and drool over.  The yarns are presented in an analogous colour arrangement which makes colour choices easy.  Each card also lists yds/lb, put up and Jane’s sett recommendations for that yarn.  The set of cards alone is a stunning sight, not to mention all of the creative imaginings they will inspire.  Each card is $3.00 and the entire set is $35.00

Each sample card set now comes with Jane’s Master Sett Chart, chock full of essential sett recommendations for many exciting projects.

2012 Retreats and Workshops are filling up pretty darned fast!  Check them out here!

Know Your Fibre, Know Your Wheel with Cheryl Huseby Wiebe.

 

In January we are so lucky to have Cheryl Huseby Wiebe teaching her new workshop Know Your Fibre, Know Your Wheel.   Cheryl has been spinning for over 30 years.  Her spinning and dyeing knowledge are immense.  She has accumulated her knowledge by taking spinning workshops with practically every well known spinning teach on the planet, however, what makes Cheryl so special is her ability to share her knowledge so graciously and competently.

Cheryl is also known for her precision dyeing.  She has been dyeing for Treenway Silks for over 10 years and was featured in the book: The Yarn Lover’s Guide to Hand Dyeing by Linda La Belle.

If you know how to spin but haven’t had a chance to really understand your wheel or to fully appreciate the difference between all kinds of fibres, this workshop is for you!  The workshop runs January 21 and 22.

 

Perfect Fall Project

Isn’t this a great photo?  Claire Simon of Salt Spring Island sent this in last week.

These towels were woven in our boucle cotton at 12 epi, 12 ppi.  5 cones will make you 6 towels.  We have the pattern up on the store with 3 different colour combinations but Claire picked her own for this batch of towels.  She used Cayenne, Gold, Orange, Turmeric and Rust.

It just makes you want to run out and get a clothesline.


The Delectable Sari

Last week in Vancouver I presented the Delectable Sari workshop designed for the Maiwa Symposium and based on my observations while travelling in India.  Twelve great weavers gathered together for four days at the Maiwa Loft on Granville Island. The entire workshop used just two yarns:  2/16 cotton for the warp and 2/30 silk for the weft. We looked at supplementary warp, double weave, cramming & denting, inlay and iridescence.  It was wonderful!

 

Group and Bulk Orders

For all yarn orders over $300 we offer a 10% discount and for yarn orders over $500 we offer a 10% discount plus free shipping.  So why not gather a few of your weaving friends and put your orders together.  You will save save save.

Please Share our newletter with someone you know.

Follow us on Facebook,  Ravelry and JST’s Help Line


Posted on Leave a comment

October Newsletter

The JST Schedule is Here!

The moment you’ve all been waiting for!  What everyone has been calling about!  It’s here, the time is now!

Working on the 2012 schedule has been exciting.  In addition to all our weaving workshops we are thrilled to have Cheryl Huseby Wiebe teaching two spinning workshops and Joan Carrigan teaching a basketry workshop for us this year.

Check out our full

WORKSHOP AND RETREAT SCHEDULE for 2012!

Helpline

Jane’s Helpline is filling up with some very exciting and useful information. Our newest addition is Jane’s Canvas Chart.  Jane has spent her life sampling and testing yarns on their own and in different combinations for her workshops and production lines.  She knows everyone doesn’t have time to sample to this extent so she is sharing the knowledge gained from that testing with everyone.

Fabulous Contributions

We are so lucky that our customers are also our good friends and friends share.  We wanted to show off what some of you have been up to.

This cashmere stole was woven by Salt Spring weaver, Barney Guthrie.  Barney does beautiful work in silk, weaves tartan in fine merino and just blew us away with his stole below.  The hand and drape were just amazing.  Barney used 5 cones of our 2/28 cashmere to create this piece.

Some of these pieces are the result of a retreat here at JST.  Below is Linda Knowles’ Double Weave scarf in Zephyr that she made after taking our Double Weave workshop in August.

Jeanette Newton used Zephyr for her dented stole in sage and teal after taking our  Pushing the Boundaries of Awesome Weave aka Plain Weave workshop in May:

 

We have more projects to share with you in our next newsletter, but we’re keeping it short this time so you can concentrate on the retreats!

However, some light entertainment that you might find fun can be found below:

If you’re really serious about weaving, every detail counts.

If you don’t believe us (you should), check this out.

(Thanks to Ingrid Servold for sending us the link!)

We also wanted to share news about a new DVD called Blue Alchemy, Stories of Indigo produced by Mary Lance.  It can be purchased through Maiwa in Vancouver.

I am off to Vancouver next week to teach my new workshop, the Delectable Sari for the Maiwa Symposium. I’ll be back with more stories for the next newsletter in a couple of weeks. Until then, happy weaving,
Jane

Posted on Leave a comment

September Newsletter

EXTRA EXTRA! Read all about it!

Workshops for Beginners and those who need Refreshing!

Here is your chance to spend a day or three learning some great weaving basics.

On Salt Spring

In October, we’ve got three consecutive 1 day workshops: Honing Your Basic Weaving Skills; Project Planning 101 and Warping with Sticky Threads.
You can pick one, two or take all three.

WHERE: Jane Stafford Textiles Studio, 142 Richard Flack Rd., Salt Spring Island

TIME: 9-4

COST: $100.00/day Includes HST (yum yum!), lunch, coffee, tea and goodies.

TO REGISTER: PLEASE CALL JANE STAFFORD @ 250 537-9468

or email jane@janestaffordtextiles.com

October 5: Honing Your Basic Weaving Skills. Do you dread dressing your loom? Do you have trouble with tension and selvedges? Then come spend a day and learn to take control! Become a dominatrix in yor own studio! We will cover warping back-to-front, selvedges, bobbin-winding techniques, shuttle-throwing, proper posture and other exciting tidbits.

October 6: Project Planning 101 Is the mathematics of weaving contributing to our alcohol consumption? Come detox with Jane. We will look at warp and weft calculations, planning yardage requirements, configuring warp ends for a given draft and basic draft reading. Don’t be scared …. we’ll simplify the process.

October 7: Warping with Sticky Threads (aka tyeing one on!). This seminar has had great reviews from weavers who have had difficulty dressing their looms with sticky yarns such as mohair or highly textured yarns. We will review basic warping techniques and then Jane will demonstrate dressing a loom with a 100% Brushed Mohair warp and provide all the weaving techniques she has learned after weaving thousands of Mohair Blankets. Weaving with these yarns is very easy and enjoyable when you know the tricks. Each participant will receive a step-by-step instruction sheet with illustrations.

In Vancouver!

Jane will be bringing Honing Your Basic Weaving Skills to Vancouver! For all you Lower Mainland weavers you don’t have to take the ferry to learn how to make a great warp, dress a great loom, have great selvedges and tension, etc.

WHEN: SATURDAY OCTOBER 22

WHERE: Kanata Co-operative Community Building, 7155 Blake Street, Vancouver

TIME: 9-4

COST: $100.00 Includes HST (yum yum!), lunch, coffee, tea and goodies.

TO REGISTER: PLEASE CALL JANE STAFFORD @ 250 537-9468
or email jane@janestaffordtextiles.com

Click link for a Map to Kanata Co-Operative.

Last Retreat at JST for 2011

Also, just a little reminder that we have 2 spots available in our Collapse Weave workshop November 7-11.

Our Much Anticipated 2012 Workshop Schedule will be coming out in Early October! Watch for the October Newsletter!

Remember, we are always here to help :^)

Our Helpline is growing with useful information and tips. Ask your questions directly on the Helpline or in just email us here in the studio. We will post all answers on the helpline anonymously for everyone to see and benefit from. It may take a day or two to answer your questions, we thank you for your patience!

Maybe someone you know would like to be on our mailing list. Please consider forwarding this newsletter.

Posted on Leave a comment

A Colour and Design Fiesta

Last week from Monday through Thursday six lovely ladies descended upon my studio to focus on colour and design theory. 2 were from Salt Spring, 1 from Cedar, 2 from Victoria and 1 dragged 4/5ths of her family from Calgary. Over the four days the girls wove seven different samples out of one style of yarn all in plain weave. The samples were colour gamps, a colour and weave gamp, studies in asymmetry, stripes, gradation, analogous colour harmonies, numerical systems – all created as tools to support the lectures. We tore magazines apart and honed our skills of observing. Toni walked in the woods collecting inspiration and now sees the world as a giant grid waiting for colours to be poured into. We shared meals and life stories, laughed and cried and created fond memories on so many levels. This was the first workshop where three of the students stayed and did the B&B thing. We all helped prepare meals and being together in the evenings deepened our bonds.

On our last evening we went to town for a great dinner and then headed back to Annie’s house for a ceremonial “cutting a dog off the loom event”. Anne had at that moment a warp that had been on her loom for 8 years.
Due to life’s assaults she had left her loom for quite awhile. We cut that warp off and cleaned the slate for new creations. It was a perfect way to end our week.

On Friday I was definitely tired, but also exhilarated with a magical energy.

Thank-you to Sasha, Mary-Anne, Toni, Sandra, Annie and Susan for such a wonderful experience.

Happy Weaving,
Jane

Posted on Leave a comment

June Newsletter

Big Exciting News!
Cashmere!

You just have to feel this to believe it! Softer than a cloud.

I love working with finer yarns more than any yarn and I have always wanted to stock Cashmere ~ so I have finally taken the plunge. After all – that’s what my line of credit is for, isn’t it :^)   We have done all the sett testing, made our colour selection, decided on cone size and have just unpacked the boxes today. It is very easy to weave between 18 and 24 EPI depending on plain weave or twill.

It will sell for $32.00/50gr cone with 715 yds on a cone. You can make one 8″x72″ scarf with a cone. All we have to do now is photograph every colour and get it up on the store. If you can’t wait till next week, tell us which row and colour you are interested in and we’ll get it off to you.

Patterns will be coming soon!

 

A Good Graphic Goes a Long Way

For all you weavers that have taken Jane’s Colour & Design Workshop, you will be familiar with the way she teaches you to interpret the same graphic design in different colour combinations and yarns. Here is an excellent example of this idea. Linda Knowles from Vancouver took a pattern from a scarf woven by Kate McKibbon (that was on display in the studio). Linda changed the block pattern just a smidge and interpreted it with 2 different yarns. Linda’s scarf is woven with a 12 gauge Bambu warp and a Zephyr weft. She then took the same block profile and interpreted it in 2/8 cotton and boucle for her tea towel.

By overlaying different colour and texture onto the block profile, you would never know it was the same pattern. So beautifully done Linda and thank you for sharing your designs with us.

There are also 32 more patterns in our online store. You’ll find Tea Towels, Scarves, Blankets and Placemats made from 2/8 Cotton, Cotton Boucle, Mercerized Cotton, Bambu and Chenille. They are an excellent source of inspiration and learning!

Retreats at JST

Our second Pushing the Boundaries of Plainweave workshop for the year has finished. We had such a fun and exuberant group. We added warping, winding on and threading demonstrations and used many exciting plainweave techniques including cramming and denting, weft and warp faced structure, tufted weft, clasped weft and cording. They were challenged to work with linen (it’s not as scary as you think!), as well as 8/8 cotton, cottolin, mercerized cotton and 2/8 cotton. The weather was beautiful, the food was delicious and the conversation fascinating. We were sad to see everyone go!

We’re proud to report that we had our first guy at a retreat and he survived beautifully. Here is what he said about his experience:

“Hello Jane,

You are awesome as a teacher, weaver, hostess, etc., etc.,etc., as the King of Siam would have said! I have to tell you that I really enjoyed the recent workshop, and many many thanks to you for it. You have inspired me to go and explore the possibilities of my four shaft loom, and to look for awesome colour and fibre combinations.

The first day after the workshop, I went to the Buchart Gardens with my daughter-in-law, and we were blown away, not only with the flowers but with the colours and colour combinations offered by the flowers, trees and the layouts of the different sections of the gardens. Now I can see a cloth called “Buchart Quarry Greens” or “Buchart Pinks”, and so on. I got carried away with photographing everything, often in close-up, to look for the colours including the zingers! And Janet Phillips’ book; what possibilities! I now need to live well past 100!

Please thank Charlotte for her lovely lunches and presence and Grant for the wonderful dinners. I enjoyed also the relaxing though sometimes invigorating discussions over too much wine! So, again very many thanks for a great time, I am now one of your fans/supporters/admirers!

I wish you a wonderful summer, and all success with your courses,

Cheers, Ian”

Coming Up!

The warps are made for our June 27 – July 1  Twills on Four workshop. We’ll be weaving a large Twill Gamp, Shadow Weave, Colour and Weave techniques like Pin-Wheel, Boundweave, and combining Twills with other structures like Bastketweave. It’s full for this year, but if you really want to learn about how fascinating twills can be, look for the next Twills workshop in our 2012 schedule that will be ready in October this year.

We have had one opening in the July 18 – 22  Double Weave workshop. If you’re interested in learning how to weave horizontal joins, double width, staggered triple layers, double faced twills, interlocking double weave and two-block double weave, give us a call!

Check out our Retreat Schedule for the two remaining openings in our Collapsible Fabrics workshop. The last remaining spots for the year!

Jane is working on the 2012 schedule and she plans to have guest instructors come to offer a wider range of workshops. Coming soon to a weaving studio near you!

Nature by Numbers

We are constantly sent fabulous information from our weavers. This one came from Diane McAuliffe in Seattle and we just had to pass it on.

It is a wonderful link (click on the title) to a fascinating visual of the correlation between mathematics and nature. As weavers, we are always using many of these formulas to help us design beautiful graphics in our textiles. It really is worth watching. Thanks Diane!

Changing Prices

We’re sorry to report that our prices on a number of items will be going up.

We’ve tried hard to keep our prices as low as possible for years, but rising fuel costs and flood damaged cotton crops in Pakistan are just two reasons why we must increase our prices on several of our yarns.

 

As well, prices on Louet looms will increase 10% on July 1 so if you are thinking of purchasing a loom, now would be a great time.

 

Because weavers put such a great deal of effort into their work we feel that high quality yarns are the best way to go. We will continue to offer and search for the best.

We will always share Jane’s extensive design knowledge through our patterns, keep the wealth of information on our helpline free and continue to offer the excellent support to all of our friends and customers that we are known for.

We thank all of you for your support and friendship.

Remember, we are always here to help :^)

Our Helpline is an excellent resource for all your weaving questions. You can ask your questions directly on the Helpline or in a regular old email to Jane. We will post all answers on the helpline anonymously for everyone to see and benefit from. It may take a day or two to answer your questions, we thank you for your patience!

Maybe someone you know would like to be on our mailing list. Please consider forwarding this newsletter.

Posted on Leave a comment

Spring Inspiration

Inspiring Weavers
You met these two beautiful, brilliant women over 2 years ago on our blog in September 2008. Jane and Susan have been weaving with Pam and Josie since forever and they always bring their latest projects to show us.

They’ll both turn 91 this year! Every once in a while they arrive at the same time and we all marvel at their continued liveliness. Both are still weaving prolifically. Josie, on the left is wearing her latest turned twill spring scarf (with her sample still attached) in 7 gauge bamboo. Pam, on the right, has been exploring collapse weave using Colcolastic and various reds, pinks and oranges also in 7 gauge bambu. As you can see, both scarves are as lovely as their creators.

Pam’s scarf has 109 threads of 7 gauge bamboo and is threaded to a point twill. The majority of her scarf is woven in plainweave using 7 gauge bambu but every 2 inches she weaves 2 repeats of waffle weave using Colcolastic. When the scarf comes off the loom and is washed, the Colcolastic assisted by the waffle weave structure draws in, collapsing the scarf.

Josie’s scarf as well as a variation woven by Michelle Moore in our wool/silk blend Zephyr are now up on our store site. Check them out! We’ve offered beautiful spring colourways for them, but you can always substitute your own colours!

Stay tuned for more wonderful weaving to come from these two Grande Dames!

We had just finished up this Newsletter when who walks in the door? GP (Granny Pam)! GP was here to show us her latest rendition of a collapsed scarf done in Snow Pea, Apache Blue and Chagall Blue 7 gauge bambu. While she was here, she told me that she had wished she had started weaving earlier in life and I laughed and told her she had said that to me when she was 70 and first learning to weave. She said “Well if I had, I would have been where I’m at now, then!” GP told us she could hardly wait to finish weaving this scarf and get it into the water. She loves weaving at this stage in her life because she doesn’t have to stop and make dinner for anybody, she can do whatever she wants and weave whatever she wants. Her best quote today was “Tell all your 70 year olds to keep weaving!” If you were to say that last statement with a strong Jersey accent (as in Channel Islands) you would get the picture.

Every year in the spring before show season we order tons of books ….
everything we think you might want to see at our shows. At the end of show season we come back to the studio and start to listen to our little books whining. They whisper things like – ‘why does amazon do this to us?’ and we say – ‘there there pet, someone will look at you one day’. So … to help our books out, we are offering a 20% sale hoping that our little books will go to good homes. You can think of them as rescue books if that will help.

 

Retreats at JST

Our first Pushing the Boundaries of Plainweave course is already over. The gals explored cramming and denting, cording, clasped weft, they discovered that warp and weft faced fabrics don’t have to be hard if you don’t want them to be. They looked at supplementary warps, tufted wefts and more! Jane used many of the beautiful fabrics she brought back from India as examples of just how far you can push the boundaries of plainweave. They are phenomenal.
Up Next!
We have another Plainweave workshop at the end of May which is full. Then it’s Twills on Four June 27 – July 1 that has openings for 2 lucky people. Let us know if you’d like to join us for a fascinating exploration of Twills.  We weave a large Twill Gamp, Shadow Weave, Colour and Weave techniques like Pin-Wheel, Boundweave, and combining Twills with other structures like Basketweave.

Jane will be teaching at the Hand Weavers, Spinners & Dyers Conference in Calgary, June 7, 8, 9 & 10. We are not taking a booth this year because Jane’s youngest son Daniel graduates from grade 12 on that weekend.

Check out our Retreat Schedule for openings in our other workshops throughout the year. There are very few spots left, so be sure to let us know if you’re interested.

Helpline
Our Helpline content is growing, but it needs your questions to really grow. You can ask your questions on the Helpline or in a regular old email to Jane. We will however, post all answers on the helpline. Your questions can be anonymous so don’t be shy. Sometimes it takes a few days to answer your questions so please be patient.

Remember, we are always here to help :^)
Maybe someone you know would like to be on our mailing list. Please consider forwarding this newsletter.

Posted on Leave a comment

The Tea Towel as a Canvas

As so many of you know, I (Jane) love to teach and  I try to teach skills that will help weavers develop their own design sensibility, encourage them to try out their ideas and most of all become independent thinkers and problem solvers.  I love to work all this out with tea towels, simply because they are a small and inexpensive way to  experiment without the financial stress of expensive yarns.  If you have an idea that you might like to try but you’re going to weave it in silk or cashmere, you get pretty darned stressed out about getting it right. However, if you have an idea and you make a warp with 2/8 cotton and things go wrong, you’ve really only blown around $10.00.  A small price to pay for a great deal of learning.

Learning what not to do, is just as important as learning what you should do. And so……….I encourage tea towels.

Once you have a successful towel you can look at it as a design sketch for a blanket or a placemat or a piece of yardage.  A stripe in it could become a scarf…….the possibilities are endless and tea towels make wonderful gifts.

We had the tea towel wall in my studio which  became the tea towel corner, which has recently  had a 2nd layer added to it.  I have over 200 tea towels now and they have all been woven by my students who have taken the Colour and Design workshop or Twills on 4.  Students in these workshops often do exchanges between themselves to share what they have learned and sometimes I get lucky and get one for the wall.

Several of them came from the 2010  “Twills on 4” groups who had to create their own twill threadings during the workshop………they took their threadings home and interpreted them in these towels……..pretty darn awesome.

Thank You to Marianne, Jennifer, Karen, Sasha and Linda for helping our towel wall grow!  and thank you to all the weavers who have contributed to the wall for many many years.

Posted on Leave a comment

On the Road … to Social Networking (kicking and screaming the whole way).

Big Announcement!  JST is on Facebook!!!!!!!!  Haven’t you been waiting your whole life for this to happen?   Come be our friend, we’d love to keep you up to date.

This weekend JST is off to the Vancouver Island Weaver’s Retreat at the Grand Hotel in Nanaimo!  The Vendors are open to the public, so come check us out!

Over to you, Charlotte (my roving reporter):

I’d never been to a fibre show before so I thought I’d tell you all about my experience.  On March 17 Jane and I went to Fibres West in Abbotsford and man, we had a blast.  Maggie from down the road came to help us get ready.  We work really well together, even when things get tough.

It took the three of us a full day to get the books, yarn, shuttles, winders, bobbins and what not all packed up into Jane’s trusty minivan.

Our first stop was to Maiwa on Granville Island to see Charllotte, Sophena, Dani and Tim.  It was the first time Jane had seen everyone since she left India.  It was so lovely to visit the beautiful Maiwa loft and for me to meet the wonderful team behind the Maiwa Foundation.

After some coffee, seeing more photos of India and planning Jane’s next Maiwa Workshop, we headed over to Abbotsford to unload and set up the booth.

It was great that we were able to get into the trade building at 2:30 because it took over 5 hours to get it all unloaded and displayed beautifully.

I got to see so many of you that I’ve only met on the phone or through email.  It was such a treat to make the connection between everyone’s smiling faces and sweet voices!

One evening a whole bunch of us went to a fabulous restaurant in Ft. Langley.  Thanks Christa for inviting us!  And many thanks to Brenda of Penelope Fibre Arts for putting in all of her time and effort to organize the event!  It was such a great weekend!