Would anyone like to set up a group visit to the “Changing Landscapes” exhibit? I’m planning on going this May and would love to have fellow textile people with me.

Don’t forget that this month’s meeting is being held at Stewart Heritage Farm. Go to our meetings link at the top of the page to find a map. If you’re in the Bellbrook area and want to carpool, contact me. (See above link).

As always, if you find any problems on the site, let me know. See you Tuesday!

We had a great Fleece to Hat event last meeting. Congrats to all the participants. You did a wonderful job showing off the different ways to get to the same goal. There are pictures up in the gallery for the event, with much thanks to Diane Remmers for taking the photos.

There are a few updates on the website you should know about. Karren has volunteered to have a Spin-in at her place on Thursday nights. You can find out more at the Guild Announcements page.

There’s a get together for those of us who learned about Backstrap Weaving (or who want to learn) over at the John Bryan Center at the end of March. Check out the Mini-Workshop page for more info.

The Indiana Fiber and Music Festival is coming in May in Clark County. Check the Upcoming Textile Events page for that one.

A reminder that this website can always use multiple pairs of eyes to keep it on track. Let me know if you see anything of interest out there, or if you find a typo or incorrect time or date so I can add or correct it.

There are three new items on the Upcoming Textile Events page; Blackswamp Market day in Bowling Green, Heritage Day needs volunteers in Fairborn and the Clifton Gorge Art and Music Festival has moved to August. Check out the page for more information.

The Drop Spindle mini-workshop is tomorrow. There’s no cost. Just bring your spindle, something to spin and your fingers.

Don’t forget you have four days left to join the Kente Cloth Workshop. Contact Karren Brito for information.

I’m told some people are having problems receiving the notifications from this blog. Make sure you check in here once in a while in case you’re one of them and let me know. In fact, it’d be good if everyone who gets this were to post an email to me. That way I have an idea of who might be missing. Make sure the email didn’t get lost in any spam folders, because it may be the mass-mailing function that’s causing a problem.

This next month has some exciting stuff coming up. There’s the Fleece to Hat contest at the meeting, the Changing Landscapes exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute and a Drop Spindle “mini-workshop” coming up. Come and see!

Also, we have two “mini-workshops” coming up on spinning. February we’ll be doing tuning your spinning wheel and in March we’ll have drop spindling. (Note that these aren’t full-blown workshops. Just a way to get together and learn from more experienced spinners. No fee is involved.)

Don’t forget to check our announcements page for important information.

New programming:

• Our programming schedule has been updated thru April, with a new speaker for our February meeting. Lisa Morrisette, of the Dayton Art Institute, is coming in to discuss an exciting new exhibit of contemporary Chinese textiles. Go check out the February programming tab for more information.

• We have two teams for our March “Fleece to Hat” contest. More are welcome, however. Karren is handling that, so make sure you let her know if you’re going to participate.

• April will be Dr. Rivera-Strohm, who is also teaching a workshop in that month.

Updates to the site:

• Announcements: I’ve been making some changes to the way the site looks. If you look at the menu line at the top of the screen you’ll see that there’s an additional item – Announcements – for you to visit. That’s where I’ll be putting help wanted messages or the like.

• Gallery: I’ve started putting up some pictures from the meetings. If you have photos you think would help the site, pass them to me.

• Calendar/Programming: If you hover your cursor over the Programming menu item under the Calendar, you’ll see more menu options, one for each upcoming month. You can still get an overview of Programming by selecting that menu item (just like you can get a full overview by selecting Calendar) but if you select a specific month you’ll get a full listing of information about the program for that month.

I will be beginning to write blog posts once a week here. Let me know if it gets to be too much.

♦ The Preparing Washed Fleece for Handspinning class has been moved to February 11, 2012.

♦ The Cincinnati Guild has contacted us to let us know that they still have two openings for their Doubleweave Workshop with Jennifer Moore.

I've changed the look of the Calendar tab to make things simpler. Rather than repeat the same information everywhere, the top of the Calendar tab will simply reflect the titles of the year's schedule. There are links from there to the tab associated with an item, so if you want further information, follow them.

January is a busy month for us. Karren's setting up a Field Trip to see the Nick Cave exhibit down in Cincinnati, we have a Share Day on what would be our usual meeting night at Diane Remmer's, there's the Small Loom Study Group and two classes on Fleece management preparatory to doing the Fleece to Hat contest. You have started forming teams, right? Make sure to contact Karren to let her know.

I'm in the midst of working up a Gallery for our photos. It's still in process of creation right now but keep an eye on it to see what I do there. Also, if you have photos you think should be added, let me know. I'll be glad to put them in. Keep them smaller, though, to save bandwidth.

If you see any problems with the site, make sure to let me know. Also, post me a note if you have any ideas to be added.

Thanks all. Let's have a great year in textiles!

Deborah J. Brown

Webmaster – WGMV

Ellen, our Newsletter Editor, has reminded us all that if we have anything for the newsletter, be it articles or photos, she needs it by January 29th.

Our upcoming events include the January Field Trip down to the Nick Cave exhibit on the 21st. ERRATUM: The .PDF says Karren needs a response by February 17th. I believe that should be January 17th instead.

We also have the Small Loom Study group coming up. ERRATUM: I had that down for the wrong day for the upcoming month. It's always set for the first Saturday of the month, which will be January 7th, 2012 this time round.

Don't forget to sign up for the Fleece to Cap contest. There are small workshop/classes coming up for people to learn how to do the required segments of the contest.

I've been working out how to set up a Member Gallery. There's still too much work to be done to call it ready but if you have photos you think would be good for that, send them to me.

Also, remember that this website always needs feedback and information. I'll accept guest blogs from those of you who have something they'd like to share with the guild and suggestions on how to make things better.

Thanks to all and I'll see you Next Year!