10 ladies attended today. Marguerite brought in a finished quilt top. She needed to look through the quilting templates we have here to see if she could use them. She found some that should work so maybe in a few months she have another finished quilt! She made this top a long time ago so she's very eager to finish it. Ethel brought in another quilt top to sandwich. It will be a Christmas tree skirt for her daughter. She also brought in a traveling jewelry bag she had made. A nice gift for her daughter-in-law who always travels with jewelry. Deb told us the story of her friend who won the patriotic quilt raffled by the Village Quilters. This is a very nice lady whose husband is a veteran. Deb helped her out when she was run over by a tracter. She loves her new quilt and wanted to send a thank you note to the two ladies who were most responsible for making it. I will give it to them the next time I see them. Pat H. brought in some yummy buckeyes. They were melt-in-your-mouth good! And Marie regaled us with more tales of all of the crafts she has learned in her life. It was a small group today. Next week we will be eating at Evans restaurant on Western Ave. at 12:30 pm.

20 ladies attended today. We had our holiday lunch--a potluck. That means lots of delicious food! I think Marie's brown bread and Cathy M.'s coconut cake were the big hits but it's hard to say--there was so much to choose from. Linda O'C was back from Florida. She spends Christmas with the grandkids then returns south for the rest of the winter. Agnes and Pat O will be away next week visiting family. Cathy Y's daughter will be visiting her for Christmas. Everyone's getting ready for the holidays. I am still trying to get over my flu so we've barely been thinking about Christmas. It's tough when you don't feel well and especially tough during the holidays. Today I brought in my finished batik quilt. I still need to take a picture of it before I send it away. Kathy O. made another hidden 9-patch 2 quilt with train fabric. It was really nice. That's such a great pattern! It always works out nicely. And Agnes brought in a baby quilt to show. It was a 9-patch with an iron-on applique fish and bubbles. It was totally cute! Most people didn't bring in anything to work on since we were going to concentrate on eating, but Fran put us all to shame by pulling out some pincushions she's made and stuffing them. We had a great day today! We will still meet at the library next Tuesday but the week after that we're going to lunch. That will be Dec. 29, we'll meet at 12:30 at Evans on Western Ave. across the street from the Guilderland town hall. For those who want to car pool we can meet at the library between 12 and 12:15.

11 ladies attended today. It's two days before Thanksgiving and I assume everyone's busy. I brought in my finger-knitted scarf to show off. Everyone was suitably impressed. Fran brought in a quilt to sandwich and Jeanne brought in an already sandwiched quilt to ask for quilting or tying suggestions. Winnie reported that the bazaar at the Methodist church was a success but she thought people are more careful about what they buy now. Kathy O. was knitting a pair of socks. Tina is hand quilting a pillow top. Marguerite is hand piecing another quilt. Pat O'R and Fran are appliquing. Deb made a quick stop to say hello, catch up with everyone and to return her DVDs and check out some new ones. There was a lot of talk today about what everyone is doing for Thanksgiving. Some are cooking, some are not. The one thing we are all doing is eating!

13 ladies attended today. Unfortunately I had another meeting to attend so I was there to say hello then came back to say goodbye so I don't know what happened during the meeting. I do know Deb brought in some pumpkin pie: my favorite! There was even a little left for me to sample. Marie brought in some old books of patterns she had collected at some point. She and I had been talking about Ruby McKim the week before so she wanted to show me these books which came out at about the same time as Ruby McKim. This woman, also a Ruby, came from Arkansas (R.McK was from Kansas City). I quickly looked through the books. I have a quilt at home made by a woman in Louisiana probably in the 40's or 50's. It was suggested to me by a quilt expert that the pattern was probably one published in the newspaper at the time. I didn't see this pattern in Marie's books though. Nice try though. Tina was back after being off sick for a few weeks. And Kathy O. informed me that the method of finger knitting that Ethel had taught me was actually better than the finger knitting that her granddaughter had taught her. Pat brought in some give-aways. I took some even though I'm trying to get rid of stuff too. Oh well.

17 ladies attended today. We were a lively bunch today. Lew Schedlbauer, the "Quiltsmith", brought in some scrap batting. It was gone in about 5 minutes. But we had some nice show and tell we could share with him. Fran was binding a quilt she made some time ago and didn't like so just let the top be for awhile until she finally decided to have it quilted. Everyone agreed that it was a very nice quilt and deserved to be liked by its maker. Then Jeanne K. had a black and green zigzag quilt she was binding. It was all made of half-square triangles--very easy to make but it looks complicated. It was beautiful. Then Cathy M. was sewing the binding on one of her Flying Geese Saturday morning samplers. We are going to have a really great show this year! Everyone's doing such nice work! Marie awed us all with her crocheted tablecloth she is working on. Marie says she likes to do hard projects that no one else wants to do. That's exactly what she does and they are all just amazing! Pat O'R was binding her appliqued flower quilt, Agnes was binding her hidden 9-patch 2 quilt--lots of binding going on. Ethel has started a new cross-stitch pattern. She says she has several going already so I guess she just likes to switch projects periodically. Today was another good eatin' day: Marie brought in an apple cake and Agnes brought in an orange juice cake. Both were scrumptious! These ladies sure can cook!

14 ladies attended today. We left Betty Smith's quilts on the wall from her party. With Nimblefingers and the Village Quilters meeting at the library we wanted everyone who didn't make it to the party to have a chance to see her quilts. She was a real artist--they are all so beautiful! Today I brought in some giveaways. Last weekend was the Quilter's Paradise at the RCS High School. Julie Ann Fortran and I rented a table and tried to sell some stuff. I admit that the stuff I took to sell was really old but nevertheless, I only netted $10. Don't think I'll do it next year. So I brought in the patterns that I didn't sell so everyone could take what they wanted. The rest will end up in the trash. Pat O'R also brought in some giveaways. Plus I had some things that Linda Cr. had given me to sell at the Q.P. I didn't know she had left them for me so I didn't take them. But today all of her antique quilt tops and pieces found nice homes with my ladies. We had some good eats today: I brought in my usual Hannaford goodies but Deb baked a pumpkin cake plus cider donuts (or do nots as she calls them) and apple cider. Ethel brought in some pumpkin bread she baked for a church sale. Plenty of goodies! Poor Daryl limped in with a bad back. She made a wrong move the other day and has been suffering ever since. We had a long discussion about what everyone watches on TV these days. The British comedies seem to be favorites of many of the ladies. Kathy O is continuing to assist Rosemary in making a Hidden 4-patch 2 quilt. Rosemary picked out some rich looking fabric so it should be very attractive when finished. I pulled out the raffle quilt to stitch on. We've made it to the edges with the hand quilting but we still have a ways to go.

13 ladies attended today. Once again everyone was working on a project except me. But every week I get more curious about how to make the pincushions that Jean K. makes. She says she'll teach us next spring when she comes back from Florida. Daryl was back from her vacation on the Cape. She had bought some cute little quilting things at Heartbeat Quilts in Hyannis. One was a small finger pincushion for the tiny applique pins. The other was a pincushion, again for applique pins, that fits into a spool of thread. It has petals glued to a golf tee--very ingenious. Marie brought in one block plus the pattern for a beautiful bedspread where the block, which has one large and one small hexagon sewed together with the large one wrinkled to fit the small one. It would be a great bed covering, but what a lot of work! I am always amazed at Marie and the time she is willing to take to do the extra hand-sewing and embellishing necessary to turn a quilt into a masterpiece. I wish I could slow down enough that I was willing to spend the time necessary to do that. Down at my end of the table Linda O'C and Marie got to talking about old Voorheesville and its surrounding areas. It was a fascinating discussion of local history. I'm sorry that we didn't have a tape running to catch this conversation: old stories about times past. Today was also special because the room was decorated with the quilt collection of Betty Smith. Her family left them up after the party last Sunday. It is an amazing body of work. Betty's unique style really comes through in the quilts. She was very playful, she was definitely not afraid of color and she loved trying new things so her quilts are truly one of a kind. Betty meant a lot to those of us who had the privilege of knowing her and her quilt legacy is one to be cherished.