14 ladies attended yesterday. It was a small but nice group. We had one new person--Meris, from Guilderland, who is checking out craft groups to see what is out there. I hope she'll come back. I forgot to ask her where she had heard of us. Marguerite brought in a show and share: a mile-a-minute quilt with little girls in the center of each block. It was very cute. She found that she had a bunch of fabric with little girls so decided to make a baby quilt. Meris was putting the binding on her quilt: a batik quarter circle quilt. It was beautiful. Many people are intimidated by circles but as long as they are relatively large they really are not that difficult. Towards the end of our time Cathy C. came in and showed us her quilt for a little boy that had trains on it. She told us about a place in Ballston Spa called "Almost One of a Kind" which is a quilt shop with a long arm machine that you can rent. She has been there twice--the first time for a 3 hr. lesson and the second time to quilt on her own. I think she said the lesson cost $35 (?) then after that you can rent the machine for $10 per hour. She said it took 3 hrs. to quilt her train quilt. It was a small twin size and as she said, it would have taken her at least 6 hrs. to quilt it on her regular sewing machine. She says that you spend the most time pinning the quilt top and bottom into the long arm machine. After that the sewing is pretty quick. It definitely sounds like something worth trying. Apparently this quilt shop also donates quilts to a house in Ballston Spa that has been set up to house women soldiers who have returned from duty and don't yet have any place to go. They try to give each woman a quilt. Sounds like a nice charity.

Today there were 22 of us--a big group! Deb brought in her son's blanket to tie. Deb, me, Pat H. and Agnes all worked on it. We didn't quite finish it but made a good start. Fran was late because she stopped to pick up a quilt from a long arm quilter. She tried a new one with good results. This lady lives in Colonie on 155. She has pretty good prices and the quilt she did for Fran looked really nice. I didn't have the camera out today so I hope Fran brings the quilt in again after she binds it. I brought in the top I made from some fish fabric that I got from Benartex. Cathy M., Fran, Pat O and Marie all have the same fabric so I wanted to show them what I had done. Diane showed us her pink quilt top though she didn't get around to sandwiching it today. Instead she sandwiched a cheater white on white quilt then had Marguerite give her some quilting lessons. Cathy Y. brought in an embroidery frame to give away which just about took Sandy's breath away. It was a very nice donation. Jo-Ann, June and Rosemary, our walking wounded, were all here today. Jo-Ann just had knee surgery, June and Rosemary both have the same back problem. I'm glad to see they're all on the road to recovery and they were all glad to be back with the group. Linda O'C finished binding her t-shirt quilt. It reallly looked great. I should have brought in the camera. Next week we will be meeting at the Sage Bistro in the Star Plaza at 12:30 (Youth services needs the community room again).

As you may have read in the Times Union, our friend Edith Kilmer has passed away. She was our one and only blind member who was a constant inspiration to us for her cheerfulness and perserverance. I still have her fan (made of plastic forks) hanging above my desk here at work as a constant reminder of not letting obstacles stop you from doing what you love. We enjoyed having the sisters, Edie, Alberta and Nancy, in our group and I know we will always remember Edie fondly.

One of my colleagues reminded me when she read my blog regarding the passing of our friend Katherine Denegar that we still have her WWII story on our website. If you would like to read it again it can be found here: http://www.voorheesvillelibrary.org/armynurse.asp

17 ladies attended yesterday. Back from the 4th of July weekend everyone seemed a bit subdued. Deb and Betsey had tales of their weekend at Deb's place on the lake and Marie had a new recipe she had had over the weekend (fruit mixed with sugar-free vanilla instant pudding mix and cool whip). She also reported that she is next on the list for an apartment at a place in Altamont. No one else had much to report. I pulled out a sewing machine and started sewing together a prayer quilt. We have 2 ready to make and I wanted to get started. I still have a little more to go to finish the first one. Betsey, Marguerite and Cathy Y. all had pre-printed fabric (cheater cloth) quilts they were hand quilting. Diane brought in a quilt top and backing to sandwich but realized that she had forgotten the batting. Next week maybe we'll get it together. Pat H. brought in a prayer quilt to tie for church. Elaine is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her quilt--she gave it to Linda Denner at the Flying Geese quilt shop to quilt. I can't wait to see it either! Linda always does a great job and she was going to quilt in musical symbols. Betty brought in some home-made cookies and Deb a blueberry pie.