19 ladies attended today. We had quite a show and share--I brought in a finished kids quilt and my finished Norman Rockwell needlepoint; Joyce brought in a finished Eric Carle kids quilt; and Betsey brought in the confirmation quilt she made for her grandson. I will add pictures to the blog later. Winnie brought in two quilts she made for her grandsons which we helped her to tie. She wants to make quilts for all of her grandchildren which is a big project. She still has 7 to go! Some of the ladies bought yarn last week to make the scarf that Kathy O. made. I bought yarn to make the crocodile stitch purse Sandie made which is crocheted instead of knitted. If we all finish these yarn projects in time for the show in February we should have some very pretty items to see. Next week is our holiday lunch. We had planned to have it catered by one restaurant but 2 ladies ate their last week and said that it was not nearly as good as it was last year (the restaurant is under new ownership) so we're going to go local this year and use a Voorheesville restaurant. I can let you know next week what the price will be per person. I will pay for the whole thing and let all of you pay me back. So next Tuesday lunch will begin at 12:30 p.m. Bring your own table setting and you can bring a dessert if you like. Entertainment will be provided by Bob Suss who will show us his slides from their whitewater rafting trip in the Grand Canyon. Husbands are also invited. Hope you can come because I think it will be fun.

Yesterday 10 of us met over at the Home Front cafe for lunch while the community room was being used for a kids craft program. We had a nice little lunch although the room was a tad chilly whenever the door was opened. Nevertheless it was nice being with friends and having an outing on what would otherwise be a very dreary day. Jo Ann and I ordered dessert and when I offered Winnie a bite of my chocolate cake she declared: I don't want just a bite! and grabbed the waitress to order her own piece of cake. She was given a rather large slice so we all teased her a bit. I hope she didn't mind. After lunch we went next door to the yarn shop. I think I'm the only one who bought something. I want to make one of the bags Sandie had made. She claims it's easy so I'm trusting her on that. I drove Marie over to the cafe and back and I know she was very happy with the outing. I think all of us were.

Today we had 16 ladies. Marie came in with a beautiful and very complicated looking sweater she made. Her brother bought her the yarn (which is from the Aran Islands) in Scotland. She hates the color (what I think is a beautiful fall gold color) but made the sweater anyway. It was gorgeous. Then Sandie came in with 2 finshed items: her crocheted petal bag and a blackwork piece. Sandie is just incredible! Kathy O. had bought some interesting yard but couldn't figure out how to knit it so Sandie got her started. It's going to be a very unique scarf. I wish I could knit--they make such neat stuff! Ethel brought in the Christmas stocking she made for her newest grandson. Kathy O. and Sue R. brought in the tops of their table runners so we should have at least 6 table runners at our show. We will not be meeting next week because of a children's program that has been booked so instead we will be meeting at the  Home Front Cafe in Altamont at 12:30.

17 ladies attended today.  Ethel has been working hard: she finished her cross-stitch wedding sampler for her daughter and son-in-law, a pillow matching the quilt she made for her grandson, and a Christmas stocking for her new grandson. I hope she can put some of those in our show in February. Jo-Ann had been on a bus trip to New Hampshire to the Quilter's Gathering show. She came back with some new purchases to show. Kathy O. came in today. With her arm in a sling she can't do too much in the way of sewing but she got some help from Agnes to cut out her table runner. She's going to see if she can operate the sewing machine. Marie was knitting some socks, as was Sandie. Marie demonstrated the stitch she was doing. Boy was it complicated! Sandie says she'll give the stitch a try sometime but I think even she thought it was complicated. Marie is not afraid of complexity--she likes a challenge. Remember, we will be having our Christmas lunch on the second Tuesday of December. I will call ahead to find out costs. And, this year we have entertainment: slide show of Elaine and Bob Suss' rafting trip down the Colorado river. Husbands are invited.

15 ladies attended on Tuesday. I brought in a bag for show and share. I made it in a workshop with Jessica VanDenburgh. Several people expressed interest in making the bag so I will demonstrate in the coming weeks. Marguerite finished her small mile-a-minute quilt so brought in a new mile-a-minute top which she will quilt this January when she pulls out her quilt frame. She tried a different layout--instead of lattice strips she put solid blocks between the m-a-m blocks then turned them all on point.  Fran showed those of us at her end of the table how to tie a scarf in a new way. Ellen and Deb were having some laughs reading a quilter's horoscope out of a magazine. We decided that we will have our Christmas brunch on December 11 and that we will again have it catered by Chef's Take-out. I will call ahead to make sure they will still cater lunches and to get the price. During our Christmas brunch we will have entertainment provided by Bob and Elaine Suss who will show us slides from their vacation rafting down the Colorado River.

Last Tuesday 20 ladies attended. I brought in my finished table runner top to show. I gave the ladies a challenge to make this table runner. It turned out to be a somewhat difficult pattern and as a result my ladies were suggesting that I would never make it. I had to prove them wrong. If I'm going to challenge them to  make it then I really have to make it too. Cathy M. is in the Tuesday morning Altamont group. In that group they had a challenge to all make the same bag so Cathy brought in her bag. It was very nice. I don't know it that group will have a quilt show so I don't know if they will ever display their bags in all different colors and fabrics. That's fun to see: the variety you can have with just one pattern. Linda B., a new member, brought in a finished wool pillow. It had an ear of corn with leaves. The corn was french knots made with a chenille yarn and looked just like corn! The pillow was beautiful. I hope she'll put it in our show in February. Daryl was back this week from Cape Cod and Jean K. was in today but is leaving this week for the winter. Goodbye Jean and have a nice winter!

20 ladies attended today. The big news is Kathy O is back! And this time she didn't bring back any new patterns to teach us. I knew that day would come sometime I just didn't know when. But she did bring in her finished yellow sweater in a stitch she was working on when she left last spring. She also brought in a serged quilt. I've never seen a quilt serged with the serged seams showing but this was one. It was very nice. Deb finished her tablerunner (the 3rd to do so) in spite of all the whining and complaining she did about how hard it was. I still haven't started mine. I brought in a load of Linda O'Connor's items--mostly patterns. She had so much stuff and I really don't want to throw it away so naturally I'm taking what's left home with me. Marie brought in a partially finished rug she's been working on plus some of her rug-hooking books. Linda B., a new member, is interested in taking up rug-hooking so joined the group just to talk to Marie. Ethel was working on a beautiful bargello ornament and Sandie was making a hardanger piece. Lots of knitting going on around the table and I added just a couple of stitches to my needlework.

Today we had 21 ladies at Nimblefingers. Last week we were lucky to welcome Cathy Y.'s daughter Tasha, and this week we were happy to meet Marie's daughter Maria. She lives in Californial and regularly reads the blog to keep up with her mother's doings. I'm very happy that both daughters were able to visit. Pat OR was back today. She's been home sick but still working on her table runner. She sent it out to be quilted and now just needs to finish the binding. She's the number 1 table runner finisher. Prizes will come later and she definitely has earned one. Deb made her sit down and explain this crazy table runner to her so she can be #2. This was my idea and my pattern and I won't be surprised if I'm #last. All quilting has been postponed for me until after the wedding. Speaking of which, I showed everyone my pictures of me in my dress, shoes and new fancy hair-do. I think everyone approved so I guess I can check wedding clothes off my worry list. Joyce spent her lunch half hour with us laying out a quilt to pin. It was made from a panel of children's illustrator Eric Carles' pictures so was very colorful, cheerful and bright. It would be very nice for a little kid but this quilt is to be for the little kid in Joyce. They make a lot of panels now from children's books. I know I see them and want to buy them so it must be a real temptation for Joyce who is a children's librarian. I've resisted so far but it's really hard. They are sooo cute! Jo-Ann got some instruction today from Cathy M. and Fran on doing redwork. She's been wanting to try something new and both Cathy and Fran are embroidering now--Cathy in red and Fran in blue. We do seem to have a lot of embroidering going on lately. That's good--it shows what broad horizons we have within our little group. Today was a lot of fun and I know next week will be too.

Tuesday we had 20 ladies at Nimblefingers. Linda H. brought in her finished punch-quilt picture. She picked it up when the Jacksons brought in all of the freebies and decided to try it out. It turned out very nice. She's going to keep it so that we can put it in our show in February. It's surprisingly lightweight, much easier to make than a quilt, but still looks like a quilt. Because Tuesday was 3 days ago and I had a root canal on Wednesday I don't really remember what else happened on Tuesday. I do know that we had a good time, as usual, and that many of the ladies signed up for the Sue Pritt workshop in September (the 8th). The other picture I am showing here is of the raffle quilt for this year. It was made by the Village Quilters and is made from selvages. It's very bright and fun to put together. The Friends of the Library will begin selling raffle tickets at the book sale which begins on Friday, Sept. 14th. I know I plan to buy a few tickets. It's really quite a unique looking quilt.

14 ladies attended yesterday--a small but happy group. Maxine was back and brought with her the beautiful rug she had hooked and was ready to add the backing. She and Marie go way back--they were hookers (rug hookers of course) together. The designs they made were just too beautiful! Maxine would go to a workshop in Vermont for a week to learn a new design and it paid off because her rugs are tremendous! Sandie had also finished her hardanger piece which she began in a class with the Embroiderers Guild. It too was gorgeous! I came in with supplies to sandwich a quilt. I was trying out my batting tape for the first time. No one else had tried it either so we were all eager to see how it worked and it did--work that is. With 5 of us pinning the sandwich was quickly made. Joyce joined us today. She has a kids sewing workshop today and needed to make sure the machines all worked. For those ladies who weren't there today, they missed a delicious pecan cake made by Winnie and a lemon cake/bread made by Daryl. Yummy!

Yesterday we had 24 ladies attend. It was nice to see so many ladies happily stitching away. Our friend Ann Bave passed away recently and Daryl brought in her obituary for us to read. Ann was a warm and generous person. I will always remember her surprise and joy at teaching a 6 year old to knit at one of our library programs. Betsey brought in a quilt top and asked for help pinning the sandwich together. She is making a group quilt for her priest in Arizona. Linda H. brought in her punch-quilt block which she picked up when the Jacksons brought in donations. She let me try a couple of pieces. It's an easy way to make what looks like a quilt block. I hope she'll keep it around to put in our show in February. Fran passed around a get well soon card for Pat OR who has been home sick for a couple of weeks. Marie brought in all of her 750 5" squares she has cut to ask for advice as to what to do with them. I had given her a pattern I found that was easy and could use 5" squares. She liked the pattern and picked out a fabric from her stash for the one common element in the design. It had green ivy leaves so it just seemed natural to pull the green squares from her pile to use in the quilt. She had enough different greens that I think it will make a very nice quilt. Sandie had to remind me again how to do the basket weave in my cross-stitch piece. I need to work on it more often so I don't forget. Sandie was working on a beautiful hardanger piece. She also helped Ethel get started on her new project. Sandie is a gem to have around! She's a very good teacher! On Tuesday Sept. 11th the Friends will begin setting up the community room for the booksale so we will have to go out to lunch that day. We've had a couple of suggestions so far but let me know if you know of a particularly good place for lunch.

16 ladies attended on Tuesday. Fran brought in the only show and tell: her sunflower. She says they are having a sunflower contest at the Altamont Fair this year so we should all make a sunflower and enter the contest. Marie was back this week. She was mostly recovered from her respiratory infection. Pat OR will be out for awhile though--she is at home getting physical therapy. Pat L. brought her granddaughter, Madeline, with her today. She spent her time on her laptop with headphones plugged in. I'm afraid us old ladies just can't compete with electronic friends to a teenager. And Lisa F., who works here at the library, came in with her son Benjamin to get some help starting a large cross-stitch. Sandie was on hand to give her some advice. Cathy C. came in late in the meeting. She is helping to clean out Linda O'Connor's studio. They started in the shed yesterday so Cathy brought in some of the things they found in the shed: some old books, yarn, threads, and tins. Everyone took what they wanted and as usual I took much of the rest. What I didn't take, Cathy was going to take to the Heldeberg workshop to see if they could use. Marie said it felt very strange taking some of Linda's things when she just saw Linda a few days before she died. We are all having a problem accepting that she could go so quickly. But, having been a teacher, I know she would want to share her things with everyone so that they could create, play, have fun and make something beautiful.

Tuesday 17 ladies attended. Marie was out sick. We all hope she is feeling better.We had a visitor attend--Sally Ann from Toronto. She was visiting her brother here in Voorheesville and decided to spend an afternoon with us. She won our last raffle quilt so she has a particular fondness for the group. She and Marguerite, who is originally from Canada, sat together and talked. I hope Sally Ann will think of us next year when she visits. Daryl was back after missing many meetings. She has had 2 sick family members to care for. I hope they both recover soon. We didn't have any show-and-tells this week but since I only seem to be able to add 2 pictures to each blog post I will include the two other show-and-tells from last week. I spent Tuesday showing everyone the Nook. We are now circulating fully loaded Nooks to Voorheesville cardholders so I wanted to show it to all of my ladies. Deb gave us a report on her trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival. She went with June and her husband. After spending some time at the quilt show they wanted to explore some territory up there so went to Tupper Lake as well as visiting some old forts. Deb didn't know if she liked the quilt show better or the sight seeing!

Today 19 ladies attended. The countdown is on for the Village Quilters quilt show (July 14 and 15) so several ladies are madly making fabric flowers. We will all be happy when we don't have to make flowers anymore. Pat L. brought in a stained glass window she made for her daughter (pictures to follow). It was totally amazing! Her granddaughter will be very happy--she wanted an owl window and this one has an owl in it. She said it only took about a month to make. That's quicker than most fabric/thread projects! Rosemary brought in a finished and framed cross-stitch she has been working on--a very nice angel surrounded by flowers. It's very pretty. Diane had made a basket of yo-yo flowers for her friend Jo-Ann's birthday. It was very cute. And finally, Fran was working on the sleeve for a new quilt she just picked up from the quilters last week. It was a poinsettia quilt. It's a very easy pattern and really works well with the large prints. We might be seeing more of that pattern--we all love a quick and easy pattern. Sandie was working on hardanger today and Marie brought in a small oriental rug she had made at some time. I'm sorry I've missed a couple of weeks of reporting on our doings. When I get busy at work my blog seems to fall by the wayside. I'll try not to let it happen too often though.

 

17 ladies attended today. The group was very sad at the loss of our member Linda O'Connor. Her passing was very sudden and took everyone by surprise. She was a truly generous person and will be greatly missed. When the Nimblefingers group began it was just for needlepointers. After a year or two, Linda asked if she could join and lead a quilting branch of the group so for awhile we had 2 groups meeting at the same time, same place. Since so many of us do various kinds of needlework we decided that the needlepointers and the quilters could be friends and became one big group. It's been that way ever since and we take great pleasure in sharing each others love of whatever needlework they are doing. One of Linda's former students, Cathy M. brought in her 2 latest quilts to show. Both were Saturday samplers at the Flying Geese shop and were quilted by Linda Denner and both were beautiful. Cathy does beautiful work so I'm always excited to see her quilts. Deb and I were taking a break from quilting and trying our hands at needlepoint. Deb sat next to Marie so she could get pointers. I on the other hand, was stubbornly determined to make up my own rules as I went along. Elaine S. happily finished the nametag she hand embroidered for the back of her music quilt. Tina is off to her summer camp next week. Cathy O. left for her summer camp last week. It's always fun when they return to see what they've done during the summer. I hope they both have a good time up north.

Yesterday 23 ladies attended. The highlight of the day was when Judy S. came in with Marie's finished quilt. This is the first quilt Marie has had machine quilted. She prefers to hand quilt but age has caught up with her and won't allow her to do hand quilting anymore. She has had this top around for awhile so decided it was time to pull it out and let a professional quilt it for her. She made a beautiful back for it our of some leftover blocks and the quilt is just lovely. It is a stack and whack  block in turquoises and purples. (Picture to follow). It is just beautiful and I think Marie is pleased as punch with it. She certainly had a big smile on her face! Fran also had a quilt she had just gotten back from the quilter. It is a large black and white quilt to go in her blue and white bedroom. It was also very nice. Jo-Ann had knitted a scarf which she gave to Cathy Y. to give to her daughter who is collecting winter items for her church. Linda O'C and friends (including me) are still busily making fabric flowers for the quilt show this summer. Sandie, Ethel, Pat L. and Rosemary are all working on cross-stitches. I found some chicken patterns in a book by Gwen Marston and decided some of the others of us should make chicken quilts to keep Tina's quilt company at our show next February. We'll see if we can have more that 1 chicken quilt. Deb was amusing us all with her talk of surfer boys in South Carolina. This weekend Jo-Ann, Diane M. and I are doing the shop hop so I assume that Jo-Ann and I will be bringing in new purchases to show next week. I can barely wait to spend my hard-earned money on more fabric, more tools, more of everything quilty none of which I need but all of which I want!

17 ladies attended today. Tina brought in her finished chicken quilt. It is just delightful! And Agnes was finishing the binding on a quilt she made for a young couple. Agnes does beautiful work. Some of us had attended the Embroiderers' guild show the previous weekend and were excitedly discussing the show and our various purchases at the boutique. The Embroiderer's guild may find itself with some new members. Their show was very impressive with some absolutely beautiful pieces. It definitely made me want to try my hand at some cross-stitch and embroidery again.

18 ladies attended today. Jean K. was back from Florida today! She says she's glad to be back to the group. There just isn't anything like it in Florida. Marie brought in her appliqued flower quilt top to get some advice on her border. Right now it's a square and she wants to make it a rectangle so is adding a large border. I think it will work out very nice. This weekend is the embroidery guild show at the Pruyn House. I hope many of you will attend. Sandie and Ethel have been working hard to prepare for it. Linda O'C was still working on flowers so I helped her again. She needs a lot of flowers. I don't know how many people are working on them. Pat L., a new member, had finished her small cross-stitch. She is in another group where they challenge each other to make something which could be in cross-stitch, needlepoint, knitting or some other kind of craft so she has to be prepared to try something new. Sounds like fun!

25 ladies attended today. We were a large and noisy group. Linda O sat up a table for flower making with Sue R. at another table sewing flowers on the machine. Fran had a finished wool applique pillow. It is very cute. Hopefully it will be in our show in February. Winnie and Agnes were working on their wool applique doorknob hangers. They are making them for the methodist church bazaar. The hangers are so cute--I hope they put a big enough price on them because a lot of work goes into the making. The cooks were busy this morning: Deb brought in a lemon cake, Jo-Ann a pineapple upside down cake and Daryl a carrot cake. Last weekend Fran, Jo-Ann and I all went on the bus to the Somers, NY quilt show. I brought in my purchases to show. It's the first time I've been to the Somers show though I've heard about it for years. I was surprised because the show wasn't all that big but they had 30 vendors there. I know I spent more time with the vendors than I did looking at quilts. I did try to restrain myself with the buying because the shop hop is just around the corner and I'm going to do it again this year. So instead of buying any of the books I saw at the show, I came home, checked to see if they are available in the library system and put requests on them. I'll see how much I like them before spending the money.

25 ladies attended today. We had a group from the Village Quilters set up a fabric flower factory during the meeting. They are making kits for the group to make for our quilt show this summer. They were busily cutting up fabric and some of us were keeping our eyes on them because they were throwing away big pieces of fabric!! Heaven forbid!! Needless to say we rescued as many of these valuable scraps as we could. Pat OR finished her beautiful blue table runner she has been working on. I took a picture and will post it as soon as I get it off the camera. It was made from a kit and the blue fabrics are just gorgeous! I hope it will be in our show next February. Jo-Ann came in wearing a spectacular beaded cape a friend gave to her. We all wanted a closer look at it. There were quite a few cross-stitchers around the table today. Marie showed me a book of pin cushion patterns she had bought. It had a lot of nice little pin cushions. Marie was also showing us a short article about seniors and "the green thing" which she thought was great. It was about how in the old days we saved energy by such means as drying our clothes on the line, walking instead of driving, etc. The moral of the story was: don't tell old people that they aren't doing their part in saving the planet--they've lived more frugally than any of our children will. It was quite good. Apparently Winnie is at home not feeling too well. If you have a chance you might give her a call.

19 attended today. Kathy O's husband came in to visit with his cousin Carol so I made him sign in too so we had 18 ladies and 1 man today! Our big activity today was dividing up the batting that the Jacksons donated. We cut the thin and the thick batting into big pieces. There weren't enough pieces for everyone so we drew names out of a bag. Then we cut the bondable batting into table runner sized pieces and everyone who's making the challenge table runner took a piece of that. I think everyone went home happy. They all contributed to the donation fund for the Friends of the library too. The Friends are making out like bandits thanks to the Jacksons. We passed around a thank you card to send to the Jacksons so everyone could sign. Other than that...Sandie was doing cutwork embroidery. I was truly amazed because I haven't seen that done before and it just looks like it would take forever! Ethel had almost finished an embroidered hanging. I assume it will be in the Embroiderers guild show at the Pruyn House that is coming up. It was beautiful with beads and ribbon embroidery. Tina made some adorable knitted owl hot pads. I couldn't convince her to sell me one though. They were very cute. Betty brought in her serger to get some more instruction from Kathy O. who seems to have become an expert. I really admire Kathy's fearlessness at learning new machines, new techniques, etc. Plus she is such a natural teacher!

23 ladies attended yesterday. Tina brought in her adorable chicken quilt to work on. I think it will be the hit of the show next year. Fran had a rather large chicken pincushion to show. And I had made a quilt top over the weekend I wanted to show. Of course, the big excitement of the day was the return of Skip and Sharon with more sewing room giveaways! Skip suggested that in lieu of payment for all they were giving that we make a donation to the Friends of the Library. This was very generous of them and the ladies were all very happy to show their appreciation. Yesterday alone I collected $120! and not everyone had money or checkbook on them. The Friends will be very happy I'm sure. Other goings on yesterday, Kathy O., Sue and Betty all brought in their sergers to take some serger lessons. Kathy O. decided she wanted to make an all serged quilt so brought some serged pieces to show. I'm afraid most of us were so busy looking through the giveaways that we didn't pay much attention to the serging going on. Sandie was back from vacation and had purchased some very interesting "yarn". It was more like a ribbon with holes in it. You knit through the holes. The finished scarf looks like a boa or a clown's ruffle. It was most intriguing! Unfortunately, you need that specific kind of "yarn" to make that scarf and since they don't sell it around here Sandie's likely to be the only one to make a boa scarf. I passed out patterns for the table runner challenge and told people to feel free to change the pattern up some to make it work for you. As long as it looks like a rail fence pattern and has the same measurements it will be fine. The point is to take the same pattern and make our own versions of it to see the variety possible. I don't know if this is a good, workable challenge but I guess we'll find out if anyone actually makes it.

23 people attended on Tuesday. The big surprise of the day was Skip and Sharon (Sharon used to come to Nimblefingers), who are moving to Florida, bringing in a load of quilting supplies, including a quilt frame! Free stuff brings out the viciousness of the ladies: they pounce like a pack of vultures! I'm just glad no one got hurt! Next week we hope to divvy up some of the batting and I'll be looking for a home for the frame. I think I'm going to have to come up with a plan for when they bring in their fabric. I want to make sure everyone gets a chance at it plus I want to save some for our stash here. I'm thinking about it... The other highlight of the afternoon was Marguerite's quilt which she finished quilting this year. It is a variation of the Star Fling pattern. It is quite beautiful! I also brought in a table runner of a Kaffe Fassett pattern in Kaffe Fassett fabric. It's for a challenge in another group and the pattern came from the book: Skinny Quilts & Table Runners From Today's Top Designers. I suggested that we pick a simple pattern from this book and that we each make the pattern in our own fabrics, with our own embellishments. We're going to try it and see how it goes.

18 ladies attended today. Deb was back today. She has almost finished uncluttering, cleaning, painting, etc. her house. She says it looks great and feels great. I desperately need to do this to my house but who knows when it will get done. I was glad Deb was there though so I could show her, and the other ladies who weren't here last week, the pictures of my new puppy Rudi. Deb had lots of suggestions for dog training and I need all the help I can get! I brought in my black and white quilt. I needed some suggestions for the border. I got some so now I have no excuse not to go home and finish it. The East Greenbush quilt group is hiring a bus to the Somers quilt show on 5/5. Contact me for more information.

15 ladies attended this week. I came with my digital camera with pictures of my new puppy to show. He's a baby German Shepherd puppy named Rudi. I'll be bringing it again next week to show those who missed it this week. Gotta show my baby pictures! Sue Kidder stopped by. I had a table and chairs in my car for a senior who needed it. We transferred it to Sue's car so she can deliver them. But while she was here she brought in some yarn and talked to the ladies about all of the charities she takes knitted and crocheted items to. She sent me the pattern for "Warmth for warriors hats." Many of my ladies were interested in that and took the pattern so I expect to see some knitted hats being made. My ladies are always looking for a new pattern and even more looking for someone who appreciates receiving these knitted goods. Last week Kathy O. and Sandie were working on this complicated looking woven knit pattern and this week Kathy came in with a partially completed back of a vest. Sandie's on vacation so Kathy is going to email her a picture of her woven vest. It's very impressive. Not being a knitter I am in awe of the things they make. June B. was back. She's working on a watercolor quilt with a featherweight sewing machine applique in the center. June is another one who doesn't shy away from a difficult pattern. The size of the pieces she will be appliquing would scare me away but after hand-piecing a complete Dear Jane quilt, June thinks this one will be a piece of cake! More power to her I say.

14 ladies attended today. It is an absolutely beautiful day out today so I bet a lot of ladies stayed home to work in their yards. Kathy O. and Sandy have started a new knitting project. I don't know what it's called but it looks like woven knit. It looks very difficult but I know it will make into a gorgeous sweater. I was making a sleeve for a library patron who had a Hmong piece she wanted to hang. It's a beautiful piece. Jo-Ann is making another moebius scarf out of a very soft, blue yarn. Fran was appliquing stars. Pat OR was working on her blue table runner. Winnie was working on a very nice pansy needlepoint project. Marie is appliquing flowers. Tina was making yo-yo cats. Daryl was making a children's cross-stitch. Everyone was busy. I brought in my finished pineapple table runner to take pictures of for my records. If Deb had been here she could have taken it home but she wasn't so she didn't. Some other time Deb!

Today 21 ladies attended. Tomorrow is Marie's 89th birthday so Rosmary brought a cake and we all sang to her. She successfully blew out the Faith, Hope and Charity candles (Rosemary's dad didn't like to waste candles so they always had just the 3) and we all had cake. Pat, who was new last week, brought in the bag pattern that many of us admired. I made copies for those who wanted them. Ethel brought in a finished cross-stitch made for her new grandson. It was absolutely beautiful. Marie brought in some applique blocks she made a long time ago. She needs to make a few more blocks to finish a top so she was working on that. Kathy O. and Sandy are knitting socks. Jo-Anne brought in her little machine to make cards with a pattern pressed onto them. She sends St. Patrick's Day cards to all of her Irish friends. We had a surprise visit from Ingrid who used to come regularly. She has had a lot of health issues lately but is getting back on her feet now. It was nice to see her again. And we had a visit from my old friend Pam who is disappointed in her Civil War table runner. The pattern didn't work out to allow for the quarter inch seam so her points don't show. We told her not to worry about it. The colors are so beautiful that no one but her will notice the problem. Cathy M. brought in a little needlepoint picture that belonged to her godmother. Cathy liked it so much when she was young that the lady gave it to her. She brought it in to show us and to see what kind of stitch it was (apparently it's just an embroidery stitch). It was very pretty. Elaine came in a little late but brought in some of her roving which she is going to use to make a braided rug. It's an interesting project so we all want to see it progress. Lots of talk and laughter today. A good day for all.

18 ladies attended today including one new lady. She is a friend of Sandy who wanted to give us a try. I hope she returns. Today Tina came in with a quilt top she was working on during the week. It is a very cute, fun chicken wall hanging she found in a book. It will be very fun to have in our show next week. Last Thursday at the Village Quilters meeting we had a textile conservator talk to us about taking care of our old quilts so I brought in 4 of my old family quilts to show. I kept them in the closet so that I could show the Nimblefingers today which I did. One of them is a yo-yo coverlet which is really quite impressive. The others are quilts and are made either by my grandmother or by my aunt's brother-in-laws wife. They are all from the 1930's or 40's so aren't terribly old but I think they are very nice quilts nonetheless. Today we had lots of good food: Cathy M. brought brownies, Winnie brought a chocolate chip cake, Jo-Anne brought kisses, and Rosemary brought scones. Pat H. came in late but not empty handed: potato chips. We had lots of leftovers for the staff who love Tuesdays for this very reason.I'm still downloading pictures from our show.

19 ladies attended this week. That was three days ago so I'm trying to remember what happened there. We took down the quilt show, that's what happened! And I noticed that the room was particularly noisy once the walls were bare. The quilts apparently helped muffle the sound. Now the room is looking very bare. Oh well. It happens every year. Because it takes so long to put up the show I anticipate the taking down to take the whole two hours but it really comes down fast. I don't know if it even took an hour. So other than sorting out which quilt belonged to which person it was a usual day with people working on their various projects. I still haven't posted pictures of all the quilts in the show so I'm going to keep posting them until they have all made it into the blog.

18 ladies attended. I demonstrated making the simple pseudo-log cabin scrap block I used for the big quilt in the show. It is very simple--just takes a lot of cutting if you are indeed using scraps like I was. You can make the one block (numerous blocks) and lay it out in many different settings for a completely different look. I made 3 different quilts using the one block: one with the zigzag layout, one in straight furrows, and 1 just with the blocks sitting in the same direction side by side. They look very different but all are made with the same block. We had a newcomer today--one of our library regulars who came to our open house. She is a knitter who is into felting at the moment. In a stroll around the table I saw that Pat OR is working on a blue appliqued table runner (from a kit) which is very pretty. Fran is making a wool applique table runner; Cathy Y. is knitting something green; Agnes was sewing on the binding for a baby quilt for a grand niece or nephew; Tina was making a yo-yo cat; Kathy O. brought in an old quilt in bad shape she picked up free this summer. She wants to restore it, appliquing over the worn spots because the hand quilting is so beautiful the quilt shouldn't end up in the rubbish bin. Ethel was finishing up a bag to be raffled off by one of her groups. Marguerite was hand quilting her little mile-a-minute quilt. Newcomer Linda was knitting what she called luggage which is what it looks like now. It will eventually be shrunk, felted and be a very nice bag with a picture in intarsia (I had to ask what that was) of her dog on it. Jo-Anne was knitting a scarf; and Cathy M. was doing redwork. All keeping busy again. And to eat we had a giant kiss I made and a carrot cake Jo-Anne brought. It's hard to diet in this group.

Today we had 19 ladies. I decided to try something different today. I've been collecting little "prizes" for the last year so today we played bingo for prizes. Everyone got at least one prize; some people got several. It made for a very quiet meeting though! I'm not used to that--we are usually quite noisy! I made chocolate covered strawberries, Kathy O. made a delicious apple cake and some of the other ladies brought in candy and cookies. It was Valentine's day plus 2 of the ladies have had birthdays recently so it was a special day. Kathy O. brought in a flannel scrap baby quilt she made. Agnes had a cheater cloth baby quilt she had made. Diane C. brought in her finished and framed cross-stitch that she has been working on. It is absolutely beautiful! Makes me wonder if I should pull out my cross-stitch again. Since we played bingo we didn't have much time to spend on our projects. I think the knitters got in a few stitches but many of us stayed busy eating the goodies. These are more pictures from the open house. The quilt is the beautiful one the ladies made for me and of which I am very proud. The others are teachers Jo-Anne and Kathy O. hard at work.