Yesterday we were a small group--only 6 of us. We had a nice little chat though and Elaine made great progress on her Christmas placemats cutting out the backing and batting. I brought in some placemats I had made from scraps from my more recent projects. JoAnne brought in some giveaways given to her by a friend. They are in the closet until we have more people to offer it to.
Last week was our Christmas lunch. We had a small group for it too. There were only 10 of us. Joyce came in later and demonstrated how to make a couple of Christmas ornaments. We have way too many members who are at home recuperating right now, but our little group does seem to be shrinking. Hopefully at our open house in February we can recruit some new members. At our holiday lunch we exchanged gifts. I got a very nice tea package from Fran. She made a sweet little teacup wall hanging which will go on my kitchen wall. I went home that night and had a nice cup of tea. Jo Anne and Rosalind got each others' gifts. A beautiful basket for Jo Anne and some hand made cards for Rosalind who told us yesterday she had already started using. That's one way to pass on some beauty and good wishes. Joyce played Santa Claus for us by dealing out the presents. She was late so didn't know who brought what. It was very nice. Ethel was also back with tales of her Hawaiian cruise which turned out to be a free cruise! She did have a tale to tell.
Next week we will still be in the holiday period so we may have low turnout again. But I know Diane will finally have a day off work and is already looking forward to coming to Nimblefingers again. It will be nice to see her again. The time is coming to start making firm plans for our open house so get ready ladies... Put on your thinking caps and come up with suggestions to make this a fantastic open house.

10 ladies attended today. I brought in 3 quilts to sew on binding. Fran was working on a wool candle mat. Jo-Anne was back with her turquoise scarf. Kathy O. was there with no walker, crutches, boot or any other annoying thing on her leg. She is recovering nicely. She was knitting socks. Elaine is making Christmas placemats for her mother. Rosalind is cro-hooking an afghan. Her friend Beverly came today too. She is also a knitter. Agnes had made another of her table runners, this one for Christmas. She's made 3 now. I still haven't made 1. I need to get busy!
Next Tuesday is our Christmas party. We will have a potluck that will begin at 12:30. You can bring a gift (preferably homemade)/take a gift if you choose to participate.
Today I brought in get well cards for Cathy Y. and Tina. Winnie is improving and hopes to be back next week.
Joyce stopped by with lots of lace and Christmas fabric given to her by a neighbor. Most of it went quickly but I still have a bagful in the closet. We'll try again later and if no one wants what's left, I'll take it to the Delmar guild.
I am trying to create listserve, a group email. I sent one out tonight so let me know if you get it. I've never done this before so I don't know if it will work.
Take care and we'll see you next Tuesday!

I know Tina is at home recuperating and probably getting irritated because I haven't been writing in the Nimblefingers blog. Sorry Tina. Yesterday Kathy O. came in and let us know how Tina was doing. She came in without her walker--she says she's just getting tired of hauling that thing around. Cathy Y. also stopped in for a short time to say hello, pass on a good book she had read and just to let us know that she is still around and thinking of us. She is going to be having surgery in early Dec. Hopefully she'll be back on her feet soon and be able to join us again. Cathy M. is at home and on oxygen . She doesn't like to use the portable oxygen so we may not see her for awhile. I think that's it for our various health worries. Winnie wasn't there yesterday and I'm not sure where she was so I hope she wasn't sick too. My husband has been sick since last Thursday and my back has been hurting for a week now so I'm plenty tired of not feeling well. We all need to recuperate I guess. We've been having such a beautiful fall that at least the weather is cooperating in keeping our moods up.
I brought in 2 quilts I started in workshops last week with the Delmar quilt guild with teacher Lola Jenkins. She is a ghetto black woman whose quilts tell her story. And it was an interesting story--totally different from mine. She really gave us a peek into the black experience in the U.S. Her culture was very different from mine. I personally love learning about other cultures, other experiences so I thought it was great hearing all about it. She was well received  and left feeling welcomed by the group. I enjoyed it and Fran agreed. One of the classes was on thread painting. We did "paint" with thread but also used colored pencils to color our piece. I have never done anything like this before so felt totally like a fish out of water but I persisted and my piece isn't terrible. It was fun making it. I still have a lot of threadwork to do so it's not quite done. The other class was on fabric collage. It was fun too. I completely lost track of time working on this piece. Here you use your scissors as you would a paintbrush combining some different elements to create a landscape.
Ethel brought in an almost finished quilt top that she is making for a granddaughter. She wants to make doll quilts from the scraps of her quilts. She still needs to add a border to this quilt. She has yet another granddaughter for whom she has started a quilt. She showed me pieces of it. She had also finished cross-stitching a couple of holiday pieces. She does very nice work.
Jo-Anne brought in a crocheted afghan that she wanted to start. No, she hasn't finished her pretty blue scarf, she just got tired of working on it.
Sue Reilly is encouraging us to make adult bibs (she prefers calling them shirt protectors). Several people brought in some finished so she almost has the 20 she wants to collect. They will be given to Linda H. to give to the people who come to her senior lunches.
Marguerite brought in a simple little Halloween ghost she had made. We decided that if you just changed the color of the ribbons that it could be a snowman and be used as a Christmas ornament too.
So, to those of you who read the blog: take care.

We had 15 ladies attend on Tuesday. It was a counting day. We counted the raffle tickets we sold over the weekend ($76 worth). We counted money and how much each person who participated in our quilt sale made ($892 total).We gave the Friends of the Library 10% of what we earned ($90).  I think the sale went pretty well. We had very nice weather and the Friends of the Library were very helpful. Only 6 of us had items for sale but we really filled our little space. Unfortunately there was no way to hang quilts so that people could see the whole thing and we didn't have enough table space to really spread out. Nevertheless, we did okay. I sold the most. I new my ex-boss wanted one of my quilts. She bought it which gave me a big financial boost. Diane and Jo Anne went to the Bennington quilt festival on Saturday. They both came by on Sunday to tell us about the show and Jo Anne brought in her purchases on Tuesday to show us. She bought a really cute 12 days of Christmas cat style panel.

13 ladies attended today. Several people were back from their summer vacations. Returning were Agnes, Sandie, Carol and Tina. Agnes had news of Kathy O.--she's in a cast now having broken her foot/ankle. Poor Kathy! Marguerite brought in her finished strip quilt top. I had a quilted strip quilt for her to take so we could compare them. Marguerite made hers with smaller squares and narrower strips. She liked mine better, I liked hers better. The grass is always greener...  Tina had made her challenge table runner while away for the summer. Several people have made theirs by now. I am not one of those people though. I still haven't started mine. Sandie and Rosalind were doing cross-stitch today. Marguerite was still working on her prayer shawls. Fran was making hexagons. Sue brought in some odd yarn and tried knitting it but was having trouble and quit. Jean is still working on dish towels. We talked about our sale this weekend. This is the first time we've done this so I hope it works out. We will be at the library Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Other announcements: we are having a Nimblefingers retreat day on Saturday, Sept. 26. 10-5 and the Quiltbug on Route 146 will give our group 10% of all purchases made by members if you just mention upon purchasing that you belong to Nimblefingers.

12 ladies attended today--the most all summer! Cathy M. came in. We were all very happy to see her again. She has been out all summer. Jo-Anne assured her that she was still working on the same scarf so Cathy hadn't missed anything.  Pam came in with a t-shirt quilt to lay out and pin. Her friend had been in a lot of plays so the t-shirts were from those plays. She will be very happy with her quilt I think. Joyce also came in for awhile. I haven't seen her for awhile so I updated her on my eye troubles.   Betty brought in some sinfully rich Paula Deen cookies. Needless to say, they were yummy. She also brought in her newspaper comic boxes to show. They were cute little gift boxes but looked a bit complicated to make. Fran was knitting a scarf from some particularly beautiful ribbon-type yarn. I was cutting circles our of paper for the demonstration I will be giving at the Village Quilter meeting on Thursday. Rosalund was working on her cross-stitch while Jean was making dishtowels. Shirley S. also stopped by to ask about our sale at the library booksale. She has some things she wants to bring in for that. It was a nice day, particularly nice to see Cathy up and about again.

11 ladies attended today. Marguerite returned from visiting her brother in Canada. She said it was 90 degrees up there! Not what you expect in Canada. Fran and I came with no work to do so we looked at magazines and helped Diane price her items for the sale on the weekend of 9/18. Jo-Anne was knitting her pretty blue scarf; Ethel was making little hats for toddlers; Marguerite was cross-stitching; Diane making yo-yo's. As usual I don't know what the people at the end of the table were working on. Betty has been spending a lot of time with her family which tired her out. She was happy to get back to her quiet life. Towards the end of the afternoon Elaine and Caiden joined us. Elaine came regularly when she was pregnant with Caiden (13 years ago). She teaches at Skidmore so we only see her during school breaks. She always has tales to tell so it's nice to keep up with her. Today she told us about Caiden switching schools next year from BKW schools to the Tech Valley school. It sounds very interesting. It sounds like a good school for someone who may very well go on to studying science and/or technology.  It's been a quiet summer and it's just about over. I will be eager to see the return of our campers from the north.

I didn't write last week--I was too worried about my upcoming cataract surgery. My worrying must have destined me to have problems because I surely did. The surgery went fine, but because I have dry eyes and all the drops they use made them drier, sometime after the surgery I blinked and ripped the skin right off my cornea. I spent 24 hours in pain with both eyes closed so completely blind. My husband was very good to lead me around the house and provide me with food and drink. But it was miserable. Friday morning I went in for my post-op appointment. She numbed my eyeball, cleaned it up and put in a contact lens bandage. Monday she took off the contact lens. I'll go in again next Monday (at 7:30 a.m.--I'm not a morning person). So I'm still waiting to see some improvement in my  vision. Right now my left eye sees blurry and my depth perception is a little off. What a pain! Anyway, that's my story.
Ethel came in with her finished (except for the binding which she was sewing down) quilt for her granddaughter Vivian Powers. I will put in the picture later. She also had pictures of Vivian's 3rd birthday party--a fairy party. We met Vivian briefly one day. She is a very cute little princess of a girl.
Jean brought in some fish (picture later) made of plastic bottles covered with fabric and modge-podge. They are quite extraordinary.
Fran came in with pictures from the Altamont fair. She won a blue and a red ribbon on her quilts. She was also in charge of several other areas of the fair. Being an associate of the fairground she has a lot of duties.
Jo-Anne missed last week having taken a bus trip to Cooperstown to eat lunch at a hotel on Glimmerglass lake. Apparently the lunch is fantastic (it made us all hungry just hearing about it) but the bus ride was discouraging. One of the belts came off of the bus engine and they were afraid they were going to have to sit by the side of the road waiting for a new bus but someone on the bus helped the driver put the belt back on so that they could continue their trip. Thank goodness!
Last week I brought in our finished raffle quilt. Lesa, the library artist, made a poster with our quilt as the background advertising our Nimblefingers sale on Sept. 18, 19, and 20. This is the first time we've tried selling our items so I am curious to see how it goes. If it's successful, maybe we could have a sale table at our open house in February.
We have been having small groups this summer, only about 9 ladies attend. Recently it's been very hot and I don't know if that's what's keeping people away. Cathy M. has been sick; she's on oxygen and doesn't like to carry around the portable machine. We miss Tina and Kathy O., our campers. But because we had a small group this time it meant more of Agnes' delicious brownies for the rest of us!

We had a small group of ladies this Tuesday. It was extremely hot out but thank goodness the library is air conditioned. I brought absolutely nothing to work on this week. Pat OR is nearly finished with her wool table runner. Fran brought in some place mats to work on the bindings. JoAnne's still plugging away on the turquoise scarf. Rosalund is making a scarf from a very pretty variegated yarn. Pat OR brought in a couple of projects she either wasn't going to start or wasn't going to finish. Winnie took both of them--one a cross-stitch kit and one an unfinished pin cushion. Marguerite is still working on prayer shawls with her magenta yarn. Sue R. brought in some of the toddler hats she's been making. They were adorable. We all oohed and aahed over them.

 Aha! it finally worked! These pictures were taken a few weeks ago by Debbie the Librarian. I was out sick at the time and Lila Smith from the Delmar Q.U.I.L.T. group stopped by. She brought the portrait quilt (of her husband) she had made in the Esterita Austin workshop and also some simple bags she had made. She showed everyone how to make the bags but no one has shown me yet. Debbie took some more pictures so I'll try to get them into this blog post as well.

10 ladies attended today. It was very hot and humid outdoors so we wondered if everyone was too hot to come to the library. Whatever...it's their loss. Agnes told me she got a call from Kathy O. who had bought a new Bernina, an embroidery machine, and was ultra excited. She's embroidered all of her t-shirts and now has started on Al's (though she promised him she wouldn't put any flowers on his t-shirts). When Kathy returns in the fall I'm sure she'll have a whole lot of show and tell. That will be something to look forward to for sure. Winnie was working on the mini-tin pin cushions. Sue and Betty were crocheting and cro-hooking away. Jo Anne was knitting away on her turquoise scarf and Marguerite was knitting her magenta scarf. I brought in a quilt to sandwich so several of the ladies helped me with that. I also brought in a wall hanging I had made from a kit I bought at the Somers quilt show. It is somewhat arty, though very simple.  Ethel came in towards the end of the meeting with her granddaughter Vivianne and Vivianne's finished quilt top. It's purple and pink with embroidered cats, dogs, hearts and flowers. It looks very little girlish and Vivianne seems very proud of it.

We had a small group yesterday--only 9 of us. We were surprised though when Sally Olly from Canada walked in! She visits her brother/hometown every summer and likes to check in on us. Last year Jo Anne and I took her on a mini-shop hop but I'm afraid I'm too busy this week. It is nice to see her again though and very flattering that she  likes us enough to visit every year. Cathy C. also stopped by. She's still emptying out her Voorheesville house so brought in some magazines to give away. She has bought a house in Cape Cod now. She'll be wintering in Florida and summering in Cape Cod. Pretty nice! I just hope she'll stop by and visit her old friends when going between the two homes.  She seems very happy about her decisions but tired from all the packing, cleaning out, etc. I can imagine. When you haven't moved for a long time it's a real job to get rid of all your stuff. I dread when that time comes for me. Sally was putting the binding on a quilt she made for her neighbor who is a WWII veteran. It was a Canadian/American friendship/patriotism quilt with fireworks border and back. It was very nice. He'll be very pleased I'm sure. Fran was putting the binding on a large flowery quilt. It was cheerful and spring-like. Pat OR was working on a wool applique table runner. Elaine brought in her finished birdy table runner. It will be a Christmas present for a friend. Jo Anne keeps plugging away on her knitted turquoise scarf. It will be beautiful when it is finished. Marguerite was binding a quilt for the hospital made from donated squares. Debbie the librarian came in and cut some fabric in preparation for the teen sewing program on Thursday. We'll be making a simple bag. I'm helping out but anyone who wants to help can.

There were about 12 of us at Nimblefingers yesterday. Sue brought in our raffle quilt having fixed my 2 quilting goofs and put on the binding. So now it just needs a label then will be ready to turn over to the Friends of the Library to raffle. I think it's a very nice scrap quilt and it's been a long time coming. Pat OR laid out her sewn together top and back, laid on the batting, then we tried Eleanor Burns' method of rolling the corners till you reach the unsewn edge, then turning the whole thing inside out. It worked! I don't know why we doubted Eleanor Burns, she knows what she's doing. Pat is going to tie the quilt. I assume it will be done and in our show in February. It is a very pretty batik quilt. JoAnne brought in copies of the pictures of Winnie representing Nimblefingers on the library float in the Memorial day parade. They won the award for best float and it surely must be due to Winnie. Betsy came in yesterday. We haven't seen her for awhile. She is always busy going here and there so it's nice when she takes some time off to visit her old friends. Joyce also came in and showed us the bag she made in a class at Amelia's Garden. It was very difficult to make--she said it took about 20 hrs. but it was spectacular. I loved the fabric she used also, with butterflies on it. I brought in the Quilts without borders quilt I was just finishing so told the group about that. I picked up a free kit at the Houston International Quilt Festival the last time I went. It took me a year or so, but I finally made it up and sent it off to Quilts Without Borders. After they received it they asked if I would be willing to quilt some quilts for them. They have lots of tops and not enough people to quilt them. So I said ok. They sent me 4 tops, backs, bindings, and labels. I finally finished the last one today--hurrah! I feel like I've been making charity quilts forever. Now I can finally get back to my own projects. I also took some time before the meeting to book the community room for some retreats this winter so we will have some fun sewing days to look forward to and can finish some more projects.

I finally made it back to the group. I'm still not 100% but better anyway. Today we had 9 ladies and 2 grandchildren. Ethel brought her grandson Hunter and Rosalind her granddaughter Lucy. Lucy and Elaine became great playmates during the meeting.  I brought in the raffle quilt and Sue took it home to put on the binding and to see if she could fix the 2 tucks on the backing that are most obvious. It's a beautiful scrap quilt...I just wished my quilting was better. Pat OR brought in a quilt top and back to pin. It was a very pretty batik quilt. Rosalind helped Sue to knit a strong cord for a bag. Agnes was binding one of her pretty watercolor wall hangings. I also wore my new jacket made in a class at Amelia's Garden. It's made from Kaffe Fassett fabric so is very bright. Marguerite finished binding another quilt for the hospital. Ethel is doing some hand embroidery on a quilt she is making for one of her granddaughters. Rosalind was embroidering something as well. We were a small group on this rainy day but I was glad to be back with everyone.

I missed Nimblefingers again. Two weeks in a row. This cold, or whatever it is, is really terrible. It's been almost 2 full weeks now and I still feel awful. And I hear there was a good show and tell on Tuesday. Debbie, one of the librarians, said she took some pictures. I'm sorry I missed it. On Monday I was determined to get back to work (on sewing of course). When I don't feel well all I really want to do is play with little pieces of fabric. When I last sewed I had been machine quilting and I knew I didn't have the energy for that. And my sewing room is a mess right now with no clear space for fabric cutting. I knew I also didn't have the energy for cleaning either. So I grabbed my box of 1 1/2" squares and played with them. I am still infatuated with the plus sign scrap quilt I made so I arranged my little squares into plus signs. I had enough for 1 placemat. Then I got out my 3 1/2" squares and made a bunch of plus sign placemats with them. When I no longer had enough of the same fabric squares to make a plus sign I started making 4-patches. I put 6 4-patches together to make more placemats. So I made 11 placemats all together. It used up a lot of my squares, some big pieces of ugly scrap fabric for the backs, and a lot of my old scrap batting. I like to make an accounting of how much of my stash gets used up in projects. I always seem to bring in more than I use up but there is still satisfaction in using up some of my stash. Tomorrow I am supposed to go to Amelia's Garden to get some help finishing my jacket since I missed class last week. I hope I'm feeling well and I really hope I'm not contagious. Then on Saturday I'm meeting Julie Ann Fortran and Linda Crannell for breakfast. Linda is in town for the Old Songs festival. I know some of you remember Betty Smith. She was one of the treasured quilters in my life. Linda is her grand-daughter. Julie Ann, Linda and I all went to the Houston International quilt festival together (the 1st time I went). We had a great time so it's nice to get together again. Since Linda moved away we don't get to see her often. I'm glad she contacts us when she does come for a visit. Again, I hope I'm not contagious. I'm hoping for better health so I can get back to my nimble friends. It's been way too long.

I didn't go to Nimblefingers today so I don't know what went on. I'm home, sick in bed. I guess it's just a really bad cold but whatever it is, I feel dreadful. I was prepared to go though. I quilted the raffle quilt on Saturday. It only has a few little tucks so I was going to let the ladies look at it and see if they think it's okay to raffle. If so, I got the binding ready and was going to recruit someone to take it home and sew on the binding. It's getting close to being finished anyway. Then I'll look at our other quilt to raffle. It needs a border. I bought a couple on the shop hop I wanted to look at as possible borders. If I think they would work I'll take them to the group to get their opinion. I also bought some possible backings we can look at. This quilt I think should be partly machine quilted but it has big areas that I think we should hand quilt. Maybe we can get it ready for next year.
Hopefully I'll be better next Tuesday and can make it to the meeting.

June 9, 2015

Hurrah! My blog is working! So that means I have to start writing in it again regularly. More work for me! Today is Tuesday and I'm back from Nimblefingers.  I counted the ladies twice and forgot twice how many attended. It was a good crowd anyway. Tina is getting ready to leave for the North country but Diane C. is back from the South.  Somehow it kind of evens out. Today I brought in our raffle quilt which we started about 4 years ago. It was lost in my sewing room for a couple of years but I pulled it out this year determined to get it finished. I didn't think it was big enough so we added more blocks. Then we sandwiched it and I took it home to machine quilt. I have been practicing machine quilting but haven't worked on a quilt as big as this one. Everyone thought it should be quilted on the diagonal and I have only practiced vertical and horizontal grids. I started quilting and was feeling very cocky when I turned it over and looked at the back. It had many, many, some very large tucks! So I started ripping out the quilting. I ripped and ripped then thought I'd iron it and see if I could straighten it out. But it was too big to put on the ironing board to straighten so I took it to the meeting today. No one thought I should rip out all of the quilting which is what I thought I should do. They thought I should quilt the diagonals in one direction only--not in a grid. This meant doing minimal un-sewing. Then we used some spray and bond to hold the sandwich together and straightened it out again. It's home now waiting for me to try again on the machine quilting. I, of course, think the quilt needs to be close to perfect but everyone says not to be so critical. If it looks too bad we can just raffle it among ourselves. What a nightmare! I will be so glad to finish it and get it out of my house!
Ethel came in with fabric and stories about her shop hopping. Jo Anne with fabric and stories about our shop hopping. I didn't bring in my fabric since I'm only focused on the raffle quilt. Maybe next week I'll bring in mine. Trudy brought in some hot pads someone gave her. They were crocheted and very nice. She had been shown how to make them but couldn't remember how. No one else could figure it out either so Trudy's going to work on it on her own. Betty brought in the pin cushion we had made in the Village Quilter meeting. It is cute and very easy to make. Some of us might make some more. Fran brought in a finished cat quilt. It was all black and white with the cats' tails quilted in (by Linda Denner of course). It was really cute. Tomorrow is Jo Anne's birthday so Tina brought in a card for all of us to sign and some cupcakes to help celebrate. Happy birthday Jo Anne!
So, welcome back to my blog. I'll try to keep it going this time!