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!

Today 16 ladies attended, two of which were new to the group. As we were leaving last week 2 ladies from the scrapbooking group (which meets after us) expressed interest in Nimblefingers so we encouraged them to come. They did and seemed very happy with the group. Jo-Anne is still cleaning out her craft room and brought in 3 bins of books, card making supplies and miscellaneous sewing items. Needless to say, we are very happy to help her with her project. We left what was left for the scrapbookers to look at and put away. Jean showed us her Christmas tree wall hanging which was absolutely beautiful! It's just a little tree, all decorated with tiny ornaments, a small red border and gold binding. It was very well done. Just beautiful! I brought in a couple more placemats I've made trying to use up my purple and yellow scraps from my Village quilters challenge. One of the new members, Carole, showed us an entire alphabet of cross-stitch teddy bear letters. They are very cute and will make a nice little quilt. Pat L. brought in the basket she restored. It originally came full of Linda O'Connor fabric and was quite crumbly. But Pat fixed it up like new. I claimed the basket first thing so when Pat said she wanted to take it home and fix it I thought that was great. I plan to give her a quilt. A fair trade for our separate labors. Tomorrow Jo-Anne and I are going to visit Marie at the nursing home. She is apparently not doing very well and is extremely unhappy about being sent to a nursing home. I hope we can cheer her up a little. We'll let you know.

Yesterday 13 ladies attended. It was a very quiet group. We were all recovering from the long weekend I guess. The highlight of the meeting was from Pat L. and Linda who made a trip to Corning last week and made 3 different glass pieces each. They made a pendant, an ornament and a sculpture. The ornament and sculpture were both blown glass, the pendant pressed.  Pat's pieces were blue (her favorite color), Linda's were more autumn-y earthy colors, purple, yellow and green. All of the pieces were beautiful. They love making these things and are already planning another trip in September. The other ladies were all busy too. Marguerite was knitting a prayer shawl out of a pretty red/pink color; Jean K. was appliquing flower blocks; Pat OR was doing wool applique; Fran was putting a binding on a batik table runner; I actually appliqued a couple of pieces on my columbine piece; Joyce was making cross-stitch snowflakes; and Cathy M. walked around and admired everyone's work. I said there were 13 ladies but I can only think of these 9 so maybe the 13 is wrong. I know it was particularly quiet. Marguerite also brought in some cherry tomato plants to give away. They went fast!

15 ladies attended yesterday. I came late. My car had a dead battery but AAA was quickly on the job! Also, I had jury duty this week but fortunately for me, it only lasted one day. They called my number but the lawyers didn't want me on the jury so I was dismissed. Good for another 6 years!  Maria, Marie's daughter from California, came in to give us some more of Marie's books of patterns and to give us an update on Marie's condition. Apparently Marie is not doing too well. I guess they were quite worried last week. But now she is in the Baptist health center in Scotia. She will stay there for a couple of weeks. Then they will decide whether she can go in assisted living or to a nursing home. She wanted to go back to her little apartment but I guess that's not an option. She misses us so I'm sure she would love to get cards or phone calls. Back to Nimblefingers... I brought in my projects from my two workshops with Diane S. Hire at the Delmar QUILT group. They were fun workshops so I hope my projects end up reflecting that. Linda H. was putting the binding on a Christmas tree wall hanging that we were all very impressed with. After the binding she will decorate the tree with various buttons and beads. Linda has been very productive this year. She might just show us all up with all of her works in the February show. Newcomer Rosalind has been cro-hooking with the help of Tina and has a really good start on a pretty green and cream colored afghan. Jo-Anne bought a sashiko kit at the Somers quilt show but the thread was so tangled that she needed some help from Cathy Y. to make a ball of it.  Linda H. and Pat L. are going back to Corning to make some more glass pieces--2 techniques this time. In a week or two we should be able to see their new pieces.  Jackie S. came in with a friend, Barbara, who has made her first quilt with help from a friend and needed some more help on making a binding for it. She said she will come back next week and I'll help her with her binding. Elaine S. has made a few table runners in the same pattern. Jean K. told her she seems to be in a rut and needs to try a new pattern. So Jean, Winnie and Agnes talked her into trying the exploding pineapple pattern. I brought in the book today to give copies of the pattern to Betty K. so also gave a copy to Elaine. Tina told us that Kathy O. has gone north for the summer. Tina will follow in a couple more weeks.  Betty K. has been baking again and brought in some of her delicious biscotti. She's bringing the recipe in for Fran next week and I might just have to make a copy even though I really don't bake anymore. They are sooo good!

We had a nice, chatty group of women today. 17 of us attended. I was gone last week so was pleasantly surprised to see that Betty K. had returned from her winter home in South Carolina. She had everyone at her end of the table making t-shirt necklaces. They were very simple to make and looked pretty darn nice. I can see that Agnes will be making a lot for the  church bazaar and that Betty and Sue will make a lot for the Apple Festival. Last week I attended a workshop with quilt artist Rayna Gilman at the Hudson Valley Studio Art workshop in Greenville. It was great fun! Rayna's technique is very improvisational. There are no rules, no right way or wrong way, no mistakes. You just cut, sew, cut again, look at it this direction and that direction, re-arrange the pieces and look again. Then when you like what you have you sew it all together. It was a ball! We had 12 women there from as far away as Alaska. Barbara M. and I were the only local people attending. Rayna really opened your eyes to all the possibilities of improvisation so I imagine I'll be bringing in some more of my artworks. I brought in the top I created at the workshop. I know that art quilts are not to everyone's taste but it's what I want to do so I'm going to try some more unusual things for the time being. I also brought in my retirement quilt: a scrap rainbow star hexagon. After I retired I went home and started making it. I think of rainbows as being good luck so this quilt is my wish to myself for good luck in my retirement. Tina, Jo-Anne, Cathy M., Joyce and I all attended the Empire quilt show in Shenendahowa on Sunday. We all bought a little something and Tina came in with a top for a baby quilt completed except for an outside border. She had bought some cute fabric with animals on it and has a friend who is having a baby so she went home and got busy. Our new member, Rosalind, brought in a newly made cro-hook so that Tina could teach her to make a cro-hook afghan. Cro-hooked afghans are double sided and very warm. Joyce is trying to catch up on all of our old projects so she made some tape measure bags. They're fun and easy and the tape measure closure makes it fun to open and close. Fran brought in some redwork magazines for Joyce to look at since Joyce finished her red quilt with 4 redwork blocks included. Our group is really great for sharing and for teaching each other new techniques. Agnes and Rosalind both brought in cakes today so we all went home happy and well fed.

I have been very delinquent about writing in this blog. The whole month of February has gone by without a post and February is our big month: it is the month of our annual quilt and craft show. As usual, we had a great show. The community room looked bright and cheery and full of color during this bleak, snowy month. We had our open house a few weeks ago. About 50 people attended which is about what we usually get. Kathy O. demonstrated the simple pineapple block and JoAnne C. demonstrated the Accuquilt Go. We had another bed turning show with quite a few quilts, some old and some new. I think it was a very successful day and we have gained a couple of new members as a result. I will try to start putting the pictures in soon. Today we took the show down. It always comes down quicker than it goes up! We tallied the votes on our challenge table runner and Sue Reilly won with her beautiful Christmas table runner. Congratulations Sue! We had at least 100 votes turned in so I think the public enjoyed the opportunity to participate in our show. Now we need to start thinking about next year's challenge so keep your eyes open for good patterns!