Things were really hopping at Nimblefingers today! We had 18 ladies in attendence. Judy Schedlbauer, an outstanding local quilter, came and demonstrated the 4-patch posie for us. At least 4 people came with fabric and equipment to make their own quilt so we should be having some nice show and shares for the next few weeks. Right now the Flying Geese quilt store on Rt. 155 has a show of 4-patch posies so if you want to see some more examples head up there. Also today the Library was filming a TV commercial about the Library in which our own Betty Smith was one of the stars! We will all eagerly await the release of this commercial so that we can see dear Betty on TV. Daryl is trying to get a group of people to take a field trip to the Quilt Bug in Esperance on June 7th, Thursday, in the morning. If you're interested let us know. We are also hoping some of you will sign up for one of the bus trips to the Vermont Quilt Show at the end of June. It's one of the region's best shows and if you haven't been it's well worth a visit. And there's still time to vote on the Village Quilters Ugly fabric contest. Come see the many ways in which they chose to use this particular ugly fabric. Cathy Maikoff left me with submission applications for the Altamont "Quilts in the Park" show in September. If you want a copy let me know. Fear not you non-quilters out there--there were still several sets of knitting needles clicking away today. We aim to appeal to all tastes and all crafts. Always have, always will.

20 ladies attended today. We had lots of show and share. Daryl had been given 2 yo-yo quilts and an unfinished piece of cutwork. Plus she had made two baby quilt tops for charity. Jean Kallop, back from Florida, showed us her storybook baby quilt for her new grandson. Betty Smith always surprises us with her quilts. Today she had a Sudoku quilt. The fabrics were chosen for her by the guy from the Woodstock quilt store and what a great job he did! The fabrics went together beautifully! Hope Heath had a nice quilt top she had made with lots of bright colors. Marie was wearing another of her wonderful pieced vests. And Julie showed off her San Francisco purchases. Linda O'Connor brought her sewing machine so that she could give extra help on the bags she showed us last week. Next week Judy Schedlbauer will be coming to demonstrate the 4-patch posie pattern. It's fun and easy so come prepared to cut, pin, and play! But don't think we've forgotten about our knitters/non-quilters--there are always a few of them scattered around the tables and we love to see what they're up to as well. With many of our ladies what they work on depends on what they grab as they're leaving the house--fabric or yarn! We are a multi-talented group who love to socialize!

19 ladies attended today. Linda O'Connor was on hand to teach us how to make a purse out of pre-quilted fabric. Several ladies came ready to sew-fold- & sew some more on their bags. Next week we should have a nice little show and share. Also, Linda will return if people run into problems and need more help. Marie brought in a variation of a grandmother's flower garden quilt which she is hand piecing using the English paper piecing method. This is very time-consuming but allows for great precision. Daryl and Pat have been making small baby quilts for a charity from Massachusetts. Several knitters/crocheters were present. As always, a good time was had by all.

20 ladies attended today and we had lots of show and share. Pat brought in a prayer quilt to tie, Betsey brought in an almost finished quilt top she was making for her husband (Irish chain), Kathy O. brought in a blue and white quilt (atypical for her--the Thimbleberries lady), Betty brought in her 4 patch posie quilt top, and Linda brought in a quilted bag which she will demonstrate next week. So if you want to make one, bring in a bound 22" pre-quilted square. She will show us how to sew and fold it to make a nice medium-sized bag. There was much discussion about the Delmar Q.U.I.L.T. show last weekend. We were all very impressed. Fran brought in pictures of her husband building houses in Mexico, Julie told about her 2-days in San Francisco, and everyone enjoyed eating the delicious apple cake Daryl brought to share. Cathy Y. brought in garlic from her garden to give away. Marguerite reported on Hattie who has ongoing health problems. We all wish her well. Cathy M. says next week she's bring Katherine Denegar for a visit. We all enjoy seeing her so that's something to look forward to. Slowly our snowbirds are returning home. Linda this month, Jean next month and someday I assume Margot will return. Welcome home and welcome back to Nimblefingers!

14 ladies attended today. Marguerite brought in her finished completely hand-pieced, hand-quilted apple core quilt. We were all excited about the curved binding which really added to the quilt. Fran made a wall hanging from some geisha girl panels she had picked up. It was beautiful! Betty told us about the 4 patch posie quilt her granddaughter is making so we discussed that for awhile. Many of us would like to learn the technique. Pat brought in a top for a prayer quilt and Cathy's M. and Y. helped make a quilt sandwich of it. And Kathy O. diligently worked on our raffle quilt with some help from Agnes and I. It's getting there but hand quilting is slow. This weekend is the Delmar Q.U.I.L.T. show in Ravena. Several ladies are car-pooling to that on Saturday. Deb J. is off to Myrtle Beach on Thursday and I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow. We both have plans to check out the quilt shops while we're away. Kathy O. had made a trip to Alfred's and discovered the Alexander Henry fabrics. It's from 1997 but it's gorgeous! Fran had already told me about it and I had hit it the week before. It's well worth making the trip for beautiful fabric for $6 a yard.

Today was a joint day with the Junior Nimblefingers. We had 17 ladies and 11 young ladies. What a day! The kids designed small personal quilts then we sewed down the pieces. We had 5 sewing machines going with other adults helping with the designing and the embellishing. Several of the ladies brought their granddaughters. I think we all had a good time--the noise level was high! All of the quilts made were fantastic! Some very creative kids in the bunch. And now for the regular Nimblefingers news. Darryl brought in a card she received addressed to her and Pat Hammond thanking them for making pillowcases for a sick child. Darryl is very interested in doing more community work of that sort so we will discuss that next week. Darryl also brought in some fabric that will work as sashing for another prayer quilt so now we have 2 quilts ready to put together. Kathy Olsen and friends continued the quilting bee on the raffle quilt. She says they do more talking than quilting but that's just fine. That's one of the goals of the group is to bring people together. Lots of good food today and lots of fun.

17 ladies attended today. We had some great show-and-tell: Edith Goldstein brought in her finished and framed needlepoint and Ann Bave brought in her 2-fabric circle quilt top. (Click on the pictures for a close-up) Both are exquisite! Kathy Olsen, who is determined to get our raffle quilt quilted, set up a table and got our little quilting bee going again. Winnie, Agnes and Julie helped out. We have 2 more prayer quilts in the works--still working on getting backing and sash fabrics. Joyce, who was on the reference desk, did a little research for us to find out what happened to Alex Anderson's Simply Quilts TV show. She reported to us that it is no longer on the HGTV channel (although you can watch some presentations on streaming video on www.hgtv.com). Alex is now on MWF on the DIY channel at 2:30 p.m. (you can find her on www.diynetwork.com if you look under TV, then Simply Quilts--this has the same instructions, etc. that used to be on the HGTV site) and she is also on a pay web site, www.thequiltshow.com with Ricky Tims. I have added these websites to the links column of the blog, so just click on the link for easy access. We are all sorry to lose our morning quilting fix with Alex. But enough Alex talk... Pat Hammond brought in a delicious fruit salad which disappeared quickly. Next week we'll be working with the Junior Nimblefingers again--it's spring break. They will be making small, personal diary quilt tops so we need to bring in our sewing machine and novelty fabric scraps.