We had 21 ladies attend today. It was a very busy day. Lots of show and tell, lots of work needing to be done and lots of fabric and magazines to give away. We haven't even taken this show down but already I can tell next years show will be spectacular! We gained one new member this week. She came to the reception last week and decided to give us a try. I hope she'll choose to keep coming. Our show and tell was from new member Sandy (Laurel Burch fabrics), Joyce (the children's librarian--stencilled), Fran (leaves) and Cathy M. (black and white Flying Geese block of the month last year). Tina brought in her maple leaf quilt to sandwich but then decided she would rather have it machine quilted. So Elaine brought out her musical blocks to lay out. Her plan is to sew the rows together this week. It will be really special when it's finished. I told her that all of her musician friends will start giving her orders! Toward the end of the meeting Sue Ann came in with upholstery samples to give us hoping we will make various items. She plans to return to see our work in a couple of weeks. Pat H. also brought in fabrics to give away. Many of us are going home with much more than we came with. Marie came in with some good news--she's found an apartment! They don't have an opening right now but she filled out the papers so that they'll call her when they do. It's near Pat O.'s place so that when they have trips for the residents, Pat and Marie can go together! I think it's a real load off Marie's mind to have found a place that she really likes. I still haven't finished putting pictures from the quilt show on the blog but I won't add any today since we had show and share.

More pictures from the show:

Last week I was worried that we wouldn't be able to set up our quilt show--it snowed. Suddenly it was very hard to get around. 9 of us made it though and with help from Homer, one of the library maintenance men, we got most of the show hung. The rest had to wait until people could get out and deliver their quilts to me. Nevertheless, we have a pretty good show again this year. Usually Fran and Cathy M. have big quilts to show but this year they didn't. Fran had lots of smaller quilts and Cathy didn't have anything. Marguerite and I were the ones with big quilts this year. Marguerite's hand-pieced, hand-quilted quilt was the show stopper. She is a magnificent hand quilter so her quilts are always impressive. I took pictures of everything so get ready to be be-dazzled! Here are the display cases:
On the Tuesday of our reception the weather was a little better--no snow at least, but the wind was terrible! I don't know what the wind chill was but it was cold! Plus, the parking lot has shrunk a lot because of the piles of snow. I hope people didn't come in because they couldn't find a parking place but with that wind it was definitely not a day for walking. Still, we had 35 people attend. Several people were very excited about joining our group. We always welcome newcomers and love to show off what a great group we are so I hope they do come and join us. We love to see what people are working on and hear their experiences. I have a lot of pictures so I will put them on different blogs for ease of viewing.

Many thanks to all the Quilters who completed dresses for the Circle K Kiwanis Club and donated many of their own. We've finished over 60 dresses! Hopefully, someone from Circle K will be at our February meeting to pick them up. Otherwise, JulieAnn will get them to Mike Malark, this year's Kiwanis Governor, to bring to their February meeting. Kiwanis will pay for shipping costs.

Who knows, someday you may be watching a documentary on Africa and say, "Hey, I know that dress." Thanks again. You'll get your reward in heaven.
Sue Reilly

We had 20 ladies yesterday! A big group with lots of talking. I passed around a piece of paper and asked everyone to tell me what they are putting in the quilt show. I can tell already that it's going to be another great show! Deb came yesterday with her surviving dog, Alya. Both of them are recovering from the loss of Debs' other dog. New member Elaine cut up the last of the musical fabrics for her quilt with a little help from Kathy O. I brought in a nametag for the raffle quilt and sewed that on. It took me the whole 2 hours because I kept getting interrupted! Deb wanted help picking out DVDs, Winnie needed a new author, Fran and Deb needed help with the copier, and we were out of mini-moos! What a day! Pat H. brought in some give-aways and I pulled out some fabric I had tucked away. What was left I gave to the Odyssey of the Mind kids who meet after our group. They were delighted! I might start giving them some scraps more often. Sue R. came in to pack away the little dresses for Africa. We won't be delivering them until Feb. 3rd, the night of the Village Quilters meeting so you still have time to make some. Sue said our 2 groups had made 60 dresses! She was thrilled! It was a fun project so I was glad that Sue suggested it to us.

Today 13 ladies attended. I pulled out the sewing machine so that I could sew the binding onto the raffle quilt. Fran is taking it home to sew down. Next week I'll put on a nametag: Made by Nimblefingers and it will be ready to go! Hallelujah! We've been working on it way too long. So maybe next week I can pull out some old projects we started and see where we left off. Winnie brought in a bunch of her quilts-in-progress to cut so that she can sew them. Elaine found some of the fabric she needed for her music quilt on ebay and ordered it. It's her first time ordering through ebay so she's hoping it works out well. Tina brought in her cro-hook to show Elaine. The cro-hook makes a nice, thick, two-sided blanket. Agnes was back from her trip to Kentucky and Texas to visit her children. She's back in time to have lunch with us a Daryl's on Thursday. Marie brought in pictures from her grandson's wedding in California. He married a Cambodian woman and they had an American wedding and a Cambodian wedding. The Cambodian wedding involves the wearing of very fancy clothes which you change a couple of times during the ceremony. Marie thinks very highly of both the bride and groom so we all joined her in wishing them much happiness.

14 ladies attended yesterday. All of our snowbirds have flown south so our group is a little smaller now. We may be smaller but we are not lacking in enthusiasm. Winnie came early: she has made a new year's resolution and is determined to finish her goal of making quilts for all of her grandchildren. She has to hurry because there are 3 more grandchildren expected soon! Kathy O. helped her cut her pieces so that she could go home and sew. Pat OR arrived desperate for a good book to read. I took her out to Joyce at the Reference desk and Pat returned happy and ready to go home and curl up with her new books. Tina, Kathy O. and newcomer Nina were happily knitting away. Tina had finished her maple leaf top and her flower pincushion and brought those in to show us. Cathy M. brought in 2 little dresses for Africa and Marguerite finished 3 previously started dresses. We are getting quite a collection of dresses now. We will keep adding to our collection until the end of January. Fran was working on a pattern she received 9 years ago. She decided it was time to finish it. Cathy M. was appliquing a flower block. June has started a new Fons and Porter wall hanging which she will hang in her sewing room. It is appliques of various sewing items including a dress form, iron, buttons, etc. It should be very cute. June enjoys handwork and so does a lot of applique quilts. Cathy M. says this flower quilt will be her last applique quilt for awhile. Marguerite and Rosemary were stitching away on their needlework projects. Daryl brought in a crustless pumpkin pie to celebrate (belatedly--her birthday was on 12/30) Winnie's birthday. Daryl, who is a glutton for punishment, also invited us all over for lunch on 1/13 at 12:30. If you need a ride come to the library at noon and we'll carpool.