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.