It's been ages since I blogged so I thought I'd try today. Last Tuesday we had 15 ladies. Fran, who has "Finish a UFO" challenges for 2 different quilt groups, has been busily finishing some of her early quilts. This week she brought in her 2nd of these former UFO's. It was a dark red and green sampler quilt. We all oooo'd and ahhhh'd over it. She has Linda Denner do the quilting. Linda always does a spectacular job. She doesn't do the all-over designs, she individualizes the quilting patterns to the quilt. Fran used a large purple and green cheater cloth for the back of the quilt. It is a very attractive back so I suppose Fran could use either side of the quilt. Deb and Pat L. were back. We haven't seen them in awhile. Deb's been off body surfing in South Carolina while Pat has been at home nursing her still aching knee. Daryl has hurt her shoulder and needed some help cutting borders and backing for a pretty quilt she is making for her granddaughter. Betty K. brought in some very cute button flowers she had made. They are pieces of wire with buttons attached at one end with little curl-i-cues sticking out on the side. She had been to a birthday party where they had a vase filled with these button flowers and people stuck a $1 bill in the curl-i-cues as a present for the birthday girl. She says they are easy to make but you need to use the right weight of wire. Betty goes to South Carolina for the winter and always comes back with some easy project ideas for us. She said that this last winter she took Fran's little triangle thread holder idea down to South Carolina and they all loved it! Now they will probably expect her to bring down ideas every time she comes! Rosemary was beginning a new flower vase needlepoint piece. Elaine is sewing the binding on her Grand Canyon table runner. Sue made, and finished, the challenge table runner I gave the group for our February 2014 show. She made it from soft batiks. It was really pretty! I predict we may have a first place winner already (actually she is the winner so far since she's the only one who's made one!)! Fran pulled out some of the yarn necklaces she had made and told me to pick one which she gave to me. Thank you Fran--it's beautiful! Jo-Ann was also making some yarn necklaces. They probably ought to show Betty this project so she can take it to South Carolina with her. Tina and Kathy have both gone north for the summer. I hope they don't get rained out. So far it's been a very wet summer here.

19 ladies attended today. Nancy F., whose sister Dorothy began Nimblefingers many years ago, joined us today. Her daughter had made a quilt top and was sick of looking at it so was going to throw it away. Nancy rescued it, took it to Lew the Quiltsmith for quilting and now has a beautiful quilt! She's going to give it back to her daughter with the understanding that it should eventually go to the granddaughter.

21 ladies attended today. Two of our snowbirds have returned home: Jean K. and Betsey. It was nice to see them again. I think Jean will stick around for awhile but Betsey is off and running--NJ, AZ, Cape Cod, then who knows where. She doesn't sit still for a minute. We were also pleased to see Cathy Y's daughter Natasha again. Cathy kindly brings her to Nimblefingers when she visits. I have the feeling our two snowbirds who go north for the summer, Tina and Kathy O. are getting ready to set off for their summer adventure. Neither one of them were here yesterday so I bet they are preparing their summer nests. But we had a crowd as it was. Marie's back is feeling better so she was back again and she brought in her almost completed quilt to show us and to get some advice on what to do about borders and backing. So, here's the rundown: Elaine is working on her Grand Canyon table runners; Marguerite is cross-stitching an unfinished project she picked up here; Sandie was crocheting a very interesting looking baby toy; Jean K. was cutting fabric strips and squares; Linda H. was knitting a baby afghan; Natasha was crocheting baby hats; Fran was appliqueing; Sue R. was crocheting a dishcloth but also showed us the bowl cozy you use for microwaving; I brought in some of my fabric stash to give away (I can't believe I did that!); and Jo-Ann was cutting fabric for a workshop which she and I are taking this Friday. I'll be spending my night tonight and tomorrow doing my homework for the class. Last weekend Jo-Ann, myself, Joyce L. and Cathy M. all took a bus trip to the Somers, NY quilt show. It is one of the art-ier quilt shows around and I love it. I always leave with some ideas to try. Everyone in the group is asking questions about my retirement and how it will affect Nimblefingers. I haven't worked it out with my boss yet but I promise I'm not going to quit coming. I expect to have so many projects that I'm working on that I'll have lots of new quilts, and new ideas to show and tell.

14 ladies attended this week. Marguerite brought in her finished mile-a-minute quilt. She had done beautiful hand quilting but the quilt top is so dark that you can't see it. She was disappointed with that but sees it as a lesson learned. She also made a quilt top from the fruit/vegee fabric mistake blocks we made last summer. She'll finish it up and take it to the hospital. She also challenged me to make something from these mistake blocks. I have them at home and actually had a really good idea just this morning of what I ought to do with them. Elaine brought in a yarn necklace someone had given her. She showed Sandie so that Sandie could figure out how it was made, make a pattern for it, and teach us all to make one. Next week we might all be crocheting necklaces. Jo-Ann finished knitting her red swirly scarf and started another from red, white and blue yarn. Tina was cro-hooking a bright yellow afghan. Ellen was hand quilting her English paper pieced quilt. I pulled out the donation quilt to continue tying. Jo-Ann brought in her chop to show us. It is a carved stamp of her name in Japanese script. Artists use them to sign their work. She got it from the National Geographic catalog and it was really cool. It would make a very nice gift. Not many people attended today but it was very nice weather outside. We assumed people were at home raking. It is getting to be gardening season.

Finally, I've got Marie's birthday pictures! Here they are... Like I said before, we all had a good time and I think Marie will remember this birthday and the many parties she had for a long time.
This Tuesday we had 17 ladies attend. Marie brought in some of her braided rugs to show us. She makes them out of polyester fabric so they are indestructible. She showed us how she makes them, one with a funny looking thick, bent needle, another with an old toothbrush handle. She says that toothbrush handle is the most dear tool she owns because she and her husband made it. Marie is so talented. We can all take a lesson from her. Our other great teacher, Sandie, taught us how to make a knot in knitting or crochet yarn that will absolutely not come undone and that doesn't have tails that have to be woven into the piece. She called it a miracle knot and it truly was. I think that knot was new even to Marie! Sue R. was back from her winter in South Carolina. Betty should be back soon. Our winter snow birds are starting to fly home. I brought in a quilt which had been donated and Sue and I began tying it. I told the ladies that earlier that morning I had gone to get my hair cut and the beauty salon was selling the swirly scarves they've all been making for $30. I don't know if the salon was taking a cut (one of their customers made them) but $30 is alot when you can get 3 scarves out of 1 skein of yarn!

On Tuesday we had 20 ladies in attendance. Fran asked to use a sewing machine so I got out the one which I had just had in for servicing. It worked like a dream Fran said. She was making another jelly roll quilt out of pink fabrics. It should be very pretty. Deb and Linda spent the time looking at boats for sale on ebay. Deb wants to buy a new boat. She's working on building a fleet just for her. Pat OR is nearly finished with her penny rug which doesn't have any pennies on it but is beautiful flowers and leaves. Elaine was planning her Grand Canyon table runner. She has purchased fabrics with a desert look so that she can make a memory table runner of her vacation rafting down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon. Marie said she was about birthday-d out. She had at least 3 separate birthday parties so was ready to get back to normal. She has a quilt top nearing completion so when she gets the back ready we'll head over to the Quiltsmith to spend some of her birthday present from Nimblefingers. (I know, I know... I still haven't downloaded the birthday pictures. I'll try to do that this weekend). Easter is coming up this weekend so Easter bunny Jo-Ann brought in a basket full of Easter candy baggies--one for each of us. Next year I'm going to buy her some bunny ears.  She's very sweet to think of us. Jo-Ann was also taking lessons from Kathy O. on how to crochet the swirly scarf. She's already knitting one but wanted to know how to crochet one too. Cathy M. was knitting socks, Marguerite and Joan were cross-stitching and Agnes was crocheting more scrubbies. Everyone was keeping busy except me who had only brought books to look at. Someone brought in some giveaway fabric which seemed to disappear quickly. Anyway, as usual, a good time was had by all.

20 ladies attended today. It was a special day--we celebrated Marie's 90th birthday! We had cake, singing, cards and a present but best of all Marie told us some of her stories. We all had a wonderful time. She loves the group and we all love her so it was a very nice time. Rosemary (whose job it was to make sure Marie came today) brought Nancy who is a friend of hers and Marie's. She's also the sister of Dorothy Colvin, the original leader of Nimblefingers so I was happy to see her there. Tina brought a friend, Gladys and our friend Elaine L. also came today. Tina was learning to crochet the scarf everyone has been making. Jo-Ann was on the other side of the table knitting the same scarf. I may have to give it a try one of these days, otherwise I'll be the only one in the group who doesn't have one! Kathy O. and I both brought quilts for Marguerite to take to the hospital for the terminal patients. I took some pictures today but on my own personal camera. I'll have to go home and download them before I can add them to this post. So keep watching!