11 ladies attended today. Marguerite returned from visiting her brother in Canada. She said it was 90 degrees up there! Not what you expect in Canada. Fran and I came with no work to do so we looked at magazines and helped Diane price her items for the sale on the weekend of 9/18. Jo-Anne was knitting her pretty blue scarf; Ethel was making little hats for toddlers; Marguerite was cross-stitching; Diane making yo-yo's. As usual I don't know what the people at the end of the table were working on. Betty has been spending a lot of time with her family which tired her out. She was happy to get back to her quiet life. Towards the end of the afternoon Elaine and Caiden joined us. Elaine came regularly when she was pregnant with Caiden (13 years ago). She teaches at Skidmore so we only see her during school breaks. She always has tales to tell so it's nice to keep up with her. Today she told us about Caiden switching schools next year from BKW schools to the Tech Valley school. It sounds very interesting. It sounds like a good school for someone who may very well go on to studying science and/or technology.  It's been a quiet summer and it's just about over. I will be eager to see the return of our campers from the north.

I didn't write last week--I was too worried about my upcoming cataract surgery. My worrying must have destined me to have problems because I surely did. The surgery went fine, but because I have dry eyes and all the drops they use made them drier, sometime after the surgery I blinked and ripped the skin right off my cornea. I spent 24 hours in pain with both eyes closed so completely blind. My husband was very good to lead me around the house and provide me with food and drink. But it was miserable. Friday morning I went in for my post-op appointment. She numbed my eyeball, cleaned it up and put in a contact lens bandage. Monday she took off the contact lens. I'll go in again next Monday (at 7:30 a.m.--I'm not a morning person). So I'm still waiting to see some improvement in my  vision. Right now my left eye sees blurry and my depth perception is a little off. What a pain! Anyway, that's my story.
Ethel came in with her finished (except for the binding which she was sewing down) quilt for her granddaughter Vivian Powers. I will put in the picture later. She also had pictures of Vivian's 3rd birthday party--a fairy party. We met Vivian briefly one day. She is a very cute little princess of a girl.
Jean brought in some fish (picture later) made of plastic bottles covered with fabric and modge-podge. They are quite extraordinary.
Fran came in with pictures from the Altamont fair. She won a blue and a red ribbon on her quilts. She was also in charge of several other areas of the fair. Being an associate of the fairground she has a lot of duties.
Jo-Anne missed last week having taken a bus trip to Cooperstown to eat lunch at a hotel on Glimmerglass lake. Apparently the lunch is fantastic (it made us all hungry just hearing about it) but the bus ride was discouraging. One of the belts came off of the bus engine and they were afraid they were going to have to sit by the side of the road waiting for a new bus but someone on the bus helped the driver put the belt back on so that they could continue their trip. Thank goodness!
Last week I brought in our finished raffle quilt. Lesa, the library artist, made a poster with our quilt as the background advertising our Nimblefingers sale on Sept. 18, 19, and 20. This is the first time we've tried selling our items so I am curious to see how it goes. If it's successful, maybe we could have a sale table at our open house in February.
We have been having small groups this summer, only about 9 ladies attend. Recently it's been very hot and I don't know if that's what's keeping people away. Cathy M. has been sick; she's on oxygen and doesn't like to carry around the portable machine. We miss Tina and Kathy O., our campers. But because we had a small group this time it meant more of Agnes' delicious brownies for the rest of us!

We had a small group of ladies this Tuesday. It was extremely hot out but thank goodness the library is air conditioned. I brought absolutely nothing to work on this week. Pat OR is nearly finished with her wool table runner. Fran brought in some place mats to work on the bindings. JoAnne's still plugging away on the turquoise scarf. Rosalund is making a scarf from a very pretty variegated yarn. Pat OR brought in a couple of projects she either wasn't going to start or wasn't going to finish. Winnie took both of them--one a cross-stitch kit and one an unfinished pin cushion. Marguerite is still working on prayer shawls with her magenta yarn. Sue R. brought in some of the toddler hats she's been making. They were adorable. We all oohed and aahed over them.

 Aha! it finally worked! These pictures were taken a few weeks ago by Debbie the Librarian. I was out sick at the time and Lila Smith from the Delmar Q.U.I.L.T. group stopped by. She brought the portrait quilt (of her husband) she had made in the Esterita Austin workshop and also some simple bags she had made. She showed everyone how to make the bags but no one has shown me yet. Debbie took some more pictures so I'll try to get them into this blog post as well.

10 ladies attended today. It was very hot and humid outdoors so we wondered if everyone was too hot to come to the library. Whatever...it's their loss. Agnes told me she got a call from Kathy O. who had bought a new Bernina, an embroidery machine, and was ultra excited. She's embroidered all of her t-shirts and now has started on Al's (though she promised him she wouldn't put any flowers on his t-shirts). When Kathy returns in the fall I'm sure she'll have a whole lot of show and tell. That will be something to look forward to for sure. Winnie was working on the mini-tin pin cushions. Sue and Betty were crocheting and cro-hooking away. Jo Anne was knitting away on her turquoise scarf and Marguerite was knitting her magenta scarf. I brought in a quilt to sandwich so several of the ladies helped me with that. I also brought in a wall hanging I had made from a kit I bought at the Somers quilt show. It is somewhat arty, though very simple.  Ethel came in towards the end of the meeting with her granddaughter Vivianne and Vivianne's finished quilt top. It's purple and pink with embroidered cats, dogs, hearts and flowers. It looks very little girlish and Vivianne seems very proud of it.

We had a small group yesterday--only 9 of us. We were surprised though when Sally Olly from Canada walked in! She visits her brother/hometown every summer and likes to check in on us. Last year Jo Anne and I took her on a mini-shop hop but I'm afraid I'm too busy this week. It is nice to see her again though and very flattering that she  likes us enough to visit every year. Cathy C. also stopped by. She's still emptying out her Voorheesville house so brought in some magazines to give away. She has bought a house in Cape Cod now. She'll be wintering in Florida and summering in Cape Cod. Pretty nice! I just hope she'll stop by and visit her old friends when going between the two homes.  She seems very happy about her decisions but tired from all the packing, cleaning out, etc. I can imagine. When you haven't moved for a long time it's a real job to get rid of all your stuff. I dread when that time comes for me. Sally was putting the binding on a quilt she made for her neighbor who is a WWII veteran. It was a Canadian/American friendship/patriotism quilt with fireworks border and back. It was very nice. He'll be very pleased I'm sure. Fran was putting the binding on a large flowery quilt. It was cheerful and spring-like. Pat OR was working on a wool applique table runner. Elaine brought in her finished birdy table runner. It will be a Christmas present for a friend. Jo Anne keeps plugging away on her knitted turquoise scarf. It will be beautiful when it is finished. Marguerite was binding a quilt for the hospital made from donated squares. Debbie the librarian came in and cut some fabric in preparation for the teen sewing program on Thursday. We'll be making a simple bag. I'm helping out but anyone who wants to help can.

There were about 12 of us at Nimblefingers yesterday. Sue brought in our raffle quilt having fixed my 2 quilting goofs and put on the binding. So now it just needs a label then will be ready to turn over to the Friends of the Library to raffle. I think it's a very nice scrap quilt and it's been a long time coming. Pat OR laid out her sewn together top and back, laid on the batting, then we tried Eleanor Burns' method of rolling the corners till you reach the unsewn edge, then turning the whole thing inside out. It worked! I don't know why we doubted Eleanor Burns, she knows what she's doing. Pat is going to tie the quilt. I assume it will be done and in our show in February. It is a very pretty batik quilt. JoAnne brought in copies of the pictures of Winnie representing Nimblefingers on the library float in the Memorial day parade. They won the award for best float and it surely must be due to Winnie. Betsy came in yesterday. We haven't seen her for awhile. She is always busy going here and there so it's nice when she takes some time off to visit her old friends. Joyce also came in and showed us the bag she made in a class at Amelia's Garden. It was very difficult to make--she said it took about 20 hrs. but it was spectacular. I loved the fabric she used also, with butterflies on it. I brought in the Quilts without borders quilt I was just finishing so told the group about that. I picked up a free kit at the Houston International Quilt Festival the last time I went. It took me a year or so, but I finally made it up and sent it off to Quilts Without Borders. After they received it they asked if I would be willing to quilt some quilts for them. They have lots of tops and not enough people to quilt them. So I said ok. They sent me 4 tops, backs, bindings, and labels. I finally finished the last one today--hurrah! I feel like I've been making charity quilts forever. Now I can finally get back to my own projects. I also took some time before the meeting to book the community room for some retreats this winter so we will have some fun sewing days to look forward to and can finish some more projects.