Today 25 people attended. Linda O'Connor brought in a quilt the Village Quilters had made and invited some of their members to help sew on the binding so some of our 25 were visiting Village Quilters. I pulled out our log cabin raffle quilt (not to be outdone by the V.Q.'s) so that Marguerite could again figure out the quilting pattern for it. Hopefully we can actually start quilting it now. Otherwise a pretty normal day. Jan Brennan brought in her finished crocheted baby blanket. She learned to crochet during Nimblefingers and she did a great job on the blanket! Margot brought in her sewing machine to give Edith Goldstein some personalized sewing instruction. Darryl brought in some blanket-stitched butterflies someone had given her. They hadn't finished all the butterflies though so Darryl got some instruction from Pat and Treva about how to do the blanket stitch. She will have a beautiful quilt when she gets it all together. It is made with some marvelous old fabrics. It's quite a treasure she has been given. Margot and I had both received thank you letters from Katherine Denegar for the quilt we delivered to her last week so we had them available for people to read. Margot also gave me a copy of Katherine's story about being a nurse during WWII in the Phillipines. I have just read it again and it is amazing. If you haven't had a chance to read it let me know. She is a remarkable woman with an exciting past.

16 ladies attended today. The maintenance crew washed the carpet in the community room early this morning and it hadn't dried yet so we met in the backyard. We had 2 tables set up plus the library benches. Fortunately it was a beautiful day so it was actually a nice change of pace. Last Saturday Margot and I visited Katherine Denegar and gave her the lap quilt we made. She loved it! She very nearly burst into tears! In return she gave us all of her fabric stash. So today all of the ladies attending sorted through fabric and took some home. Hopefully we will be seeing some projects with Katherine's fabric in them. If you read this, thank you Katherine! You are very kind and generous! Julie asked the group today if they would like to split the library raffle quilt project with the Village Quilters who will begin meeting at the library starting in September. We all agreed that it would be okay if we took turns making the raffle quilt so this year the Village Quilters can donate the quilt and next year we will. Our community is lucky to have 2 groups right here to supply them with chances on beautiful handmade quilts.

12 ladies attended today. Pat Hammond was back and so was her wonderful baking--a delicious cake! It was a quiet day. Agnes had finished her table runner top and it was beautiful! She started Winnie on one at the meeting. Margot put a binding on the quilt for Katherine Denegar so she is going to investigate when Katherine would be up for visitors so we could give it to her. Linda O'Connor brought in a whole bolt of American flag fabric. I thought it would make a good backing for a patriotic quilt if anyone was making one. I took several of the ladies who haven't attended for awhile to the computer to show them the blog. I showed them how to send a comment so send some comments please!

Today 16 ladies and 6 kids attended. The kids finished their ugli dolls and made themselves fleece scarves and hats. While they kept busy with their projects, the ladies amused themselves with their various projects. Those of us who started the applique table runner last week continued to work on that project. Cathy Maikoff brought in the prayer quilt we were making for Katherine Denegar so we sandwiched it, pinned it, and tied it. Margot Hayes is taking it home to sew on a binding. I think Katherine will really enjoy having her very own group made cat quilt.

Today we had 18 ladies and 13 juniors. While the junior Nimblefingers worked on their ugli dolls the seniors, at least some of them, started an applique tablerunner under the tutelage of our own Louise Claflin. It will be fun to see the same runner in different fabrics.
Also today, Marguerite Flint was back from her cruise of the Baltic Sea. She had much to tell us about her trip and about the family emergency she came home to. According to she and her husband Harry, Tallinn, Estonia was the best stop on the trip: very quaint and beautiful.
We all complained about the heat. Very little hot coffee or tea was drunk--they all headed for the lemonade! And Julie was actually feeling ambitious last night and made some rice krispie treats for the group.

17 ladies and 9 young ladies attended. Today most of the junior Nimblefingers worked on an ugli doll. A few of them preferred to knit with Betty Smith and later Cathy Yachup. The senior Nimblefingers continued working on the "Star fling" block. Darryl Webb and Katy Bogart (one of the jr. nimblefingers' mom) each made a star from fabric that Alberta Pahl had kindly cut up and donated.
Alberta and her sister Nancy Hopper brought in a gift from their other sister Edith Kilmer and a thank you card for the prayer quilt we had given her. We hope she enjoys it as much as we have enjoyed her company here on Tuesday afternoons.
Next week Louise Claflin will be teaching us to applique using the freezer paper technique. Anyone who wants to come should bring needle, thread, scissors, freezer paper, and some fabric. One large piece for the background and pieces of green for leaves, gold for the center of a flower, and whatever colors for the flower petals. It should be very pretty.
Winnie Childs and her husband Bill and Betsey Hoffman's husband Bob are all having health problems. Our best wishes go with all of them.

This is just a note to let you know what’s going on in Nimblefingers this summer.

Last week I taught some of you to make my current favorite block, “Star fling.” We will continue working on those this week. I also brought in my shortcut instructions I had prepared for the Village Quilters quilt show. If you would like help making those simple blocks I will be available for help anytime.

Next week Louise Claflin will begin teaching us to appliqué. Louise is a fabulous appliqué-r: if you’ve seen any of her work you know what I mean. She will help us to make a table runner. This will probably take several weeks to finish but you will end up with a beautiful table runner! If everyone could bring in some of the proper colored fabrics we could all share—just in case we don’t all have the right colors. I will pass out the instructions and supply list tomorrow (7/25/06).

Finally, Nimblefingers has a blog! (an online newsletter). Go to the Voorheesville Public Library homepage, http://www.voorheesvillelibrary.org/ click on Adult Services, then click on Nimblefingers News and there you are! Or you can go directly to the blog at http://nimblefingersnews.blogspot.com/. Here you can find out what went on at each meeting in case you missed one. I hope you will take a look at it and leave me some messages. Thanks go to librarian Judie Harren and Lesa Clarke for making our blog look so professional. I think it will be a fun thing to look at and I hope you will too!