December 19th was our annual holiday luncheon. Daryl generously invited us to celebrate at her house this year. She prepared a delicious ham and several of the ladies brought salads. All were delicious. We were a small group but we had a good time. The highlight for me was when Winnie pulled out some old poems to read to us. This led to a conversation about fathers and grandfathers who loved reciting poetry. Marguerite still remembers some of the oft told poems of her fathers' and kindly recited them for us. Later, Sook Rho, the Korean lady who used to come to Nimblefingers joined us. She is still keeping busy working with her husband at their little restaurant. We were all happy to see her but do wish we could see her more often. We talked and talked and ate and ate (Daryl's bon-bons were a hit!) and the time passed quickly. It was a very cosy holiday luncheon.

14 ladies attended today. Agnes brought in a lovely quilt she's making for her Texas A & M student granddaughter in appropriate school colors. Kathy O. was knitting a dish rag, Hattie a sweater, while Alberta had pulled out an old cross-stitch project to finish. Pat was working on her first quilting projects, two mile-a-minute quilts for her grandchildren. There was lots of talk about the upcoming holidays. Next week we will be having a Christmas lunch at Daryl's house. Therefore, we will not meet again until Jan. 2nd, 2007.

18 ladies attended today (one being a 4th grade lady). Marion Parmenter brought in a quilt she has just finished. The original appliqued butterfly pieces were made by her grandmother. They were passed down to her and she put them together into a quilt, embroidered and hand quilted. It will be given to her daughter. It was a lovely quilt with wonderful old fabrics some of which may very well have been feed sacks. In contrast, the crazy quilt that I brought in for show and share was made for a scrap challenge. I was given a bag of scraps and had to make something from them. I made a crazy landscape of an unknown planet. It was fun to make but is very silly. I have been trying to plan for our quilt show in February and am giving weekly handouts to the ladies to gather information that I can make into handouts for our open house. An ongoing process.

Today 14 ladies attended. Anne Bave brought in a prayer quilt top she had made. I checked to see if we had enough batting and backing fabric so that next week we can sandwich it and begin tying. Deb Johnson brought in the fish quilt she is making for her husband and sewed rows together. Ingrid Dispensa had given me a bag of wool yarn to give away so several ladies went home with bags of yarn. Today Joyce Laiosa, the children's librarian, gave me a web site: www.aghines.com. She is a picture book illustrator and a quilter. Her illlustrations are quilted. It is a wonderful web site with free patterns for the quilts in her books plus lots of extras: her journey as an illustrator and quilter, using quilts to teach geometry and/or design, plus a lot more. Take a look at it if you get a chance. It's like taking a virtual tour of a quilter/illustrator's life.

12 ladies were present today--a smaller than normal group. Kathy Olsen brought in the finished lap quilt which we are donating to an elderly person of need in the community. We laid out the blocks for our next lap quilt and I will take them home to sew together. The big talk was of what we were all doing for Thanksgiving. It was a quiet day preparing for the beginning of the busy holiday season.

16 ladies attended today. Our dear Pat Hammond brought 2 pies! Kathy Olson and I sandwiched our next prayer quilt while another group of ladies laid out blocks for yet another. Betsy Hoffman called me today to tell me she hasn't been coming for awhile first because she was out of town and now because of her husband's medical appts. She hopes to join us again soon though. This month we have Betty Smith's quilts hanging in the hallway so we all admired them and congratulate Betty on her first solo art show! Anne Bave had been to visit Katherine Denegar and reports that Katherine is well but very lonely. We decided that this year instead of having a Holiday lunch at a restaurant and a separate party at Darryl's house that we would just have a party at Darryl's. Also, we will not be meeting on Dec. 26th but we will be meeting on Jan. 2nd.

Today 15 ladies attended. Cathy Maikoff brought in her finished Sunbonnet Sue/Suspender Sam quilt to which she had added some wonderful embellishment. Deb Johnson brought in her rescue quilt top--several holes but possibly salvageable. I got out our log cabin raffle quilt and started quilting again. We were a fairly calm group today but with good eats as usual. Someone made some delicious cranberry nut bread--thank you to whoever brought it.