11 ladies attended today. Kathy O. brought in her sewing machine to demonstrate machine quilting for Deb J., but Deb didn't show up. I hope she's here next week to put up our quilt show! She's the only one brave enough to climb the tall ladder! Pat H. brought in some scrap fabric to give away. Then she sat down to teaching Agnes, with me watching, how to make a hat on a Knifty Knitter. It looked kind of fun. Fran brought in her finished except for the binding appliqued flower quilt. It was truly beautiful. Winnie was doing some fancy crewel work and Marie was doing intarsia knitting (I think that's what she called it). Daryl is adding some embroidery to a Noah's Ark preprinted quilt panel. Pat also brought in all of the Prayers-and-Squares quilt tops she's made lately. She uses only scraps and they are all colorful and cheerful. Everyone was busy except me. I just moved around and watched what everyone was doing. Next week will be a busy one putting up the quilt show. Then our open house will be on Feb. 10th. We will take down the show on Feb. 24th. Then everyone thought we should celebrate by having a potluck lunch on Mar. 3.

12 ladies attended Nimblefingers this week. I began the meeting with some announcements: 1. We wll be putting up our quilt show on Feb. 3, so you need to bring in yours quilts that day ; 2. Our Open House will be on Feb. 10, so bring cookies that day ; 3. We will take the quilt show down on Feb. 24 ; 4. On Sat., Apr. 4 Bonnie Turner will be giving a Crazy Quilt workshop here at the library. This is an all day program and sign-up is required. After the announcements Kathy O. showed us her latest quilt top called Lattices. Deb J. pulled out her little raffle quilt which Kathy O. and I proceeded to machine quilt. Oops! Don't tell anyone that we did it and not Deb! Next week Kathy and I will pull out the sewing machines, her fancy Bernina and our library Brothers, and demonstrate machine quilting. Marie brought in some roving to show us since Elaine got us all interested when she came in with her spinning wheel. Fran was sewing the binding on her really cool flannel quilt. Pictures will follow when they become available.

14 ladies attended today. Marie brought in some ultra-warm Maine knit mittens she had made. She knitted in pieces of roving about every 3rd stitch. They were very thick and I'm sure quite warm. Several of us are back from our travels: me from Texas, Agnes from Texas, Daryl from North Carolina. I didn't bring in all of the fabric I purchased at my favorite quilt shop but maybe I'll start bringing it in slowly. Fran was working on something different today: a ruched flower for a small quilt. It should be really pretty when finished. Cathy M. brought in her 1st block for her block-a-month quilt. Kathy O. brought in her daughter Judy who is working on a wedding ring quilt. Kathy also had some fabric squares embroidered with the names of all those in the quilting group in Wells, NY back in 18--. She wants to make them into a quilt that could be hung in the historical museum in Wells which is where Kathy summers. Deb had been given some scraps and told to make a quilt to raffle for the Altamont library so she cut out the borders for that. Daryl brought in a number of tote bags she has made for Catholic charities. The bags are used for underprivileged kids and are filled with the makings for a birthday party, i.e. cake mix, frosting, etc. She picked up a lot of the fabric from our donations. They were great!

13 ladies and 1 very nice little boy attended Nimblefingers today. Elaine L. came back for a visit and brought her son Caidin and her spinning wheel with her. Caiden visited us regularly when he was in his mama's belly as well as after he was born so we do like to keep up with him. Edie, Alberta and Nancy were also back again today. Unfortunately Edie goes back to Tuesday dialysis but it was nice to have her back for 2 weeks anyway. I hope Alberta and Nancy will keep coming. Marguerite brought her granddaughter Alexandra with her today to do a little knitting while Marguerite and I added some quilting stitches to the quilt. I had put out a selection of quilting books that had belonged to Betty Seminary so several of the ladies went home with new patterns to try. We are sorry to hear that Cathy M. is out for 8 weeks of physical therapy. Next week I will be out. I'm going to Texas to visit my 93 year old mother for a week. While I'm there my sister and I will hit our favorite quilt store "Creations of Kerrville" and spend most of our days sewing. It's always very relaxing and this trip it should also have the advantage of being warm. Hallelujah!

13 ladies attended today. It was a special day--Alberta, Edie and Nancy returned to us. They changed the day of Edie's dialysis for the holidays so she got her sisters to bring her in. We've missed her so it's nice to know she missed us too. She brought a Christmas card and a Santa wreath for us. It's so nice to see her again. And Alberta and Nancy haven't attended for several months. I hope they'll keep coming too--somehow the group doesn't seem complete without them. Fran brought in some wonderful pizelles. We gobbled them right up. I brought in some chocolates and they didn't stand a chance against us either. Marguerite brought her granddaughter Amy who kept very busy making an ornament and a potholder. I was secretly jealous of the potholder-making; I haven't done that since I was a kid. Kathy O. brought in her granddaughter's finished quilt. It has a bright pink polka-dot border! The perfect quilt for a pink loving little girl. Today's discussions were on how important it is not to reorganize your sewing room; the proper way to blow your nose; various local concerts seen or not seen by different members; some funny family stories and of course I filled Alberta, Edie and Nancy in on the keen determination to reuse tea bags by my thrifty group of ladies. A fun time as always. Happy Holidays to all!

Today we went out to lunch for our holiday party. 13 of us attended. We went to the Gold Coin for Chinese food. Almost all of us took supper home in a bag. There was lots of talk around the table as usual. I listened to a recitation of all kinds of cabbage recipes on one side of me and an update on the health of Betty Seminary, one of our sometimes ex-member, on the other. It's hard to keep track and hard to keep up with the conversations when you get a bunch of ladies together. I did learn though, in calling absent friends that our old friend Edie, the blind lady, has changed the day she goes for dialysis so she hopes to return to the group again. I'm flattered that she has remembered us fondly all this time. It will be great to see her again and we've missed Alberta and Nancy who we haven't seen for about 6 months. Remember, we will not meet on the 16th but we will meet again on the 23rd. See you then!

14 ladies attended today. It was another big day for show and tell. Fran brought in the silk comforter she bought in China. The silk part is the batting inside. It is so soft and all made from 2 little silk pods. It was beautifully machine embroidered on some kind of acetate. Fran says its too hot to use though so she's a bit disappointed. Kathy O. brought in another of the quilt tops her daughter gave her to finish. This was a pineapple pattern in navy, gray and yellow. We all loved it! Tina finished hand piecing the lone star she has been working on. She still needs to put in the background but the star is finished! And Cathy M. brought in a finished invisible 9-patch Christmas table runner. (Sorry it's sideways--but you can see the quilt pattern anyway). Hattie made it back today so we watched the Betty Smith film again because she hadn't seen it. It's really a great film, not just because it's about Betty but it is so well made! As a short documentary it was better than many that I've seen. I'm so glad the Village Quilters had it made. Pat H. came in with animal crackers, homemade chocolate/peanut butter candy and a large pile of fabric squares which she laid out to make an invisible 9-patch quilt. Linda O'C was working on button bracelets. Cathy Y. and Hattie were knitting. Deb and Marguerite were painstakingly hand piecing blocks. Fran brought in her Christmas challenge block (a Santa Claus block) for another group that she belongs to. Everyone was busy and everyone was happy. Next week (Dec. 9) we will be having our Christmas luncheon at the Gold Coin restaurant (across the street from the Slingerlands Price Chopper plaza) at 12:30 p.m. The week after that (Dec. 16) we will not be meeting at all. Then we're back at the library on the 23rd.