We had 12 ladies this week. Marguerite pulled out the sewing machine and went to work on our next raffle quilt. Cathy Y. had bought a cute panel for a baby quilt. Fran thought it needed a border so she helped Cathy make a border, gave it to Marguerite to sew, then helped Cathy make the quilt sandwich. Some baby will be getting a very cute little quilt someday. Kathy O. reported that Tina is doing well after her knee surgery. They were able to use her kneecap and that she is walking around the house with the walker. We're glad to hear that she's doing well. Poor Rosemary is home though with a bad back. I hope it will get to feeling better soon so we can see her again. Cathy M. sent us a thank you card for the prayer quilt Pat H. made and we tied. My guess is that we probably won't see Cathy for awhile because when she feels better she'll be out doing gardening instead of sewing. Maybe next fall. I brought in my purchases from the quilt show the previous weekend. I saw many of my ladies there which makes it extra fun to run into some familiar faces. Kathy O. is waiting for me to give her the fabric that I bought that looks much more like her than it does me. She didn't spend any money that day so we agreed that I spent her money for her.

18 ladies attended today. Marie is working on cleaning out her sewing supplies so she brought in batting and embroidery thread to give away. Linda O'C came in just returned from wintering in Florida. She's still in a bit of a muddle trying to get her Voorheesville life on track. Sandy, who is a knitter and quilter, is knitting scarves with beads incorporated into them. She was working on one that had beads at the ends but she has another that has beads throughout the entire scarf. I've only seen knitting with beads in books so I was very pleased to see the actual thing. Kathy O. brought in her finished quilt to show. It is lovely. Agnes was doing some hand piecing taking her cue from Marguerite who always hand pieces. Deb had a couple of cushion covers she wants to stuff so that she can use them in a new rocking chair she has. We learned that Tina is having a knee replacement next week then will be off to summer in the north country. Ethel is off to Georgia and Florida for a little vacation. I am on vacation too next week but I'm not going anywhere. I hope I can get some sewing and organizing done. Kathy O. brought in her ipad today on which she had downloaded a quilt book. A bunch of us took a look at that. This weekend is the Delmar group's quilt show at the Ravena/Coeymans/Selkirk high school. I will be working there and hope to see many of my ladies.

16 ladies attended Nimblefingers this Tuesday. Marguerite and I laid out all of the blocks for our next raffle quilt and arranged them. We were 2 blocks short so I quickly made them. Then we started sewing them together. It will take awhile but I think this will be a really nice quilt. Tina brought in her maple leaf quilt--quilted by Lew Schedlbauer (the Quiltsmith). It looked beautiful! I think Tina is very happy to have it finished and ready for her bed. Elaine laid out her quilt top so that Kathy O. could help her cut out borders. Because I was busy sewing blocks together I didn't pick up any good gossip. Cathy Y. brought in some books to give away one of which I took home to add to my already huge pile of books to read.

17 ladies attended today. We had lots of show and tell. Winnie brought in her finished wedding quilt (for her granddaughter), Marguerite brought in her hand quilted quilt (top made by her mother in the 1980's), and Fran brought in her black and white quilt from last year's Flying Geese block of the month project. Lew S., the quiltsmith, brought in some batting for us. It always goes fast. There was lots of cross-stitching going on today too: Ethel, Marie, Hattie, Marguerite. Jo-Ann was knitting, Pat OR was doing some mending, Fran and Agnes were appliquing. I was doing nothing in particular except eating. Elaine brought in her music quilt top. Kathy O. helped her figure out her borders. For a first ever quilt it is very impressive! June is making a very nice quilt/embroidery hanging. Jo-Ann brought in some yummy muffins from Emma Cleary's. They put my store bought cookies to shame.

16 ladies attended today. Marie, who is trying to get rid of some stuff so that she can move, brought in a suitcase full of patterns. Unfortunately, no one took any so Pat H. took them to see if another of her groups could use them. It was a quiet day. Lots of knitting and cross-stitching going on. It's interesting to see the variety of projects each person has. I was informed that Rosemary had hurt her back--I was wondering why I hadn't seen her lately. I hope she gets to feeling better soon. Jo-Ann was starting a new quilt with pastel rabbits on it. Fran was making a circle pattern to make a baby quilt for a baby with lots of health problems. She was also working on one of her beautiful wool pieces. Marguerite brought in her finished cross-stitch piece and was asking for opinions on how to get out the crease from having folded it while she was working on it. Marie thought it would come out if she stretched it to frame it. Marguerite had tried steaming it but that didn't help. Pat brought in some scrap fabric to cut into squares. And Deb was back--full of vinegar as always.

14 ladies attended today. Someone brought in many bags of fabric to give away so I put those out for grabs. I wanted to find the blocks we made for another raffle quilt several years ago and ended up cleaning out the closet a bit in order to find them so we had a lot of giveaways today. Marguerite and I laid out the blocks to see if we had enough for a quilt. We needed about 10 additional blocks so I asked some of our newer members if they could make some. So in a couple of weeks we should be ready to lay it out and begin sewing it together! It will be our next raffle quilt. I just hope it doesn't take as long to quilt as the last one did! Marguerite finished the cross-stitch she was working on. I was getting worried because I haven't seen her hand piecing for quite awhile but she assures me that she has a couple of quilts in process at home. Tina informed me that Lew had finished quilting her quilt. She will bring it in to show when she gets the binding on. She's very happy with it though. Lew does do a tremendous job. I have a top I need to finish up at home and take to him to quilt. Now that I know he's back from vacation I'll have to hurry up and finish it. I'm not sure what everyone was working on today. I sat and went through magazines and didn't make the rounds. Marie was searching for a word in a book she had read: it was solu___ . She didn't know the word and wanted to look it up in a big dictionary but she never did find the word. She says this kind of thing drives her crazy and she'll keep looking until she finds it. I told her she may need to reread the book.

Today we had 18 ladies attend and we had a lovely pot luck lunch. We had lots of good food and I think we all went home stuffed. I know I did. Winnie brought in a friend of hers, Joan. I hope she'll join us again. Most people didn't come prepared to work, only to eat. I actually came prepared to work though--I got out my block of the month Fiesta quilt and cut out some blocks. Sandie was crocheting a blanket for the Hilltowns. Marie brought in her empty jars to give away. She had sent all the buttons that were in the jars to her daughter and brought us the empties. They were grabbed up fast. We had some books and magazines to give away. Most of those went. Next week we'll be back to normal. The show's over and we've had our celebration-- now it's time to get to work again! I'll pull out the next raffle quilt which we started a year or so ago and see where we left off. I'm sure we'll need some more blocks.