HI Bttrflii I got your Nerd joke. When one of my colleagues showed up with a stack of AV mags for me to borrow, I did indeed think she was a nerd. But I was a "recreational drinker" ... er, grower ... back then. Trying to stave off full-blown addiction. I would much rather discuss AVs than football anyday. Linda, I am glad you explained about the AVSA website, it used to be great, anyone could access photos and lists. With the new website, only members can access that info, so I will join. Now I am wondering if I will get my mag or not it I join. Now that I have been collecting and growing for a few years, I have built up basic knowledge so being a member would be more meaningful to me now. Joanne

We had a reunion last summer after many years of not having one. It wasn't near as organized as most of the suggestions listed above. We plan to have another one this summer. Hopefully better and more innovative this year. Turn out was light last year but hoping for a bigger turn out this summer. We reserved a shelter at one of the local parks and put an ad in the local newspaper giving the date and place. Some people received personal invitations if they lived further away and didn't subscribe to the local newspaper. The ad was costly so probably would have been cheaper to send out invitations to each family. I do family history research so I took along my book for everyone to look at. Then I also made a poster board with wedding pictures of my grandparents, parents and aunts and uncles. Underneath each picture I put their birthdates, wedding dates and if deceased put that date also. Both were a big hit.We had a playground in front of our shelter for the smaller children and was also a swimming beach nearby. Food was potluck and worked out well. People just had fun visiting. Most of the crowd was seniors so I don't think games would have gone over too well at our gathering but I love hearing all the ideas. I took my camera and snapped pictures of each individual family as they arrived. Then we took one group shot but some had already left. I wish I had thought of the group shot earlier in the day. I love the idea of hiring a photographer but that would get too expensive for our group. I also have heard where some reunions each family wears different colored tshirts to identify which group they belong to. We had name tags at our gathering. One other reunion we attended had a notebook on a table as you entered the shelter and you wrote your name, address, email and a memory of your descendants. Everybody could read those notes and next year it will be shared at the next reunion. Also one couple was in charge of pictures and then they posted them to a web site to be shared with the reunion attendees. All the pictures were labeled so if you forgot some names it was a nice reminder. Keep posting ideas. I will be checking to see what other ideas come up.

Lucky you to spend an evening with Bonnie. I sure like her quilts and I'm sure everyone has used her patterns and tips. That was very nice of you to thank her from the internet community. I am trying her system on a limited basis...I cut the leftovers when a project is done into 2 1/2" strips and 3" squares. I am doing a scrap project that uses 100's of 2 1/2" squares so the strips came in handy. I find just doing this small bit keeps the scraps out of my regular fabric. I plan on a string quilt with most of them. Janice, my guild is like yours very small but we manage and have lots of fun. We only have a few that are computer literate and they enjoy me showing some of the things we do in this group. Jean

Minnie, What I am trying to say is this: do not use the first page of the PDF to cut your patterns from; the first page is your placement sheet to show you the order (by number) to add the elements onto the stabilizer with the sky fabric pinned on or held on with spray; the "subsequent" pages are the next two (Sail Away) or in the case of the River Bend pattern, three pages. You are looking in the right place for all the pages needed to make the project. Teresa