Friendship

Chris and I met in 1991. Our husbands knew each other because they shared a passion in amateur herpetology (the study of reptiles). We hit it off because we shared a love of craft. She did ceramics, tapestry and crochet and I was mainly doing cross stitch then. I taught her how to do cross stitch and she learnt, or taught herself, how to do everything else.

She is a prolific crafter now: patchwork quilting, doll making, bear making, stitchery, cross stitch etc etc And she finishes everything. Well almost everything.We started doing a cross stitch Santa project at the same time back in the '90's. Funnily enough, neither of us has finished it yet. It quite often pops up in conversation when we get together "How is your Santa cross stitch coming along?" We then look at each other and laugh.

We have shared a lot together over the last twenty odd years. Our daughters were born one month apart and our sons were born four months apart. (She and my sister were my support people when my son was born.) Our marriages finished at about the same time too. There have been laughter and tears shared over the years but above all there has been friendship, support and love.

Pictured throughout this post are gifts that Chris has made for me over the years. Below is the present that she made me for my birthday this year.

And she also gave me this book which is wonderful. It has eleven quilting projects in it based on the gardens of the quilters profiled. Another love we share is of gardens, although Chris is the one who has the green thumb. I just appreciate everybody else's gardens. A great read and a great inspiration, just like Chris.

Now Chris, if you are reading this, and I know that you will be, you really need to start a blog of you own so that you can share all of the wonderful projects you have made and your stunning garden. Thank you for being my friend, through thick and thin.

Talk again soon

Jeanette

PS: I think the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me was something Chris has said:
"Jeanette I love that you never change. You are always the same." I think I like being the constant in someone's life.