Slow living

My sister made this patchwork wall hanging by hand, as a present for me three Christmases ago. At that Christmas, she hadn't quite finished it, so she gave it to me as a 'half-present', to admire, which I did! Then she took it back, to finish it. By the second Christmas, it was fully finished. We did a lot of discussing to decide how to mount it on the wall elegantly. By the third Christmas (last Christmas) I had collected all the stuff for mounting it, but no volunteer to actually put hand to drill and do it. This morning, finally, it was done!

I can't sew to save my life but while waiting for my wall hanging to materialise, I have learnt a lot about the history and traditions of patchwork quilting, visited the V & A Exhibition 'Quilts', seen where the female convicts made the Rajah Quilt in Tasmania, learnt about the 19C London Foundlings' mothers' habit of leaving a half-torn bit of quilt with their baby in the hope that when they returned, less poor, in later years, they could display the other half of the fabric to prove that this really was their baby.

It was a slow present my sister gave me, but it had many dimensions!