Friends Across the Pond

It began more than twenty years ago. It was back in the day when quilt block swaps were very, very popular. I no longer remember where they were posted or even how we found out about the phenomenon, but after participating in several of these exchanges, Bonnie and I decided we would run one of our own. 

We were both surprised when one of the participants turned out to be from Canterbury, United Kingdom. The blocks she submitted were more complicated than the ones we were making and she enclosed a sweet note and a picture of her church in the package. A correspondence ensued. And eventually Judi wrote us that she was planning to attend the old Rita Barber Lancaster Quilt Show and perhaps we'd like to join her in a class she was planning to take.  

And so it began. Judi liked Lancaster so much that she and her husband began to rent a place there for a month each spring. And during that month, our little hand-sewing group invited her to attend a meeting. Which she did and all of our group came to look forward to the annual "international meeting." More than twenty years! This winter Judi's husband took sick and they've had to postpone their May trip to September. 

A very sick husband? A quilter-friend's sick husband? We knew exactly what to do to support her. We sent her our love. And after a bit of a hassle with the customs people, it finally reached her yesterday.