A quilt is born!

After working on the snowball/octagon quilt for half of the year now, it is finally finished and I shall be handing it over to my friend Mary in 3 days time. Phew. I'm hoping that it will be her favourite Christmas present. In fact I'm hoping it will be her favourite Christmas present ever. It will be such a shock when she opens the box to find I've made this for her and I can't wait to hear what she thinks.
I've previously posted photographs and progress updates so it's lovely to post a photograph of the finished work - albeit in a casual, draped-over-chair way, but you get the impression.

Here goes...

I love how the navy blue back/border pulls it all together. I didn't trust myself to sew the borders in place on the machine - I didn't fancy my chances of keeping a straight line as well as feeding/supporting the bulk, so I hand-stitched the borders and corners and I'm pleased with how it looks.

 It's always an odd feeling to spend so much time making something and then letting it go....but Mary is the first friend I made when I moved to Leeds 19 years ago and she's very precious to me. It was a pleasure to make this for her and think of her as I made it, and love went into every stitch. Happy Christmas Mary x.

Goodbye to Gus.

At the end of November I had to say goodbye to my sweetheart, Gus. He became poorly quite suddenly and an x-ray revealed a tumour on his heart. There was no option but to go through with the last act of kindness.
He was approximately 17 years old, but had only been with us for 3 and a half of those - not long enough. One of the hardest things about losing him is that because he was diabetic we had such a strong daily routine together - insulin injections morning and night and meals at set times.
I'll miss how he managed to get so much cat food in his drinking water, his ridiculous curled tail which made him look like a curling stone, his rumble-purr, how he nuzzled my feet and I'll miss his beautiful green eyes. The house is empty without him. He brought out the best in me - tenderness and patience especially.
I think about him constantly and hope that he's still with me. Words are a clumsy way of expression at present. All I know is that when he went, I feel like he took my heart.