Friendship

Sometimes I wonder about what friendship means. Many times we think of people we know as if they were friends, but then it turns out that they may have been nothing more than acquaintances who happen to have a common interest. I did wonder how many of the people I regarded as friends would keep in touch with me after I had moved and only a few have kept in touch. So, even though I had known some of them a long time, and saw them on a regular basis, it seems that they did not regard me as a friend, merely an acquaintance with a common interest.

Now we have emails, facebook, ipads etc, it's very easy to keep in touch at a distance and so I have been trying not to mind very much about the ones who haven't. Some have kept in touch and I really value them, but things move on, and I am slowly getting used to my new surroundings and have started making friends here. Of course, it goes without saying that my best friend and constant companion, my DH is as dear to me as ever.

So, off to Trevithick Quilters today and had a lovely time chatting and getting on with some Christmas projects for my nearest and dearest. These ladies have really welcomed me and I hope that in time some of them will become true friends. They are a very lively bunch and their programme for the coming year is packed full of activities, group quilts, trips and workshops. Today I met two ladies who I hadn't met before and they were both engaged in some truly lovely hand embroidery which I really must try.

So, as I felt a bit isolated just after the move, I decided to join in with a "Friendship Quilt Swap" organised by the Quilters Gallery . I signed up to register my blog with them a while ago and they always have lots of interesting things to look at. The aim of the swap was to make a small quilt incorporating some hand embroidery to a design downloaded for free, from The Stitching Cow.

Here's my little quilt ready to be posted to my swap partner who lives in Virginia USA.

A rather twee message, it's true, but not too challenging to sew!

I did go a bit overboard on the quilting, but in the end I was really pleased with the result.

 So, on the 24th September, I posted my quilt off and chose to send it by air mail, sent an email to my swap partner and the coordinator to tell them it was on it's way and waited. A long silence followed and so last week I emailed the coordinator to say that despite two emails to my swap partner, I had had no reply and still didn't know if my little quilt had arrived safely. My swap partner is not the person who is sending me a quilt, and I haven't received one yet so pardon me for feeling that this had been a waste of time and that the hands of friendship do not extend very far!!!

Then today, my swap partner, Patricia sent me an email to say that my quilt had arrived safely, but it took 42 days to get there rather than the 7 to 10 days I had been given to believe! Also, the reason she had not replied before was that she had had a really bad fall and had suffered some horrible injuries and had not been able to do anything much  until now. In fact she had decided that as she had not been able to make a quilt herself to pass on to her swap partner, she was going to send mine on to them and not keep it, even though she said she really loved it.

So I'm rethinking my definition of what friendship means and even though I probably won't ever get to meet Patricia, I feel she is a friend in the true sense and I'm glad I took part in the swap now.