The Andorran Patchwork Group – Friendship in Action

When a dear friend goes through a rough patch – and weathers it with courage, spirit and good humour – how do you show your admiration and affection? Well, if you are a patchworker, you make a celebratory patchwork quilt – naturally! And how do twelve different women make one patchwork quilt? Well, the Andorran Patchwork Group met (secretly, of course) to plan the design and fabrics for a quilt to be made especially for Sandra Reid, bearing in mind Sandra’s favourite colours. Then, each lady made a ‘block’ (a 12 inch square) in her favourite pattern: cats; a poppy; a fan; geometrical shapes; a star etc. Gill Furmston then sewed the squares together (framing each with red fabric) to create a quilt top.

On Wednesday, 30^th. March, nine of the patchworkers met for lunch at the French Restaurant in Escale and – with the cunning help of Sandra’s husband, David – made sure Sandra arrived without knowing that the party was especially being held in her honour. We presented the quilt top to Sandra, promising to help her turn it into a finished quilt by layering it with wadding and a backing fabric, and then quilting it to hold the layers together with decorative stitching. We also provided a label to be sewn on the back so that, in years to come, any one who sees the quilt will know why, when, where and by whom the quilt was made, all for love of Sandra.

To our delight, the quilt top attracted the attention of the staff, and the Maitre D’ insisted on inspecting the quilt and having it explained to him. Considering that there are many male patchworkers (are you surprised?!) this was a lovely reaction to our creation.

One can always buy a gift for a friend, but that is really rather impersonal. To spend time, care and effort in making something – particularly as part of a group effort – is much more satisfying for the makers and the recipient. When the gift is to celebrate a very special person and her wonderful nature – then creativity is put to its best use. Thank you to Sandra Reid for inspiring all of us. And thank you to Gill Furmston for organising our work, and our celebratory lunch.

report by Valerie Rymarenko