How many Surprise Birthday Parties can a girl have?

Now, I have a good friend who had one of those Big O birthdays way back on 2 January. Around that time her husband threw a surprise birthday party for her at their beach house, but being the holiday period, many of her friends were away, including us. From all accounts we missed out on a magnificent day.

So on Tuesday our little group of eight quilters (Loose Threads) who have been together for many years now, decided to throw her a surprise lunch of our own, as it was the first time we had met as a group since before Christmas. The guest of honour had brought along an apple and a few cracker biscuits for lunch, so she was quite chuffed when she saw the spread set out on the table. Who needs cracker biscuits when you can have this?

By now Birthday Girl thought she had seen the end of her prolonged birthday celebrations, but little did she know that the very next day yet another surprise birthday lunch had been organised by a larger group of quilters (30). Our friend was the founder of our group, Jems Quilt Sitters, so at our first meeting of the year we could not let the opportunity of a party slip through our fingers. I am kicking myself that I left my camera at home, because each member had created a fabric postcard for the birthday girl and some of them were little works of art. Other members took photos, so I'll get some copies and post them in a future blog.

But it hasn't all been parties and celebrations. I have managed to make a couple of dresses for my Etsy shop. I received a shipment of the latest Anna Maria Horner fabric line, Good Friends, and was absolutely delighted when I opened the package and saw the beautiful colour range. So I made a knot dress.

I had been procrastinating over a little dress I had cut out last week, so I decided it was time to get it put together.

And so another year begins in earnest - can it be almost the end of February already?