A nearly finished quilt!

Well, I've been a bit slow on the bears lately you may or may not have noticed. That's because 11 weeks ago I set myself the task of completing a quilt for my dear sister-in-law's birthday, which was today. Ruth was celebrating her 60th birthday, which I have had great pleasure in teasing her about, seeing she is 3 years older than me LOL ......... although I know full well she'll get me back when I reach the same age!! Anyway, I amazed myself at how well I've done, even though it's not quite finished. Bear in mind the applique (and there's quite a lot of it) and the quilting is all done by hand - yes, I'm a glutton for punishment!!

Anyway, even though not finished, I handed it over to Ruth; and after much admiration of it by everyone, I took it back from her so that I can finish the quilting. It was a secret up until today, but now that she's seen it, I can 'show & tell'!!

The sunflowers are in memory of my wonderful brother who we tragically lost 6 years ago, because those were his favourite flower; and the inclusion of them meant a lot to Ruth.

And labelled of course!

And to finish off, a few 'birthday tea' photos, including Charlie (Ruth's pup) who just couldn't get close enough to that beautiful cake - isn't he sooooo cute? I'm not going to put a picture of Ruth on, as I don't have her permission and she may not wish to appear on my blog, but Charlie won't mind!!