The friendship of like minded friends is so special. I find it hard to put into words just how important it is to me, I suppose that is part of the reason I choose to stitch all the portraits of my Maberly Quilters patchwork group. This year has brought into focus just how special those friendships are. Within our group we set up an on-line group so that we could stay in touch with each other. We discussed simple things, like what flowers were in the garden,

how beautiful the sunrise was,

what we had been doing in the way of sewing. 
Funny things we had read.

We organised a swap of fabrics from our stashes with a sewn card for Mother's Day and when restrictions eased a little, morning tea at members homes, within the numbers allowed.

We normally all go out together to finish the year with a Christmas dinner, not this year. This year three of our members offered to cook the dinner at Mia's home. We all put in cash, and then, on the date of the last meeting of the year, turned up at her house.

Our gift this year (mine still isn't quite finished, and thankfully there were a lot in the same position,) was to make ourselves a present with the fabric we received for Mother's Day.
The ladies had set up the table on the back veranda. It was special. Mia lives high on a hill and we looked back out to the city in one direction and towards the bay in the other. To see planes in the sky during this year is a rarity and now that the state borders are open we sat and watched a procession of lights in the night sky. That seemed very strange.

The 'cheeky cooks' outdid themselves. They chose an Australiana theme for the decorations. Bush flowers and leaves from the garden, animal decorations from Kmart. The dinner was far more sumptuous than any we would have got elsewhere, and there was lots of laughter and love.'

But it was the Christmas tree that had us all laughing. It was a pile of toilet rolls all decorated within the choosen theme. After all the panic buying and fights over who would get the last rolls in supermarkets this year it was perfect.

After dessert Dianna always tells us who has been to the most meetings and who the least, there is usually a small prize attached to this. This year we all got prizes. The biggest when to those who hadn't missed a meeting and so on down the list. The prizes this year were 'toilet rolls '. I came somewhere in the middle.

So this year past is one to remember with thanks.
For our friends and the state politicians who kept us safe from the virus. (We have zero cases except for those returning from overseas and they are held in isolation.) A year to remember, with gratitude.