The final part to this story is getting to my sister.

We live nearly 300 miles apart.  Of course the easy thing is just to send it, but this quilt has become very personal and I wasn't sure I wanted to hand it over to a courier. Added to which, I wanted it to be a complete surprise for my sister.

 

Once more, my husband came up with a possible great solution. We both knew that my sister's daughter is visiting for Christmas, and travelling by train, she would be passing through a town close to where I live. Would it be possible to arrange to be on the platform when her train came through, and then pass it to her so that she could take it down and give to her mum on her birthday?

 

I emailed my niece who thought it was a lovely idea but only one problem! She was travelling down by air. However, she suggested that I send it by courier and she would take delivery of it so that she could hide it away until my sister's birthday.

 

Since the birthday is on Christmas Day, I felt the need to get it couriered as soon as possible (by now it was early December), so I decided to address the package to my niece in the hope my sister won't realise who it's from, and just put it to one side to await her daughter's arrival.

 

And that's where we are now.

 

I do hope my sister likes the quilt - and the story behind it!