I took the day off from worrying about art today, and drove to Swansea to visit my very dear, long-time old friend Alun, who is facing some tough times health-wise. I hadn't seen him for a couple of months, so it was good to have time to catch up, and also to admire the completion of work on his lovely house in Mumbles, which has been exquisitely renovated and extended, complete with a room dedicated solely to being his library, another room for a study/office, and a wonderful open-plan sitting room/kitchen/dining room all opening onto the garden. He also has organised a labour-saving gas-fired wood burner, a very swish kitchen and bathroom, and fabulous sea views from almost every window. He is only a few minutes walk from the water's edge. The weather was lovely, so Swansea Bay was at its summer best. We had a nice stroll along to Mumbles for lunch, and then coffee at the legendary Verdi's ice cream parlour.
I had taken him a quilt, too, which I had made from a bundle of fabrics bought at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC two years ago, and made for him last year and intended for his 60th birthday, but somehow it wasn't quite finished then and the moment passed. But now it was the perfect gift, and he seemed genuinely pleased to have it - and best of all, it fits perfectly on his big squashy sofa.
So when he is in the thick of debilitating treatment in the next couple of months, I hope he can snuggle under or on this quilt while he's watching rubbish telly or reading co-op history, or whatever, and it will act like the rainbow quilts I made for my children when they were small - which came with the message that "no-one can be sad under a rainbow quilt" - so I hope Alun won't feel so bad under a star quilt either.
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