A tea & quilting surprise gift!

So last week I was to have a tea-and-quilting themed week without even realizing it! Monday: the quilt guild meeting and quilting inspiration galore. Tuesday: a visit to a new quilt shop and the discovery of a cute teacup pattern. Wednesday: I arrived home and found this great bonanza of goodies had arrived in the day's mail!

My tea friend Phyllis had e-mailed that she was sending me a gift to celebrate the publication of my book. Now, really, Phyllis has done so many nice things for me over the past few months I ought to be sending her a gift, but still, I was delighted to find her package had arrived and could hardly wait to open it. Inside were these beautiful quilt design teawares from Sandy Lynam Clough! I'm a great fan of Sandy Clough's tea-themed artwork, and some years ago she had a business where her designs were sold at home parties. The business didn't last very long, and these pieces are no longer available except (rarely) on the secondary market. Turns out, Phyllis had been a tea lady for this line and she wanted me to have these pieces from her collection! W-O-W. Just wow. How perfect that quilt design teawares including this delightful teacup had come my way!

And the teapot, too! I was so tickled I rearranged a coffee table in the living room so these will be out on display. They read "Being loved makes you special," and indeed I felt special for receiving such incredibly generous gifts!

And now I have a confession to make: I am bad about not digging through to the bottom of a gift box, so it wasn't until I got ready to trash the big mailing box that I realized hmmm, there's something heavy beneath those packing peanuts. When I reached in and found the box with the matching plate, it was like getting my gift all over again! Needless to say, the quilting bug has bitten me bigtime and I intend to spend much of the holiday weekend stitching. I don't guess I have to tell you what I'll be sipping from, do I? (And again, thank you so much, Phyllis!)