Three not one baby quilts ....

This was propossed finish no. 5 on my Q1 list. It was supposed to be one baby quilt but all of a sudden another 2 babies appeared, or will appear! The top two quilts are for boys and the bottom one a girl. I love churn dashes but dont want to see another for a while! Love the Lewis and Irene fabrics i used for this. So cute!

2nd non quilty post!

Senior Fellowship

Goodness me! Two non quilty posts in a row! This happened in December and I was so over the moon about it. Sadly the day after we lost a very loved family member and I never really got back to this. But this is huge for me, really huge. I mentioned in my last post about getting thrown out of University the first time I went there. Sometimes I feel the intervening years have all been about overcompensating for it! I was persuaded to do a City and Guilds qualification in my first job, I really didn't want to do it as I presumed I was stupid after the first go at Uni! But my boss was adamant and I was terrified, I couldn't let him down! So I went and did it and d’ya know what? Im not stupid ….. I just needed to learn a few lessons – don't be afraid to ask questions and do lots of revision, simple really!

Next up was an OU degree, oh my god I loved that it was brilliant, hooked me on learning. After that I bit the bullet and did another library degree, got a first 😊 then a Masters by Research  then a Pg Cert in Education then this …. Not so much a qualification but a wonderful affirmation of my career so far. I had to write a 7k word account of how fab I am backed up by two referee statements, well not quite but you know the kind of reflective document I mean! It was like pulling teeth but I did it and here we are!

Not bad for someone who got thrown out of Uni in 1984 😊

Best day ever

I love my job, no really I am so lucky, for the majority of my working life I have absolutely adored my job. Now don't get me wrong there have been very low moments, you simply cant go through working life without having them. But I cant say there is any job i have done that I havent adored.

I work as a librarian and its mostly been in Higher Education. Not bad for someone who got thrown out of library school in 1984 😊ach its was my own fault, I was partying too hard was scared and felt totally out of my depth. But it wasn't helped by the fact that we had a dragon of a librarian, god that woman was horrible, really horrible. I often wonder if she had been nicer if that would have made a difference. I think it might have.

Anyhoo flash forward 30 odd years and this happens!!!!!

Every year our students association hold the STAR awards, the students nominate lecturers and Professional services staff who they feel have gone out of their way to help them. Ive been nominated 3 times before and honestly the nomination itself feels like you have won, just the fact that a student has gone out of their way to write and nominate you is amazing. They have to provide some justification of why they nominate you so its not just a tick box.

I went along with a lovely group of lecturers and when this category I was down for came up the Student President started to read out some of the feedback. Some of it mentioned referencing and tweeting when the snow storms were here. The table I was at, the lecturers looked at me and said “its you Sheila its you!” and then this came up!!!!!!

By this time I was shaking and tears were rolling down my cheeks, what a daft auld librarian eh? But one of the pieces of feedback was – “sheila never makes you feel like any question is stupid” and that got me, that took me back to my 19 year old self  with the dragon of a librarian who made me feel soooooooooo stupid and unwelcome in the library.

YA BOO SUCKS TO YOU MARY WOOD!!!!!!

Sorry but that felt good. I swore as soon as I eventually got my library degree many years later that I would never let any student feel the way I was made to feel and this award did that.

I have to laugh, I was mortified and told the Student Union Managaress that I thought I had hugged the student president a bit too hard I was so over come. She messaged me this picture and said “ He was so hugging you right back!” Bless I adore working with the students, they really are what gets me up in the morning. That and quilting 😊

Thrawn

Yup its baltic oot there. I forced myself to get out and get the steps in because the weight has been slowly creeping back on. Bereavement ... snow ... i can use these all as excuses but i cant let it go on. 

One thing in my favour is that im thrawn (stubborn) i dont give up, it may take time but i dont want to give up. I wont be beaten!

So it stops here and now, my poor old joints need me to shift this weight, i have the tools, im paying  for gym membership, i have the fitbit food tracker, the gym does a weight and body mass composition thingy so it starts here. Operation “optimal auld age fur budsmam” starts here.

Another finish!

Please meet Priscilla, not currently Queen of the desert but queen of the snow. Yes i know peacocks are male 😊😊 but this had to be Priscilla. This was number 1 on my finish along list for Q1 i started making this at Gartmore. It has now become traditionsl for me and  lovely Ruth to make a twin pattern from Tartan kiwi and this year we chose the peacock from her fabulous book “Animal quilts” All detailed in this post. The fabrics are sll from the Lovely Katy at Japan crafts. Priscilla i might just love you a bit too much 💕💕