One Lovely Blog Award

It's a long time since I particpated in a blog award but I've decided to just go with this one and post it without too much thought - not a week long planning and writing process, just hit the new blog post button and type.

Here goes:

I've been nominated by Helen @Till We Quilt Again, a bloggy friend of many years but we still haven't met in person.  Well we sort of did once, she dropped by The City Quilter and recognised me but I was in the middle of a Bernina sale and she didn't like to interrupt and say 'hi'; I so wish she had!!!   Back in March she drove pretty much past my apartment on her way to North New Jersey with another bloggy friend Nini of Nini & The Sea but I couldn't meet up with them as I was on a trip back to England :(  Now this bit's bizarre, Nini's blog sharing daughter, Chelsey is a member of my NYC Metro Mod Quilt Guild but I've never met her - how on earth does that happen?!!!

I'm to list 7 things people might not know about me and here they are:

1:  I've only been quilting three and a half years though I've been sewing for over 40 - I can vouch for it being a pretty painless and easy transition!

This is my first quilt, it now lives in St Andrews, Scotland with my beautiful daughter, Flicky, and that's the view from my roof garden - you can see all of my work since 2012 here.

2: I play guitar, have done since I was 12 but left my guitars in storage in England so my husband, Simon, surprised me with a trip to a Manhattan guitar store on my 50th birthday and bought me a Martin guitar.  It's the same model we bought for our son Jack years ago for his 21st birthday and boy did I covet it, sadly it may be the same model but it just doesn't play the same, maybe other guitar players will appreciate what I mean? :'(

3: Though I fly frequently, I hate flying.  Five years ago, after crying for 8 hours crossing the Atlantic and the air steward suggesting I got myself a sleeping tablet for future flights, I booked myself on a Virgin Flying Without Fear course in the UK.  It changed my life.  I'm still not a flying fan, but now I understand the science of how planes fly (a revelation in itself) and I love to help other reluctant flyers with helpful info - my own flying mantra is "turbulence is uncomfortable but not dangerous - it can even get you there quicker!"

Virgin offers the most amazing Flying Without Fear courses but I think these are still in the UK only.  If you're interested in knowing more but aren't able to attend a course I highly recommend the Virgin Flying Without Fear team's book 'Flying Without Fear' - just reading that alone can change your life too or you can follow them on their blog.

4:  I'm gluten intolerant and insulin resistant and on 2 January 2015 I was diagnosed with hyper (over active) thyroid disease.  I'm now taking anti-thyroid medication and have experienced the terrible uncontrollable weight gain that goes with it which is causing me great distress and means you won't see me in many photos for some time if I can help it :(  It's been quite a journey since January including a severe swing into hypo (under active) thyroidism for a spell but they tell me life will be better than ever once everything's stabilised, I'm keeping my fingers crossed :)

I said I was going to make this a really quick post but I'm already struggling to think of things to share and I've been at this for over an hour!!!  To speed things up here's a couple of things I think I've mentioned before:

5:  Back in England I had my own interior design company and I was priviliged to design the homes of two of the founding members of the IMDb website.

6:  Chris is my middle name - it's a family tradition to be known by your middle name and nothing at all to do with not liking my first name.

7:  My favourite NYC restaurant is La Zie - but don't tell everyone, it's my best kept secret ;D

Now I'm supposed to nominate my top 10 must read blogs but given I currently follow 279 it could take me some time to whittle them down.  Instead I'm going to get a bit of shut eye as I'm doing a Doodle Piecing class in the morning with Patricia Belyea of Okan Arts, Seattle.

Hope you've enjoyed finding out a bit more about me, I need a cuppa now before bed!!!

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