Why am I scared?

 The paperwork for my final salary pension arrived this week, confirming that I will get the money at the time I expected (there was no reason to doubt this but I think I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop). So now I feel it's okay to give notice to my current employers that I will be leaving at the end of October.  I'm thinking I will do that in a couple of weeks on the 15th, so giving six weeks notice (I have to give a minimum of a month) which seems reasonable.  But for some reason I feel quite fearful of taking that step. I guess there is a certain element of burning bridges, no going back etc.  I'm worried my manager is going to be shocked. And I hate being the centre of attention so absolutely am not looking forward to being singled out for daring to, getting to soon to be departing and the subsequent impact on the work and production figures, everyone wanting to know how come I'm going, why don't I want a big virtual party (shudder) etc.  And to a large extent it's probably because I have been working for about 37 years apart from breaks for education and having a child, I've always had to work, and I think deep down it just feels really wrong that I won't be working in future.  Especially when DH (and DS) will still be working for many years to come, which is going to be weird when they are both still working from home.  It is going to be strange. I expect I'll get used to it.

This week I finished Block 3 of the Australian BOM and actually got caught up!  Block 4 arrived two days later.  I wanted to wait until the Clover Wonderfuse web arrived but it appears it is shipping from America (even though I ordered it on Amazon) and won't be here for another couple of weeks. So I'll probably go ahead with Steam a Seam 2 Lite again for Block 4.  I don't feel Block 3 turned out as well as the first two blocks.  It's alright but a bit clumsy.  I am not ruling out the possibility of re-doing some of the earlier blocks at the end of the process, if I get a lot better at embroidery.

I finished the first Lenten Rose fair-isle sock.  I don't know what happened with this but for some reason my tension is rubbish.  The deep pink yarn is smoother and the stitches aren't too bad, but  stitches in the light pink yarn (hand-dye indie brand) are all over the map. Presumably it is sticker than the darker yarn?  As it was fair isle, I was trying hard not to over-tension my floats and I may have gone too far the other way as the sock is quite loose on my sock stretcher so likely going to be big on my foot as well.  I used to be good at this...

I also finished knitting and assembling the penguin which was a free magazine kit so not the greatest quality.  I like knitting toys and it's sort of cute - very reminiscent of Pingu if you've ever seen those stop-motion shows.

Some stash acquisition this week:  We went to Cambridge with the caravan last weekend for the bank holiday. One of the things I had pre-booked was a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum, which is in a stunning building and had an interesting gift shop as well.

In the gift shop I bought this tea towel which is digitally printed with an image of an embroidered band sampler from 1720, and is so realistic that when I first saw it in the shop I thought it was actually stitched.  I bought one for me to use possibly for sewing a bag, and one for m-i-l as a gift.

Today we went over to the storage yard to do a few bits on the caravan, and then as we were nearby we stopped into Daventry to the Bramble Patch quilt shop. It's quite a large shop by British standards. I don't normally visit there as everything is full price and expensive, and in the past I was unimpressed with their service, but they do stock all the latest fabric ranges.  There was a class being taught in the large hall which made me feel a bit sad and nostalgic, I haven't been to a class for so long.  Even before the pandemic, because they are often expensive and generally to make a thing, and if you don't want the thing then it's a bit pointless.  I looked it up and the people I saw today had paid £50 each just to work on their own project with the company/assistance of a teacher from the shop for the day.  I can work on my own projects at home for free, lol.  I think I still miss not having a quilt club to go to, after running my own for so long before we moved.  

But I picked up some thread, some decorative buttons and some sale fabric bundles: a scrap bag of Lewis & Irene Bunny Hop remnants, and a pack of six FQs for £10 which is much more my kind of price than the going rate of £3.50 or up for new fabric.  Near to the quilt shop is a secondhand bookstore which we also visited but there are a couple of antique shops in the same building.    On one antiques stall I got some cotton lace which I'm sure will be useful for something and wasn't expensive.

Also at the antique shop I spotted this great triple tier metal towel rail which came home with me. I'm hoping to display some of my smaller quilts on it, or perhaps some of my vintage linens. Isn't it cute?

29 working days to go!