Tag Archives: Janet Edmonds

The Lion Awards

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The Missenden Abbey Contingent: Jill Booker (Floristry Tutor) Jill Harden (Medal Winner, Floristry and Lion Award) Jane Robinson (Medal Winner, Stitched Textiles), and Janet Edmonds (Embroidery Tutor)

The Missenden Abbey Contingent: Jill Booker (Floristry Tutor) Jill Harden (Medal Winner, Floristry and Lion Award) Jane Robinson (Medal Winner, Stitched Textiles), and Janet Edmonds (Embroidery Tutor)

What a night! City and Guilds did us proud, with a great celebration of all the awards. Congratulations to Jill Harden, who also picked up a Lion Award for her Floristry course. Well done Jill and Jill!

'The Red Carpet'.

‘The Red Carpet’.

Not sure what made us laugh, but that's the kind of evening it was.

Not sure what made us laugh, but that’s the kind of evening it was.

Here I am on my first (and probably only) red-carpet photo-session! With any luck the official ones will be slightly better…(later comment – no, they weren’t!)

For me, one of the awards that particularly stood out was for Samith Rajapaksha, who travelled all the way from Sri Lanka to collect his award for International Learner of the Year. To do his course and get to his work-place, he had to walk two hours from his village every day. I liked his statement that ‘no dream is too big and no dreamer is too small’. I was also pleased to see an award for Ian Reynolds, Community Supporter of the Year, for his work supporting carers, ‘the forgotten people’.

 

It was a great evening; drinks, acrobats, eats, entertainments, speeches, awards, posh frocks, more drinks, and lots of socialising. We had some great conversations with so many interesting people, from different subjects, different age-groups and different social backgrounds. The one thing in common was a sense of energy, enthusiasm and excitement. It was great talking to some of the people in their twenties who had won awards – it was clearly a life-changing event. You could see the passion and energy that went into it all.  There were a few funny conversations, such as chatting to the felt-making medal-winner while our other-halves compared notes on the silk ties made by their respective partners. Here’s DH, sporting his.

DSC00073A rather strange photo on the right here, but it does record the extremely rare event of a good-hair-day, so here it is for posterity!

 

 

City and Guilds Medal Award Ceremony

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Medal Presentation. Left to right: Margaret Walker, Chief Verifier for Creative Studies at City and Guilds; Janet Edmonds, Embroidery Tutor; Me; Beth French, Adult Learning Service Manager for Bucks CC.

Medal Presentation. Left to right: Margaret Walker, Chief Verifier for Creative Studies at City and Guilds; Janet Edmonds, Embroidery Tutor; Me; Beth French, Adult Learning Service Manager for Bucks CC.

What a big day on Saturday! Missenden Abbey hosted a lovely event for the presentation of the City and Guilds Gold Award Medal for Excellence for Stitched Textiles and for Floristry. There were a hundred or so people in the audience, including current City and Guilds students, my fellow Diploma students, Missenden Abbey staff, and DH for moral support. Thanks to Alison Pearce at the Abbey for organising a lovely event. It was all quite nerve-racking for someone who doesn’t like to be the centre of attention, but I really appreciated that the Abbey made it a special occasion. Despite my nerves it was lovely to be made a fuss of. The ceremony was for two of us – Jill Harden won a Medal for Excellence for her Floristry course. Here’s a photo of all of us.

Margaret Walker, Janet Edmonds, Me, Beth French, Jill Harden (Floristry Award Winner), and Jill Booker, Floristry Tutor.

Margaret Walker, Janet Edmonds, Me, Beth French, Jill Harden, Floristry Award Winner, and Jill Booker, Floristry Tutor.

It felt very unreal to be receiving this award, because of my real diffidence, many years ago now, about signing on for the first part of the course (now the Certificate, then ‘Part One’.) I remember seeing the end of course show at Northbrook College and feeling inspired to try it but also feeling quite intimidated because I didn’t see how I could possibly reach a sufficient standard to do the first course, let alone the second one. Luckily the tutor, Sue Munday, made me laugh about this apprehension and so she was able to introduce me to the delights of design, colour, stitch and particularly machine-embroidery. It was many years later that I signed up for the Diploma Course with Janet Edmonds, and continued the creative journey. Janet has been an inspiring and encouraging teacher, who has opened door after door into new worlds. Her own work is amazing, and we have all learned so much.

I was really pleased that my fellow-students were able to come to the presentation. The support of the group has got us all through many ‘life events’ during the course, as ‘life’ has taken it’s twists and turns over the three years. It has been a pleasure to work alongside such positive and enthusiastic people, who are now firm friends.  Here we are, together with Janet Edmonds.DSC09999

Here’s Janet receiving her thank-you present from us, some time ago now, at the end of the course. It’s a sewing-roll, designed by Cheryl and stitched to her instructions by the four of us.DSC08437DSC08442