For around a month Mr Myasthenia Kid aka Jay and I have had to keep an enormous secret, I won’t lie it’s been incredibly difficult. Some of the first people I wanted to tell were you my blog followers.  We had been sworn to secrecy and we didn’t want to jeopardise it, so as best we could we kept the news to a smallish group of people. However now the secret is out and I can share it with you.

 

In the UK there is a channel called the Sewing Quarter, you can check them out on YouTube as the 4 hour show is downloaded daily. Jay and I have been watching it since it started being broadcast by Sky Television in January this year. The channel sells fabric, sewing machines, quilting accessories anything really to do with sewing by machine or hand. It also however has excellent hints and tips for people of all abilities and I have learnt loads from watching the show, much more than I could have done by reading books as you have things demonstrated in front of you. The main reason I think a lot of viewers watch though is due to the main presenters John Scott and Natasha McCarty, both have very different presentation styles but they are equally enjoyable to watch. They also have a guests on that demonstrate the items that the channel is selling that day. It is after all a channel that exists to sell products, it has no outside advertising so to exist it must make money, that is the way of the world.

 

Back in January Jay and I were decorating the lounge and whilst we were doing that we had the sewing channel on as it was their birthday week. They had lots of special offers, competitions and a sew off between Natasha and John – hilarious. Well whilst we were painting Jay must have been listening quite intently to John, as a few weeks later I was sewing in the kitchen and jay piped up “ As Rachel is finishing off her Easter wreath, I will take you through todays bundles”. I had to stop sewing I was laughing so hard. I mentioned it on the Sewing Quarter fan page and people started asking for a video. I posted something along the lines of if John Scott mentions Jay on the show then he will do a video. So this happened – sorry for the poor quality of the sound and shaky camera work, I have recorded it using my phone straight off the TV.

 

 

We were mentioned a few more times during this week, much to our delight so on the Sunday Jamie decided he would do his first video.

 

 

It went down exceptionally well with the fans of the show, to be honest it went a bit crazy! Later than evening whilst I was in bed Jay came rushing in to tell me the head honcho at the channel Neil Garratt had sent him a message on Facebook and what should he do. You see Jay is not brilliantly tech savvy, he can operate Facebook but he had no idea he would have to accept a message to be able to respond to it etc. I was in shock and looked at his phone to see that indeed Neil had messaged him. I accepted the message and then handed the phone back to Jay to let him read it. It said that they wanted Jay on the show to be alongside John and that we had to keep it quiet as they wanted it to be a surprise for the fans. Jay had to email him and one of the members of staff form the show would be in touch with us.

 

Within a few days it was all set in motion that Jay and I would travel to Birmingham and visit Sewing Quarter HQ and that Jay would be on air on 12th March. It was all very exciting but oh so difficult to arrange and keep a secret. Especially when Jay had to organise time off work and I had to organise a dog sitter for Mollie and Frankie. Hayley the lovely lady that we were working with offered us a hotel room for the Sunday night but as we had never left the dogs overnight before ( and they are old doggies now) we didn’t feel comfortable doing that. We decided we would travel up that day and do it all in one as we had when we went to the Emma Bridgewater Factory in October last year.

 

When Jay did the first video and I posted it onto the Sewing Quarter Fans Page on Facebook people had asked for more. Even people who had never seen the Sewing Quarter but were friends with us on Social Media asked for more when I posted the video to my Facebook timeline and Instagram. So to keep Jay relevant and the fans happy, we recorded another video, plus we had been mentioned a few times on the show by John Scott ( which we always got an enormous kick out of).

 

 

 

The second video went down as well as the first, which was a huge relief!

 

My planning and organising went into military operation mode, my anxiety has been up through the roof since suffering a series of bereavements at the beginning of the year / end of last year. My need to control everything as much as possible was in overdrive. I am sure Jamie must have got sick to death of my ever-growing to do list that seemed to cover every minute aspect of our lives! New shirts for Jamie had to be bought as John is famous for his flamboyant shirts, Jay couldn’t appear in his usual conservative style. Thankfully my best mate from primary school Sharon, offered to look after the dogs as soon as I told her what had happened. She like everyone else that knew what was happening said it was about time that we had something nice happen after all we had been through. Ellie offered us a car to use should something happen to ours, she also said she would be available to assist Sharon should she need any help. So many people offered us so much help and support it really was amazing.

 

The time between knowing that we were travelling to Birmingham and getting there seemed to at the same time to pass very slowly but also very quickly. It was so exciting but the excitement was stopping me from sleeping. From Monday night onwards this week I have been out for the count before 7.30pm. I am totally exhausted and in a lot of pain but it has been worth it.

 

Jay made a final video before our trip to Birmingham

 

When this one went up, so many of our friends and people on the fans site were saying “when will they be on the show together?” and that kind of thing. I just kept saying nothing that would give the game away, although it was getting harder and harder to keep this secret. I will admit on Friday last week I did message a few people and let them know that Jay was going to be on the show. People were beside themselves with excitement and were so happy for us. It was really lovely to know that all these people were delighted for us.

 

There is so much more I could tell you, I will probably expand more on the experience in next weeks blog post but I am aware this post is already getting quite wordy and its been the most I have written in ages!

 

So from the Sewing Quarter Monday 12th March 2018 here are Jays appearances:

 

Jays first segment

 Jay closing the show

 

We would both like to say a massive thank you to everyone at the Sewing Quarter HQ, especially Hayley Marshallsay, John Scott and Deborah Simms.