After 30 years in the same house in outer London, I downsized and moved to the Midlands. Moving from a house to a flat meant disposing of a lot of furniture and deciding what not to throw or give away. Apart from necessities I decided to keep all my sewing stuff, yarn and my long-neglected recorders. I soon found recorder players and am now involved in several informal groups and HERO - the Heart of England Recorder Orchestra - and the local village band.
I found the Midland Arts Centre brochure which offered an embroidery course so decided to join. It was scary at first. The class were working on 'Trees', each member creating her own interpretation, and I was given pictures of trees, paper, scissors and paints and told to design something. I wasn't sure that I would go back the next week but did for several years and learned almost everything I know now, including that I was creative.
This is the final result of that first attempt, which I made into a cushion. The background is made of bits of old sheets and the trees are painted calico and old net curtaining.
Many of the others in the class were members of the Embroiderers' Guild which I thought sounded very important but I was persuaded to join. The Birmingham branch is a thriving and go-ahead group, meeting monthly with a speaker or hands-on session, drop-in sessions at the new Birmingham Library, Saturday workshops and other activities.
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