Embroidery

"One of my most vivid recollections this - the first time I was away from home, staying with my grandmother. I was about ten and feeling homesick in a strange place with only her familiar face to comfort me, and so she bought me some linen and silks and started to teach me to embroider. I was to make a dressing-table set to take home with me - a daunting task for such a novice. She seemed a stern, stiff woman to me then, but she worked very lovingly with me, giving me pride in the work and pleasure in the anticipated reception of it. I remember coming home bursting with the wonder of it because I had made it myself and could give it as a surprise. Of all the things I have made since, this is probably the most enduring and carefully looked after. My mother has it still."


Jenny Lavin & Sue Pooley, Our Family Heritage: A Conversation between Two Sisters
in: Elinor, Gillian, Richardson, Su, Scott, Sue, Thomas, Angharad, Walker, Kate (eds) (1987), Women and Craft, Virago, London, pp. 11 & 13