In 2005 I decided out of the blue to apply for an art foundation course at Leeds College of Art and Design. I was a decade older than most of the other students and enjoyed dabbling in lots of aspects of fine arts from sculpture to performance, fine art to embroidery but afterwards I rarely picked up a needle and thread for almost another 15 years ... Until 2018 when I participated in a banner making workshop for the centenary of women's suffrage and later booked onto an introductory course with instructor Elnaz Yazdani to hone my skills. This led me to regularly carrying around thread and fabrics, popping to a profane embroidery group one week and a slow stitch or life drawing session the next and gradually getting into the habit of sewing in a sort of sketchy/note-form things I liked, found interesting or wanted to remember.

In terms of materials used, a bit of everything really. Some threads and fabrics were given. Some I bought optimistically when my son was born 5 years ago and never came to use. Some were just for the purpose.

I'm quite a casual stitcher so whilst I am sure my stitches have names it feels a bit like naming different pen strokes. Lots of running stitch and backstitch with handfuls of seed stitch and "crossed stitches" that look like "X" for good measure.

It felt like I was stealing moments of self care.