Today was the first session of the Parson Cross Stitch project. Arlo and I arrived early to help Leslie set up the room. We weren't sure how many people, if any, might come today. But they did come. Today's participants were Lisa and her daughter Lacey, 14 months, Danielle and her daughter Bella, 12 months, Emma and her daughter Niamh 3 years and Orla 7 months, Lindsay and her son Finley, 7 months and Maria and her daughter Cherry, 16 months. Some people had heard about the project at Tabor Tots, some from posters in the area, one at breast feeding group.
At the start of the session I introduced the project and what we were going to do over the next few weeks.We started stitching, using Binka fabric with large holes to practice the stitches. We went through running stitch, cross stitch, chain stitch and blanket stitch. Everyone picked up the new techniques quickly and asked really insightful questions.
We chatted around the table about all sorts of things; living in the area, being a mum, how many children everyone has, how old they are, what everyone does, where everyone is from originally, other creative stuff people have done, if they'd done any embroidery before. Everyone seemed really excited to be coming to a creative group and learning a new skill.
Having all the toys there for the children was great and Leslie was great with everyone's babies.
A couple of things didn't work so well- the table was a bit too big, the room was quite noisy so at times it was hard to hear the conversation- so next week we will have a smaller table. Also the table was off to one side so mums were too far away from their babies which at points was overwhelming for Leslie. Discussing it afterwards we decided next week to try having the table in the middle with the mats around it so the mums can have their babies close to them and keep an eye on them.
In general a really positive start to the project!
I asked everyone to answer the questions on the sheets during the session. Answers in no particular order:
