Building a movement

I had thought it was Streatham - but in fact it is technically Tooting. Close to Tooting Lido. We'll get to know the route well over the next few months. The Furzedown Centre on Moyser Road is a lively base for various groups of 'older' people. Restart 50+, a group of retired professional Bangladeshi women, are keen and their leader Ferdous Rahman has galvanised them into action.
The first focus group will be in a couple of weeks.
This is one of three groups of Muslim women who are keen to take part.
Just down the road in Battersea more connections have been made at the Katherine Lowe Settlement, a vibrant community hub. Particularly interested are ESOL learners from north Africa to Pakistan.
And back, close to central Wandsworth, is the Asian Women's Group, a group of older women who meet three times a week in Mantle Court, a sheltered housing complex. The warden, Ann, loves needlework.
We're ready to go. Next step: focus groups when everyone will bring in their embroidery and we'll look at the stitches and the stories behind the pieces with the Royal School of NEedlework.

A personal touch

Visiting different groups in Wandsworth and talking about the project - today the Association of Somalian Women in Battersea - take examples of embroidery that is important to me.















Including a dress made by my mother for me so long ago that I hesitate to say when - on parachute silk and embroidered with spring flowers from Cornwall, where I grew up.



















Grape hyacinths



















Daffodils




















Tulips.


Parachute silk is in fact nylon - a fabric readily available in the years after the war