• These were very fashionable in the sixties, in places like Heals.

• I couldn’t afford to buy this sort of thing then, and I didn’t have a lot of spare time, but I always enjoyed making things.

• You could buy the frames from somewhere like John Lewis, and then we used old bottles for the bases. I think the fabric was Heal’s, but a second, from the market.

• Audrey, East Barnet

• To be honest I really like it, but it’s not really my personal style. I like much more modern minimalist sort of thing, but this has great sentimental value because my mum made it.

• And I always think of her sitting in front of the tv - you know -hands non-stop going, doing stuff.

• Amy C., Clerkenwell

Six themes:

• making a home

• making a gift

• giving & keeping

• useful toil

• being creative

• defining my identity

• Do you see that rug? That’s what my husband and I made in the early

1950s, before we were married. • We were ‘engaged’ as such. A lot

of people these days don’t bother with all this pre-marriage engagement period.

• But it was in the 50s, it was the sort of ‘done thing’. And course you saved for what you called the ‘bottom drawer’… and this is what it was for really, to eventually have your own home.

• Mavis, Tottenham

• This I worked for my mum – when she was eighty.

• I designed it and incorporated various canvas-work stitches. Of course she’s no longer with us, but it’s sort of part of the family treasures…

• Pam, Southgate

• I can’t sit and do nothing. I have to have something to do.

• And tatting is something – you just need a shuttle like that – and you can do it and talk or watch television at the same time. Whereas lace – you have to have a good light for that. But this you can just get on and you don’t even have to watch what you’re doing!

• Jennifer A., Rickmansworth

• I have to have a tapestry on the go, because if I’m just sitting and watching television then it’s a waste of time. So I sit and do these kits…

• Wendy

• I don’t need to make things, it’s purely for enjoyment. In fact, I feel guilty if I spend time doing stuff like this now – it’s a bit of an indulgence, I suppose.

• Chris P, Southgate

• My husband once said if I didn’t have a crochet hook I my hand he thought I’d be dead!

• Mary B, Ilford

• It’s something that everyone back home [in Jamaica] had - a crocheted doily in your cabinet. Everybody had them.

• Elaine J

• This one hasn’t been out of the drawer for years. It’s got the crochet on it, and it was made for after the first World War to welcome home the soldiers… My mother didn’t make it but somebody in the family did...But I know my mum said, “It’s in the drawer, you won’t throw it away, will you?”

• Pam, Southgate•