Prue Barridge

I remember my first sewing machine and the many hours I spent making dolls clothes. I remember my Nana crocheting granny square rugs and I remember getting a knitting Nancy with variegated wool from my Gran. I remember sitting with Mum while she sewed by machine and hand. I remember learning to knit and having to learn right handed because Mum couldn’t teach me left handed. I remember spending many fascinated hours looking through my Dads art portfolio, which he had kept, of his window designs from his very first job, the way he drew people always fascinated me all very angular and cartoonish. I remember sitting for hours with my Mums button box sorting through the buttons. I really can’t remember a time when I haven’t been doing something creative with my hands – just copying those around me.

Through my growing up years I made many presents for family and friends and it always gave me great pleasure to give something I had made myself and it still does. I remember racing out on Saturday morning to the material shop getting some fabric and then madly sewing my new outfit ready to wear that night. I can remember all the ball gowns I made over the years, and all the other special outfits that were just that little bit different to what everyone else was wearing.

I remember taking a holiday by myself, going to Adelaide and attending the Embroiderers Guild’s forum and being introduced to machine embroidery with Cheryl Bridgart and being so very excited. I remember many other machine embroidery classes after that, taken with some exceptional tutors each with a different slant on the same theme. I remember wondering why I put this colour with that colour and why I made that mark there not over there and then finding out about a Textile course at BoxHill and learning the reasons why I did what I instinctively did. I remember the thrill of hanging my graduation pieces on a Gallery wall, and then, watching people really looking at my pieces and taking enjoyment from them. I remember getting accepted for other exhibitions, the excitement of realising my work was good enough to be exhibited in Australia and overseas.

I remember teaching my first class in Machine embroidery and the thrill of discovering I was inspiring others as I had been inspired. I remember the pleasure I felt in being able to share my knowledge with others. I remember the first time I taught a class of children, their honesty in their choices of colour and materials, my amazement at the colours they choose to put together and at how much I learn from them. I remember making a promise to myself  to inspire as many children as I can to want to learn how to sew with a machine and by hand, and, through inspiring them, so inspire their Mums to want to learn as well. We have generations of people who have never sewn and I want to make sure that sewing and embroidery are not forgotten, that the pleasure and friendships that are made while sewing together is something many will experience and it is my mission to see this is so.

And finally I remember sitting and sewing with Robyn, sharing my dreams with her and finding that she had very similar dreams and both of us deciding that together we could make our dreams come true. The journey from dream to reality is Open Drawer, it has been exciting but I know the journey is just beginning and I want  to share it with many of you.