Participants in the Bradford Covid-19 Stitch Journal have responded to their experience of lockdown using one stitched word, a few of which are shown in this post. As the project has progressed some strong themes have emerged through our online meetings and in written responses from the group. The group is made up of 27 women and we all live in the same geographical area but the clearest thing for me is that everyone is having a very different experience of this crisis. Another recurring theme is around the tactility of textile and the feeling that something is missing when we are unable to handle, look closely at and share our work around a table. A participant commented, ‘I miss the handle of fabric - of other people's work. That just doesn't come across in visual-only media.’
I asked the group to describe how they felt when stitching their chosen word and share some of the responses here:
‘Engaged in a thought and creative process. I have felt a range of emotions both positive and negative and the process helped me to realise and think about what I felt was important.’
‘I thought long about my choice of word. There are probably far more negative words to choose from but when I decided on Grateful I realised that it gave me a very strong good feeling and brought me out of any negative feeling that I might be experiencing.’
‘I felt pleased to be asked this question. It was easy to choose the word, & it came to me straight away, although I acknowledge that I actually no longer feel that way. Stitching the word was quite cathartic & I was happy to share my feelings.’
‘Thinking of the word made me really focus in on how I was feeling during lockdown. I came up with far more words than I had expected. I was obviously responding to the crisis more emotionally than I had previously thought. So during this process I felt a very tearful and exhausted. However once I'd settled on a word I felt that it gave me some focus so felt more grounded by the end of that activity.’
‘I felt the emotions connected to my word, 'overwhelmed' but it did lift me - somehow I was able to get some perspective and feel as though I was processing my experience and dealing with it in some way by engaging with it and explaining it to others.’
The next stage of the project is underway with participants working on a final larger linen square, a fairly open brief that speaks of their lockdown experience. As a group we are also thinking about how our squares might come together, temporarily or permanently.