Whilst up in Hull at the weekend, I spotted this little cloth which has always lived on a small coffee table in Mum's sitting room. It's the first piece of sewing I ever did - worked whilst at Beverley Road Infant school, aged 5 or 6. Everyone (boys included) made a similar cloth from binca and Anchor Soft Embroidery cotton . We were allowed to choose the colour for each row of stitches, the teacher started us off on a new stitch and we were expected to continue round. In today's terms, I guess she achieved differentiation by starting us off on more challenging stitches, depending on our progress towards the centre. All very impressive, I think.

Equally impressive is the wonderful 50's print on the reverse. The teacher herself finished off the back for us.