Why tapestry is key to living a good life

Not many people know this, but I’m obsessed with tapestry. By day, I’m a normal person interested in five-ingredient dinner ideas and stories on whatever happened to Boz Scaggs. By night, I spend hours with needle in hand, stitching away on canvases of cats wearing Elizabethan ruffs.

In bad tapestry light, I use a camping head torch. Browsing tapestry sites is my guilty pleasure. I have a fabulous professional crafter in Sydney called Mrs Morris who turns my canvases into cushions. If you’re getting married or having a birthday ending in zero, expect to unwrap a tapestry of an artichoke or peacock.

It’s the latest in a long line of hobbies, which, on paper, mostly mark me out as either an early settler or a massive dag.

All of which means I’m loving the viral TikTok discussion claiming happiness comes from four types of hobbies – the “Four Cs”: create (painting, gardening); consume (reading, learning); cavort (physical activity); and commune (connecting with others).

Are you vibing this? Hopefully yes, while you practise group sound therapy with Tibetan bells, hand-make ricotta, plough through a written history of the world, or risk vertigo doing handstands for the first time since grade 6.

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My hobbies started early. Macrame and collecting swap cards were followed by writing poems in the manner of Pam Ayres. Then Spirograph drawing, which I broke up with when Hobbytex painting came along.

Years – and all my pocket money – were spent on paint tubes and a carousel. I did a tablecloth covered in bluebells. A poster-sized rendering of farmers scything wheat. A big-eyed girl on a velvet background. When Hobbytexed horses started appearing on any soft surface, Mum sent me outside for an extended stint. I took up synchronised trampolining and at age 13 was carried to a Tassie open title by my much better partner, Pip Wing.

Eventually, I lost my nerve for double-back somersaults with just Jiffy slippers and a leotard for protection, and it was back to safer hobby ground. Since then, I’ve learned Italian on Duolingo, scored at least 100,000 every day since 1992 playing Tetris on an original Game Boy Advance, and knitted and crocheted myriad blankets.