“When I first started to embroider I stuck rigidly to the pattern and got really stressed if I made a mistake 

Now I am more inclined to adapt graphs and use them to make some thing of my own

I love the Boscobel Oak Sampler–I was born in Shropshire  and remember hearing the story of the King hiding in the tree when I was very small 

Because that section is worked over single threads in the pattern I had to do a few calculations and adapt the rest of the sampler to fit it

It worked well –that is the beauty of band samplers –you can just keep going as far as you want with your borders !

I read somewhere  that in the 1600s there used to be  a shop in Henrietta Street near Covent Garden London –where you could buy the equivalent of Kits for Stumpwork Pictures  –I wish it was still there now!”