For centuries butterflies have been favourite motifs in embroidery. Their ethereal beauty, iridescent colours, delicate patterning - even the ephemeral quality of their lives - seem to parallel the embroiderer's art, wheter in the stylized interpretation of ancient oriental textiles, the naïve designs of Jacobean stumpwork and later samplers or in more contemporary naturalistic renderings.
At the dawn of the twenty-first century our planet is still a place of infinite diversity. From the polar caps to the sultry heat of tropics, flora, fauna, birds and insects suggest breathtaking inspirational possibilities for embroiderers, whilst the global village which the world has become is held together by the threads of the Internet, video communications and satellite technology.
As each year turns we look forward to the ever-changing seasons - both in our own traditions and anniversaries and in nature. These can be as simple as a celebration of the harvest or as deeply meaningful as Easter and Christmas, as universal as the rites of spring or as special to one nation as Thanksgiving Day or Guy Fawkes' Night.
Embroidery, by its very nature, is a time-consuming art: any project demands that the embroiderer set aside time - that most precious of 21st century commodities - time to plan, to design, to stitch.