I'd seen an article in one of the Sunday Supplements about Prince Charles' wild flower gardens at Highbury and accompanying it were the most delectable photographs - close ups of massed grasses and wild flowers - so I made two very detailed drawings, one of a poppy dominant garden and one of tulips.

I drew a design based on the drawing straight onto a piece of calico with black Indian ink (so it didn't smudge onto the threads) and, with the coloured drawing beside the sewing machine I ''painted' with zigzag stitch on the calico.

I had its frame covered with dark green silk with a dark green slip so that the embroidery glows out of a field of green - that was the idea anyway!