I spent many years as an Art teacher in secondary schools. I taught a wide range of media but never any stitched-based art forms. Therefore, I was very interested, while still working when a friend suggested doing the City and Guilds Certificate in Embroidery, with Opus. I then discovered why, over the years, I had amassed a fair collection of fabrics and threads which had served no obvious purpose until that point. I enjoyed the course immensely and went on to the Diploma course at Great Missenden.

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​I have a developing interest in printing and text. The point of inspiration might be an image, a homemade stencil of an object, or a quote or phrase. I admire ancient texts and other languages, which, as I don’t necessarily understand the script or the meaning, become decorative pattern and line. I am intrigued by the way we remember parts of poems, quotes and prose and search our memories for the missing parts and have tried to demonstrate this in some of my work. I enjoy stitching text freehand and find it a very soothing pursuit. I am currently trying to use all those oddments of fabric, print and stitch trials in line with current thinking about the need to recycle.