I am a complete nut for japanese sewing books…I have quite a collection, can’t understand a word of them, but drool endlessly over the clean, spacious, photographs that make my heart beat faster. I suppose it’s the fascination of a different approach to things that you find in cultures other than your own, that is really the attraction, but I think it goes further than that with me. Years ago when we were on an overseas posting in Moscow, I was lucky enough to host a weekly class on Russian embroidery, taught by a real master of the art, Lydia Ivanova. This class was run by the International Women’s Club and was open to all nationalities and indeed all nationalities came. I loved the international flavour of this group, but it was always the Japanese ladies who fascinated me the most. Neat and petite, their immaculate appearance was mirrored in their approach to needlework. They always had beautifully tidy organiser boxes of threads, colour coded and labelled. Their work was perfect and delicate and almost ethereal. They were quiet and calm and measured and very studious in their approach to this new form of embroidery.