Everyone is working very hard in Cambridge at the moment, especially those marking exam scripts. Here’s a more colourful image of industry and creative inspiration – a touching gift worked by a mother for her daughter, whose name we ‘read’ in the windmill.

The scene is quite crudely executed – the sails of the windmill are not at all symmetrical – but we can also see how this text is an inspired and very resourceful piece of work. The whole scene is worked with different scraps of tapestry yarn which don’t quite match, suggesting that the maker possessed limited supplies and simply worked with what materials she had. It speaks of a climate of austerity and ‘making-do’ that we no longer really know, and is a charming illustration of practicality and imagination employed in the making of a personal gift for a loved one, perhaps in restricted financial circumstances.

(Many thanks to my own mother, to whom this framed tapestry belongs. She found it on a market stall some years ago.)