Laura Potter

What I should do, as a sign of real commitment to domesticity, is embark upon one of those very large pieces; one that is taken from a famous old painting that everyone would recognise. Something highly detailed and complex, requiring such patience and dedication that my mother-in-law would no longer feel the need to buy me kits for banal flowery bookmarks. Obviously I will never complete something like this, but just owning the kit might be enough to appease her. She may not, however, be so easily fooled.

A large cross stitch pattern is cut into tiny individual strips and stuck back together with tape. The pattern is painstakingly reconfigured to reflect alternative versions of the 'ideal pastoral scene'.