Art exhibitions are

not something I often get to see. One reason for this is that many of them are held in locations which are inaccessible unless you happen to own a car. I don't. I don't know people with cars who are likely to be going who might be prepared to take me either. I certainly don't get invited to "openings" - which is probably just as well. I don't like crowds.

But yesterday I went off to see what amounted to an art exhibition. I was invited to go to an exhibition of embroidery. Now no, please don't think of "duchess sets" - those trios of stamped linen with crinoline ladies and the like set out and ready to embroidery. What I went off to see was about as far removed from that as it is possible to get.

This was the "delayed from last year" annual exhibition of the local embroiderers' guild and there were some very fine examples of the art - yes it is an art - of embroidery in it. The guild has a place of its own - and they have space to display work in it. I have taught in the same display space. It's lovely. And the work was lovely too.

No, even if my clumsy paws allowed it, I wouldn't want to do most of it. There is no hanging space left in this house. There will be even less somewhere else so where would I put anything like that? I also like the things I make to be used but it doesn't stop me appreciating good needlework. 

There were things there which were done with a precision and skill which was breathtaking. Some things were traditional but others were more imaginative. I can appreciate both in different ways. There was Japanese style embroidery, Chinese style embroidery, embroidery on linen, on cotton, on wool, counted embroidery, cut work, black work, bead work and other "work" I was struggling to name. Much of it was framed and hung but there was a handbag and a book cover. A very young embroiderer had made a "dilly bag" which hung beneath a little fish made by another young embroiderer. There was a joint project made of fallen branches and leaves embroidered in many different styles of embroidery.

And there was one thing which almost took my breath away. It was a picture of nothing more than hundreds of tiny origami cranes flying across cream cloth which had been sparsely embroidered with the simplest of stitches. It really was a work of art.