SEVENTEENTH century embroidery from the Feller and Ashmolean collections is the focal point of an exhibition called Stitches in Time which will run until summer.

Colourful raised and flat work pictorial panels, fine white and polychrome samplers and dress accessories will be included in the exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, in Broadway, a former seventeenth century coaching inn.

The embroideries were created through individual use of stitches, colourful silks, metal threads, pearls and semi-precious stones.

A casket that was once in the collection of HRH Princess Margaret will also be on display. It is covered with beautifully worked embroidered panels depicting stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

The works help to illustrate the themes and concerns which occupied the minds of the young women making them. They often depict biblical stories at a time when religious issues, including the use of images, aroused great controversy.

The exhibition will be on display from February 14 to 7 June 7.