A needlewoman of extraordinary skill, she has made a lavishly embroidered silk purse out of the sow's ear of realism.
An unfinished silk tablecloth intended for Queen Elizabeth II is on show in the village in a cabin devoted to the legendary needlewoman Maria Gwarek, who died before completing the .
The outline for the first series was based partly on the stories of Eileen's parents, an underbutler and a needlewoman in the Edwardian era, and partly by Jean's reading .