Needlework—sewing clothes, mending tears, embroidering decorations for the home—has an ancient history as a domestic art as well as a fine art. The needlework we know best is the work our mothers, grandmothers, and aunts did for us or for the homes we grew up in. There is a temporary nature to much of this work. We wear out our clothes, use our household linens until they are threadbare, or lose other work to the moths of time. Needlework is thus as practical and real as it is beautiful. Needlework is a gesture of love.