Louisa Pesel

Louisa Pesel was an English embroidery designer, teacher and collector who studied historic needlework and promoted embroidery as both art and therapeutic occupation. During and after the First World War she organised stitching projects for wounded and disabled servicemen and later helped create the Winchester Cathedral altar frontal.

In Tracy Chevalier’s A Single Thread, Violet discovers the Winchester Cathedral Broderers, a volunteer group led by the real textile designer Louisa Pesel, and begins stitching cushions and kneelers for the cathedral.