Central panel: 321 x 281.5 cms; side panels: 271 x 28 cms Private collection ... Burne-Jones painted the faces and hands directly onto the linen support, with the needlewomen stitching around his brushwork. Morris added verses emphasising her mystical character as 'the ancient apple-queen', and vast, swirling acanthus leaves for the background. These scrolls were criticised as 'too large in relation to the figure', bur Morris was sufficiently pleased with the results to send this work to the Chicago International exhibition in 1893. 39 ... 39. W. G. Paulson Townsend (Design Master of the RSN) Embroidery or the craft of the Needle, London 1899, p. 173.