SOLD Kreuzstich Arbeiten * £20 €30 $66 Including Shipping (Except Australia/ New Zealand - $75)

OK so first let me talk about the kangaroo in the room - for some time we have been able to price items for Australia and New Zealand the same as for the USA and take up the little extra shipping costs ourselves. However, Australia and New Zealand are now classed as remote areas with our shippers and quite steep surcharges are being applied which we can't pick up this time. So my apologies to friends in the Antipodes, I just wish you were as near at hand as you are in heart.

This is one of my favourite German pattern books, although you will hear me say this about just about all my German pattern books. The show towel you can see on the left hand page above has a full pattern - so you can make it! Again the text is in German - and because this is a reprint of an earlier book, the script is Gothic. However, you can get by without the German and Gothic reading skills because the images and illustrations are so good.

The book is sprinkled with patterns and applications for the patterns that would have been very popular at the time and so give you an historical perspective on the German Cross-stitcher at the turn of the 20th century.

It is quite astonishing in these days of minimalist living to consider just how much was stitched in homes at the beginning of the 20th century. Table nappery, cushions, curtains, bed linen, furniture covers...

As well as cross stitch there is also Holbein stitching...

So the book is just one part of the treasure - the other part are 13 A1 size pattern sheets with all the charted patterns for items in the book - like the show towel we saw at the top of this post.

Below you can see some of the large folded pattern sheets that I popped on the scanner. All the pattern sheets are totally pristine - as is the book which is hardback and together they are presented in a cardboard box.