Retirement and Richard

Thank you so much for all your kind messages - they are deeply appreciated by us both.

SOLD The Tudor Child * £28 €42 $100 (New Zealand and Australia $110) Including Shipping

This is a superb resource for anyone interested in Tudor costume and its construction.

It is 160 pages of extremely informative text, illustrations, diagrams of techniques and patterns for making your own costumes.

The book is in mint condition and you can see some of the wonderful source material here.

Interesting to see that gloves on ribbons around necks wasn't all to do with me and my capacity for forever losing them! And that it wasn't just the girls who wore the skirts... spot the lads!

I have probably gone a bit overboard in showing the source images - simply because they are so fabulous, and the research is exceptional.

The embroidery on this boy's costume is just lovely...

Here you can see the start of one of the projects which includes not only patterns and making up instructions, but diagrams of stitch techniques.

There are 7 patterns for full costumes ...

plus many patterns for accessories such as ruffs, hoods, bonnets, aprons etc

Remember Now Thy Creator: Scottish Girls’ Samplers, 1700-1872 - Naomi Tarrant * Now available from Amazon starting £15.10

The long awaited book by Naomi Tarrant is ready to buy now. Your best purchasing possibility in the UK is via Amazon but see below for details of publisher and a book distributor if you live elsewhere. Naomi writes: Samplers are a unique type of artefact, blending together artistic expression, teaching tool and historical document. They identify their creator and can reveal much about their lives and families. Samplers are often celebrations of intricate detail and exuberant design, meant to teach young girls the skills they needed for working embroidery. This volume considers samplers made in Scotland within the context of girl’s lives. It is illustrated by a wide selection of pieces from public and private collections and shows the remarkable variety that was made by young girls as they learnt needle skills. The aim of this book is to look at samplers made in Scotland as well as their place in the education of girls, putting them within the social context of the period. The time spanned covers the first emergence of a specific Scottish style and ends with the introduction of the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act which made schooling a local government responsibility. The contents include a brief history of samplers, before considering the documentary evidence for samplers in Scotland and the earliest surviving pieces. Schooling for girls and the importance of plain sewing samplers are dealt with before looking at embroidered examples, the various types found in Scotland and how certain designs appear to be specific to this country. An important aspect of Scottish samplers is the use of family initials that allows for tracing the makers in various archive sources. During research for the book the author, Naomi Tarrant, came across an old sampler made into a bag among the Seafield Papers in the National Records of Scotland. “It survived because it contained the executory papers of Lady Ann Duff, who was born in 1725 and died in 1805. There are no known samplers made by Scottish girls surviving before the early years of the eighteenth century, although there are documentary records that they were made from at least the mid sixteenth century, so this was an exciting find. Although it had no date and its maker is unknown, it is possibly the oldest Scottish sampler that now survives, dating to at least the mid-seventeenth century.” Photographs and a fuller details on the piece feature in the book.
Click here to purchase via Amazon.

Click here to contact the publisher - Society of Antiquaries of Scotland or alternatively from: Books can be ordered from Booksource: 50 Cambuslang Road, Cambuslang, Glasgow G32 8NB Tel: 0845 370 0067 orders@booksource.net

SOLD Teri's Christmas Stocking Chart * Shepherd's Bush * £5 €7.50 $20 Shipping Included

I went into Marks & Spencers to buy some biscuit treats for Richard and had the Total Christmas Panic Attack. I just stopped short of ordering a bronze turkey to feed the five thousand. Phew. But I realized I need to catch up with some stitching.... These Shepherd's Bush stockings are darling and make great presents for every Christmas to come. There is a full charted alphabet so you can personalize them for your loved ones. The chart is in mint condition and usually sells for £7.50 (without postage).

SOLD Christian's Christmas Stocking Chart * £5 €7.50 $20 Shipping Included

These Shepherd's Bush stockings are darling and make great presents for every Christmas to come. There is a full charted alphabet so you can personalize them for your loved ones. The chart is in mint condition and usually sells for £7.50 (without postage).

SOLD Tina's Christmas Stocking Chart * £5 €7.50 $20 Including Shipping

These Shepherd's Bush stockings are darling and make great presents for every Christmas to come. There is a full charted alphabet so you can personalize them for your loved ones. The chart is in mint condition and usually sells for £7.50 (without postage).

SOLD Quakers & Quilts Sampler Chart * £10 €15 $25 Including Shipping

I am so proud, now I look back, to think of how many great designers like Karen Kluba have been inspired by the Ackworth School Pattern Book and the comprehensive set of quaker motifs we made available without any license fees to new designers, saying - Go ahead, use these charts and make new designs, keep the spirit of Quaker samplers alive - with just the simple proviso that they didn't chart replicas of samplers in Quaker Schoolgirl Samplers from Ackworth. Here is a wonderful design - I love it. In addition to the main sampler shown there are several mini projects for you to enjoy. If you would like this chart pack (pattern only) and can pay via PayPal, then just click on the flying angel below. All shipping is included. (If you don't live in the UK or Europe the price is $25 to include extra shipping costs.)

SOLD 3 Christmas Sampler Charts * Prairie Schooler Set 1 * £10 €15 $27 Shipping Included

Ho ho ho lots of fun stitching these Prairie Schooler minis

and these Christmas ornaments.... get together with stitching friends and really enjoy the run up to the holiday season with lots of shared fun and laughter while you stitch.

SOLD 2 Christmas Sampler Charts * Goode Huswife & Kathy Dieter Barrick * £6 €9 $20 Shipping Included

I am a great lover of Pennsylvanian Dutch samplers with all that calming space around the motifs and this sampler above from the Goode Huswife is one of my favourites. It makes a perfect Christmas gift to hang on the wall with all the other messages of Christmas cheer. But why not make it for yourself? Below you can see the sampler from Kathey Dieter Barrick of Barrick Samplers, another great designer from the USA. Simply beautiful - and yet so fun and quick to stitch.

SOLD 3 Christmas Sampler Charts * Prairie Schooler Set 2 * £10 €15 $27 Shipping Included

More good cheer from The Prairie Schooler. You can stitch the 12 Days of Christmas as a special festive sampler - or make tree ornaments of the individual days - or - here's another idea for you - how about making a special advent calendar using these designs as pockets - a bit more special than the long run of 25. (How many sleeps till Christmas? - How many is that? - That's foreveeeeer!)

On that subject - I must tell you a story. When my niece was young she would get so excited about events that one year her parents decided they would not tell her it was Christmas until Christmas morning. Every year this story gets told rather like the Threee Wise Men and every year I hope that one year (hopefully within my lifetime) her parents will receive official forgivenance.

SOLD 3 Sampler Charts * Prairie Schooler Set 3 * £10 €15 $27 Shipping Included

Not strictly Christmas, but the individual letters of this alphabet would make delightful ornaments for any tree. They also make wonderful projects for the younger members of your family who you can guide in your footsteps and pass your skills on to - as well as some chosen family history... what better way of building memories?

I love animals - it's special to include them in our circle of familiars at Christmas - we have much to be grateful to them for!

SOLD Margaret & Margaret Sampler Stocking Chart One * £5 €7.50 $20 Including Shipping

A very pretty and stocking from Margaret and Margaret, this time, for you to stitch with love. 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.... There is a full charted alphabet so you can personalize it for your loved ones. The chart is in mint condition and usually sells for £7.50 (without postage).

SOLD Mary Beale's Sampler Stocking Chart IX * £5 €7.50 $20 Including Shipping

A joy to give and a joy to stitch. More wonderful charted stockings to stitch for that special personalized gift. This is a beautiful traditional design from Mary Beale based upon a band sampler. There is a full charted alphabet so you can personalize them for your loved ones. The chart is in mint condition and usually sells for £7.50 (without postage).

SOLD Mary Beale's Sampler Stocking Chart VII * £5 €7.50 $20 Including Shipping

A joy to give and a joy to stitch. More wonderful charted stockings to stitch for that special personalized gift. This is a beautiful traditional design from Mary Beale based upon a band sampler. There is a full charted alphabet so you can personalize them for your loved ones. The chart is in mint condition and usually sells for £7.50 (without postage).

SOLD Robert's Christmas Stocking Chart * £5 €7.70 $20 Shipping Inlcuded

These Shepherd's Bush stockings are darling and make great presents for every Christmas to come. There is a full charted alphabet so you can personalize them for your loved ones. The chart is in mint condition and usually sells for £7.50 (without postage).

SOLD Peter's Christmas Stocking Chart * £5 €7.50 $20 Shipping Inlcuded

These Shepherd's Bush stockings are darling and make great presents for every Christmas to come. There is a full charted alphabet so you can personalize them for your loved ones. The chart is in mint condition and usually sells for £7.50 (without postage).

New Light on The Mystery ( & Earliest Recorded) Ackworth Sampler

If you remember I had a lovely email from Nigel telling me about a new found Ackworth School sampler. The sampler comes with a slip of paper on which is the following text: I wish this to be given to Jane Kerchiss / MARY MAW BARBER ne BAYLDON / was born 24 December 1818 must have / been very young when she did this SP. The mystery was that there was no Mary Bayldon or Baildon or Mary Maw or Mary Barber at Ackworth School. However many of you have been researching and it looks like we can now flesh out the story, thanks to Janet Littlecott. (Who is a very special person having helped with much of the research into personal histories for the Feller Needlework Collection - many thanks, Janet.) Looking more closely at the sampler, Nigel found initials and a date in a medallion at the edge of the sampler - DJ 1787. So this makes this sampler the earliest known Ackworth School sampler to date. With this information, Janet was able to give us the following narrative: Ann Jones was the daughter of Thomas Jones (died in April 1778 aged 39 years in Gainsborough) and Deborah Jones (died on 4 August 1817 aged 71). Ann Jones, herself, died on 16 November 1789 aged 16. The ceremony was carried out by her uncle John Maw. Deborah Jones was probably not poor - she inherited £450 from her father at the age of 21. She also left a will which bequeathed money to her niece, Ann Maw. The connection between the Maw's and the Jones' families is that two of the Burt(t) sisters married a Maw and a Jones : Deborah Burt(t) married Thomas Jones and Mary Burt(t) married John Maw, a mustard manufacturer. Many thanks to everyone who shared the information they had.

ALL SOLD * Micheál and Elizabeth Feller Collection Article in Country Life * £7 €10 $20 Including Shipping

It has been an exhilarating two months while the Micheál and Elizabeth Feller Collection was on display at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. I do hope you were able to visit - and enjoyed your visit!

You might not have been aware that Country Life published a beautifully illustrated article by Mary Brooks, the exhibition's curator. The article is 4 pages in length and is a wonderful complement to the exhibition literature and it comes with the entire magazine in mint condition.

Bath Textile Summer School - 17-22 August 2015

The fabulous Bath Textile Summer School is over - long live the Bath Textile Summer School! This wonderful event organized by Lynne Roche has brought needlework heaven that bit closer to us mortals. It is so good to see a class of friends - and that lovely casket.The reports back have been unanimous - this is THE event to attend. And if you couldn't make it this year - there is always next! Click here to find your booking form - and do it quickly!

Micheál and Elizabeth Feller give the Ashmolean one of the world’s finest collections of historic English embroideries.

The Ashmolean has acquired one of the world’s finest collections of historic English embroideries which has been given to the Museum by collectors Micheál and Elizabeth Feller. The gift comprises 61 pieces which span the whole of the seventeenth century; and these are currently on display in the summer exhibition, The Eye of the Needle which runs until 12 October. The Feller embroideries have long been considered one of the world’s most important groups of historic textiles and the gift is estimated to be worth in excess of £500,000. It has come to the Museum in honour of Professor Christopher Brown CBE who will retire as Director of the Ashmolean on 30 September. Professor Brown says: I am profoundly grateful to Micheál and Elizabeth Feller for this gift. The collection has been built, over many years, through Micheál and Elizabeth’s passion and dedication; and the gift to the Museum, where the embroideries can be enjoyed by thousands of visitors, is an act of enormous generosity. The pieces which have been given to the Museum are seventeenth-century embroideries which include dramatic pictorial panels, samplers, domestic items and costume pieces. These embroideries were made during one of the most turbulent centuries in English history, when religious and political conflict split families and the country. Beyond the opportunity for demonstrating technical ability, the embroideries illustrate the themes and concerns which occupied the minds of the young women making them. They often depict biblical stories at a time when religious issues, including the use of images, aroused great controversy. Similarly, during a period of increasing urbanization the pictorial pieces show idyllic country scenes with imaginary creatures and flowers. The Fellers are well known to residents of Oxford as the proprietors of the renowned butcher’s shop in the City’s Covered Market. They started collecting embroideries when they were first married and have continued to buy pieces for over forty years. The interest in textiles and sewing originated with Elizabeth whose mother was a seamstress and who is, herself, an accomplished embroiderer. The pieces which the Fellers have collected reflect their interest in the skills and varied techniques of embroidery, and in the individual stories and wider history that the embroideries illustrate. Elizabeth Feller, says: Thanks to my mother’s influence, sewing and embroidery has been a meaningful activity throughout my life. Our collection of embroideries worked by other people began with small household items such as needlepoint cushions and went on to include samplers, panels and a huge variety of other objects, all steeped in English history and the stories of the individuals who made them – and that is what we love. Micheál and I are delighted that the seventeenth-century embroideries will now find a home at the Ashmolean where they will be cared for and enjoyed by people for many years to come.

Bye Bye to The Goodhart Samplers - Now Out Of Print

We now have no copies of The Goodhart Samplers left. 

The Killerton Quilt Raffle - Help Killerton's Historic Textile Collection

Since September 2012, the National Trust's Killerton's talented Assistant Costume Curator Charlotte has been leading a team of seven hugely creative ladies from their volunteer sewing group to handcraft the Killerton Quilt. It is to be proudly entered into Europe's biggest and most prestigious quilt show - The NEC Festival of Quilts on 7 August. Thousands of painstaking hours have already been invested in creating this unique double bed quilt inspired by a year in the Killerton cider orchards.

The centrepiece is taken from the Rose window in the chapel, the four corners illustrate the four seasons in the garden. Even the little blackberries have been handmade from hundreds of individual beads. The words are from a favourite William Wordsworth poem, The Tables Turned: "Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher". Jo Colwill from the Cowslip Workshop who taught Kirstie Allsopp how to quilt on her TV show 'Kirstie's Handmade Britain' helped the Killerton quilters source the perfect fabric and shared her expertise on colours. Visitors to Killerton can come and see the quilt in working progress. In April it will be transferred to a frame to be hand quilted. Once the competition comes to an end, this beautiful quilt will be raffled to raise much needed funds for equipment to preserve and conserve Killerton's historic costume collection. We wish Charlotte and the ladies the very best of luck for the show. We think you'll agree it's a stunning piece of art.

Peabody Essex Museum Acquires 18th Century Dutch Market Indian Textiles

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) has just announced : the acquisition of a singular collection of more than 100 rare early 18th-century Indian textiles made for export to the Netherlands. The collection which includes hand-painted chintz palampores (bed covers), an embroidered palampore, banyans, as well as extraordinary examples of Dutch costumes, was assembled in the Netherlands between the 1920s and 1960s by A. Eecen-van Setten. The acquisition has been funded by anonymous donors. Between 1650 and 1750, cotton textiles were imported in large quantities from eastern India to the Netherlands by the VOC (Dutch East India Company). Decorated Indian cotton was commonly referred to as chintz (in Dutch - sits) after the north Indian word chitra meaning spotted or sprinkled. Indian chintzes were prized globally for their vivid and durable colors-something that European textile manufacturers were unable to match until the mid-18th century. These vibrant textiles were particularly popular in the Netherlands, where they were used for nearly everything-clothing, upholstery, bed hangings and even wall coverings. Collected at a time when chintz textiles were not well studied, the Veldman-Eecen Collection would be virtually impossible to assemble today given the scarcity of such textiles in the contemporary market. The collection, which also includes a selection of related European-printed textiles from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries, is enhanced by a detailed journal, or Sits Boek (chintz book), in which A.Eecen-van Setten chronicled her acquisitions. Selections from the collection will be on view in Asia in Amsterdam, a forthcoming 2016 exhibition co-organized by PEM and the Rijksmuseum. For more details, click here.

Home From The Mountains & 2 Sides to a Sampler

Brixen or Bressanone in the Sudtirol probably has one of the largest collections of Krippe. We might loosely term these as Cribs - and perhaps you have seen some of the European cribs at Christmas, where not only models of Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus, with angels, shepherds and magi are displayed, but also the whole population of what appears to be the local community - farmers, bakers, vintners, dairymaids etc. However, Krippe are not only for Christmas. The collection in Brixen/Bressanone Diocesan Museum includes populous displays for just about every biblical episode, not just the Nativity alone. The photo is of a detail of such a Krippe made in the early 1700s and you may be delighted to see two stitchers working on the same panel, perhaps a sampler, we can't be entirely sure.

My apologies for worrying you with my absence - thank you for all your thoughtful emails in my absence - it is never easy to get connections up in the Dolomites where we have been walking but I thought it would be nice to take a rest prior to my retirement at the end of this year.

Samplers Down Under @ Auction

I often feel a bit bad and sad posting about auctions in the UK and the USA, knowing that everyone in the southern hemisphere is effectively left out. But here you are Australia! Mossgreen Auctions in Victoria, Australia have no less than 38 stunning samplers for you to enjoy. The auction is set for 14 September 2014 - a very auspicious day in my calendar! These darning pattern samplers are stunning The sampler above incorporates Quaker motifs in a traditional composition. And here are some early band samplers Below is an early German sampler This sampler below which is a composite of an earlier and later piece with the subject of the Judgement of Solomon is just thrilling.... For more details about this auction, click here.