SOLD 4 Quilt Books (Set 3) * £13 €28 $75 Shipping Included

3 lovely quilt/applique books in good condition.

This first by Linda Seward has step-by-step instructions and full size templates for 12 beautiful quilt projects.

Anne Hulbert's book focuses on the quilts in the American Museum in Bath and provides all the instructions for recreating 12 fabulous historical quilts there.

Diana Lodges book again boasts clear step-by-step instructions and easy-to-use templates for 20 projects

the focus here is more on quilting than piecing

while the last book - the only softback in the set - is a study of applique techniques and features many attractive projects - mostly small scale and easy to achieve.

SOLD DMC Shade Card + Zweigart Catalogue + Coats Catalogue * £10 €20 $60 Shipping Included

I don't think this needs a description other than to say it is in very nice clean used condition - to buy with actual thread samples like this, as opposed to printed colours, they are about £15.

Most of the time we are quite unaware of the variety of cloths available to us as stitchers

it is really useful to know what is available and then to ask for it to be ordered - and have an idea about how much you should pay for it too....

This is a 4 language catalogue with descriptions in German, English, Spanish and Portuguese

For everything you will ever need for stitching nothing is better that the Coats catalogue

again just to be aware of what tools are available to you - be amazed.

SOLD 9 Stately Home Guide Books * £10 €20 $70 Shipping Included (Heavy items)

This is a lovely set of 9 books - 8 from the National Trust, which describe and illustrate the wonderful homes associated with exceptional people and, in many cases, rare needlework collections. All books are in very good condition and have 50-60 pages. Above is the guide for Oxburgh which  now houses needlework by Mary Queen of Scots.

Hardwick Hall probably needs no iontroduction as being the spectacular home built by Bess of Hardwick which also houses work by Mary Queen of Scots and Bess, herself.

Antony has been the home of the Carew family for 6 centuries and is home to some wonderful Elizabethan blackwork domestic items such as pillow beres.

I hope you are watching the fabulous BBC production of Wolf Hall on the TV at the moment - there is filming at Montacute House - which is also home to the Goodhart Samplers

Ightham (pronounced Eye-tam) Mote is the loveliest ancient house and was saved from dilapidation by an American, Charles Henry Robinson, to whom we should all be very grateful. Dame Dorothy Selby lived there - she died of a needle-prick in 1641. In the church is her famous monument which features carvings of her needle-work.

The Vyne is part of what was once a larger Tudor House and was built by Henry VIII's Lord Chamberlain, William 1st Lord Sandys. Wonderful tapestries to see there!

Only 10 miles from the centre of London is one of England's greatest Stuart houses. Ham House was built in 1610 by Sir Thomas Vavasour, Knight Marshal to James I. But it was a woman, the beautiful, restless, ravenously covetous, Elizabeth Dysart who left the greatest mark on the house with her lavish decorations and furnishings.

Knole was once the home of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Lord Leicester. Later the house passed to the Sackvilles, Earls of Dorset and so came to belong to the Bloomsbury writer Vita Sackville-West. A place rich with examples of early decoration and textile hangings. Last, but not least, Sherborne Castle, home to Sir Walter Raleigh and some beautifully embellished Tudor manuscripts and charters.

SOLD 7 Design Catalogues * Scarlet Letter, Elizabeth Bradley, Permin and Clara Waever Catalogues * £12 €20 $50 Including Shipping

Marsha Parker (formerly Marsha Van Valin) deserves a medal of honour for the work she has accomplished in making historic samplers available to stitchers. She has charted a prodigious number of samplers from European and US museums and the extent of her work is reflected in her catalogues. This bundle is 2 catalogues plus around 20 supplements.

They are certainly pretty samplers images to enjoy - but these are so much more than this as Marsha carefully described the samplers, their makers and their sources - an education in its own right.

If you are a lover of historic samplers, I could not recommend these to you more.

I won't go on about the days when one could walk down Stroget in Copenhagen and look in the windows of both Eva Rosenstand and Clara Waever like some child looking in a toyshop on the eve of Christmas....

but here you are two comprehensive catalogues of work carried home from the now sadly-missed fabulous sampler museum in Celle.

The catalogue even has a delightful charted pattern to make the circular daisy cloth you can see in the bottom left hand corner above.

The Permin catalogue together with the previous catalogue document with their reproductions, samplers in the Celle museum - as well as the work of wider interest to the stitcher.

Here you can enjoy some of the samplers from the Celle Museum in their replica format.

And then there is the work of Elizabeth Bradley.

Every year I would make at least one pilgrimage to Liberty's of London to see what was new and take home the latest catalogue which came in the form of a massive double sided A1 folded sheet covered with all the beautiful Elizabeth Bradley designs

All these items are in carefully kept order and I hope their beauty will inspire you to continue your stitching.

SOLD 3 Quaker Charts * £10 €15 $30 Including Shipping

Three very different takes on Quaker samplers. The ones above and below by marvelous Midnight Stitching and Kathy Barrick-Dieter make delightful additions to your wall and are quick and easy to complete.

And for the ultimate in thread and needle keeps, this wonderful project by Ellen Chester will impress your stitching friends....

SOLD Schone Alte Stickvorlagen * £15 €23 $50 Including Shipping

This is a lovely, pristine soft back book of 64 pages full of charts for Berlin woolwork from the collection of Elfriede Leopoldine Scmidt

These beautiful charts were hand painted and were very popular in the mid 1800s

for canvas work needlepoint projects - but they make such delightful cross-stitch projects too.

SOLD Box of 5 Knitting Books * £20 €40 $90 Including Shipping

This is a very interesting set of books - not only for knitters but those interested in textile history. All books are in reasonable or better used condition. The Art of Knitting is a hard back of 160 pages which in addition to providing 24 practical knitting projects, recounts the history from earliest times

each knitting project is based upon an historical knitted item such as the fabulous 17th century knitted tunic documented above

and even a Quaker pincushion!

This soft back book of 68 pages is also a treasure trove of historical information as well as patterns

I was particularly interested in the section on Schools of Industry as knitting featured large on most charity school curricula - not only for girls but boys also.

Gladys Thompson's book below has over 170 pages of history and gorgeous patterns -

as well as the detailed particular history of the origins of the patterns. Stories are told that you could always tell which village a drowned fisherman came from by the 'gansey' he was wearing ....

Sarah Don's book - a softback of over 120 pages - documents the history of the origin of these lovely garment as well as supplying practical tips and full patterns

individual motifs with sample colours are also given.

For true devotes of the history of knitting around the world then the Bishop of Leicester's book on the subject is a key resource

he was a keen knitter himself untoil his death in 2011.

Below you can see images of early UK knitwear