SOLD 2 Katrin Cargill Embroidery Books * £13 €20 $60 Including Shipping (New Zealand and Australia $70)

These 2 hardback books by embroidery expert Katrin Cargill are in very good condition. They each have around 130 pages. The first concentrates on cross stitch and contains 30 projects including 3 samplers.

The remaining projects are for beautiful table and bed linen such as the table-cloth below

and the fabulous cot cover - which would make an equally lovely pillow cover.

Katrin's second book with 25 projects embraces a wider variety of stitching techniques, though all are relatively simple to work.

There are instructions for another 3 samplers including a raised work king and queen

festive mantle trims, bed and table linen

and another fabulous European pillow cover.

SOLD Façon Arlésienne * Catalogue of the Museon Arlaten * £35 €52 $105 Shipping Included (New Zealand & Australia $110)

This is a gorgeous scarce pristine 170 page French language profusely illustrated catalogue of an exhibition of historic costumes from Arles held in 1998

There is a very interesting first section on the history of textiles, textile making and importation in this fascinating historic area.

Then there are the gorgeously photographed costumes themselves

the cloths and clothes are so beautiful

this area of France is noted for its love of Les Indiennes - patterned cloths from India which arrived in Marseilles and travelled up the Rhone valley to the famous market of Beaucaire.

Boutis - the art of pattern quilting is also a specialty of this region and can be admired in the making of elaborate pockets

and bodices to keep out the worst of the Mistral - the wind that is funneled down the Rhone Valley from ice-capped mountains of the Massif Central.

There are fabric pattern books

and I mustn't forget embroidered gentlemen's jackets!

SOLD Couleurs d'Hiver * £16 €24 $60 Shipping Included (New Zealand & Australia $65)

We've just caught the tail end of Bertha - and while it doesn't feel like winter yet, we have had a preview. This is a pristine 96 page softback French/Italian language book with some super ideas for charming seasonal gifts and projects.

I made some gift tags last year on coloured perforated paper and they look so mmmmerry...

The Christmas trees can be stitched to make a panel, or as separate small projects...

These autumnal shaded animal decorations are going to look rather special at Thanksgiving or Hallowe'en (I'm not a great fan of witches and ghosts - but owls, I love!)

This Christmas alphabet can be made as a single project - or individually for gift tags or ornaments.

There is a lower case alphabet too

which can be built into names or greetings on sewing rolls or huswifs - so much choice, so much inspiration for treats with a difference.

SOLD Traditional Scandinavian + Fair Isle Knitting * 2 Books * £13 €20 $65 Shipping Included (New Zealand & Australia $70)

2 traditional knitting pattern books from the 1980s by Sheila McGregor - hardback 140 and 160 pages in excellent condition.

I have long been fascinated by the cross-overs between knitted and embroidered designs

and if you look at this pair of pattern pages - just 4 from the 66 pattern pages in this book, I know you will not be slow to identify some Quaker sampler motifs from amongst them. This is such a fabulous source of pattern - not only for knitting, but also stitching, I cannot recommend it more for your reference shelf.

When I was travelling around Scandinavia, again I was confronted time and time again by lovely monochrome (often indigo-dyed) knitwear that used a simple raised purl to define sampler like designs

whether the patterns had been taken from embroidery - or whether knitting provided source for stitching, it is hard to say. I have seen a number of knitted samplers and they are simply wonderful.

Here you can see motifs that would not look out of place on a sampler

and look at these border designs below

- knitting, stitching or weaving - they were all interchangeable in the nimble fingers of our mothers and

This book has very interesting tales to tell as well as patterns to knit!