Cross Stitch Booklets For Sale

Been cleaning out some things again and decided that I've probably stitched everything out of these pattern books that I ever will, so I've packed them up and listed them in my Etsy shop:



Here's a huge lot of cross stitch booklets, a couple of kits, and a few leaflets. There are 27 booklets, 2 small kits, a couple of chartpacks and a few small pattern cards. Also, a hard covered book titled, "Gifts Of Good Taste" published by Leisure Arts.

Most of the booklets are by Sam Hawkins but there are a few others in here as well including a Stoney Creek. There are 2 Valerie Pfeiffer chartpacks, a Lizzie Kate leaflet, a Mill Hill Bead kit and a few cards by The Sweetheart Tree.

Lots of stuff here to keep you stitching for months on end!

I think I can ship this Media Mail for about $5.00. If you'd prefer Priority Mail, just let me know.

I'm hoping maybe one of my cross stitch readers can use these. I do accept PayPal too.

Update On Moms Christmas Gift

I spent a good few hours stitching yesterday and made some progress on this block:



Remember, photography is not my medium! Ha, ha, ha! Anyway, you can see the necklace now that I have to work into this. It belonged to my grandmother. It's not tacked down yet as I'm not sure this is where it will stay. I've just kind of been playing with it in different areas trying to figure out where it will work best. The appliques aren't tacked down yet either for the same reason.

I'll be working on this some more later so I should have another update for you tomorrow.

Crazyquilt Christmas Ornaments

I spent the morning doing the finishing on these ornaments that I made last week:







I've added these to my Etsy shop in case anyone would like to have one. The blue santa ornament is sold the but the other 2 are still available.

Back from Galena

I'm back! And I wish I had a ton of nice pictures for you to see but unfortunately, the minute we got there, it started raining! And it rained all day on Saturday. Sunday was a little better because it was sunny but it was windy. Terribly cold wind. And then yesterday, it was cloudy and cold. We actually left a few hours earlier than planned because I got tired of being cold but we did stop to take a couple of photos of the countryside on the way back:





I wish there were something I could have done to these pictures in my graphic software to make them look a little better but I think you can certainly tell that it was a cloudy, dark day.

The scenery is actually breathtaking! And I think my camera takes panoramic photos but I can be a bit "technology challenged" at times and it didn't occur to me to figure out how to do that. Galena, Illinois actually looks like photos I've seen of Ireland. Just rolling hills as far as the eye can see!

Scott offered to take me back in December for my birthday but I'm not sure I can tolerate the cold then. I asked him if we could play that idea by ear.

BTW - if you're waiting on an email reply from me, I'll get those emails out as soon as I can. I'm having email issues due to a problem with my ISP. As soon as that problem is resolved I'll send out my replies.

Berlin Work Patterns

I'll be away from my computer for the next couple of days. Scott and I are heading out first thing in the morning for another long weekend up in Galena, Illinois. I'll be back to blogging on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I thought I would share something really special with you. Does anyone know what wonderful thing happened in the needlework world in 1804? A publisher in Berlin by the name of Phillison created the very first charted pattern! A design created on a grid where each square represented a stitch.

The patterns were drawn by hand and then transferred to copper plates for printing and then handpainted. These designs were used for petit point, cross stitch and half stitch (needlepoint). Eventually, this type of embroidery became known as Berlin Work.

Shortly thereafter, many publishing houses in Germany began to produce these patterns and Berlin Work became the most popular form of needlework during that time.

Several years ago, I was poking around some old papers in an antique shop when I found 3 original Berlin Work patterns. I knew right away what they were but felt my heart move into my throat just before I turned them over to see the price. I had no clue at that time what they were worth (and to be honest, I still don't know) but I expected them to be beyond my means. Imagine my surprise when I saw that they were marked only $1.00 each! I'm sure they're worth more than that!

Anyway, I thought you would enjoy seeing them:







I scanned these at 300 DPI in case anyone wants to attempt to stitch from them. I'm sure that's large enough to stitch from but you'll have to carefully chose your own colors. Click on any of the images to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large versions.

If anyone is interested in more information on Berlin Work, the only book I have on the subject is called Embroideries and patterns from 19th Century Vienna and it's by Raffaella Serena. My edition is copyrighted 1998.

Enjoy these everyone! I'll be back with more Galena photos on Tuesday!