I am a bit like a big kid when I spot those little cards that inform me that a parcel is waiting to be collected at the parcel counter. I scurry in to post office and wait impatiently in line to see what it is. On Friday it was actually …
I discovered Therese de Dillmont’s “Encyclopedia of Needlework” on project Gutenburg. This book is a needlework classic so I was delighted to discover it is freely available. I trawl old books like this for stitch varieties and stitches that are no longer in common use. Often too stitches are referred …
The Priscilla Publishing Company published needlework books from the 1880’s to the 1920’s. Many of these are online in the Priscilla Publishing Company : Antique pattern library one of the highlights for me is the Priscilla Bead Work Book. Much of it is on beaded knitting but there are lots …
This French site houses some delightful old embroidery patterns . These books have been scanned and are free to download. Most of them are cross stitch designs particularly of alphabets. Anyone who loves old samplers will like these but there are some designs for other counted techniques too. On another …
Art in Needlework by Lewis F Day and Mary Buckle is a 326 page book published in 1907. This complete book is online and free to download from the Internet Archive site. You can download it in PDF format or if you just want to browse the book first and …
I have found two ebooks the first is John Taylor’s The Needles Excellency: A New Booke wherin are diuers Armirable Workes wrought with the Needle (1631) includeds the Poem In Praise of the Needle and contains needlework patterns for blackwork, cross-stitch, and lace designs. The other is in the collection …
Owen Jones classic The Grammar of Ornament is online. The 1910 edition is provided free by the Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture Another gem from the same collection of e books also by Owen Jones is the 1867 edition of Examples of Chinese ornament selected from …
