Welcome!

I should like you very much to come to my website and to get to know my broad product line of cross-stitch charts of needlework samplers from Europe:

samplers from the Vierlanden area, Ackworth samplers, school samplers, and samplers from the Biedermeier period.

I found most of those lovely samplers in custodies and cabinets not open to the public of several museums scattered to the four winds. Or they are attractive treasures in private ownership and components of collections. Some of them decorate living-rooms as a completely personal work of an unknown schoolgirl.

I am proud to present my reproduction samplers here - re-create your own!  Sincere thanks are given to all those who enabled me to research and study the original samplers.

The oldest samplers are more than 300 years old – the youngest at least still 100.

Samplers were stitched in many European countries over four centuries. The word is derived from the Latin “exemplum”. They primarily served for learning, practicing, collecting and keeping textile techniques and patterns. Those stitching patterns rarely were own creations, they rather go back to a very old and great variety of forms. Because they often have an instructive character, you can find letters and numerals on almost every sampler.

Samplers are fairly individual works from the hands of girls and women. They reflect not only the individual taste and the artistic and handicraft skills of a girl or a woman - their motifs, patterns and symbols also tell of the spirit of the time and the typical of a region or a country.

They remained in the families for generations in order to pass finally to the possession of a museum or become part of a private collection.