We add new items as fast as we can think them up! Always featuring antique needlework and especially samplers, our products are made with loving care and an eye to detail. Watch for new brainstorms!

To place an order from outside the United States, please contact us!

Boxed Sets

We love these little boxed sets - whether you call them "tool boxes" or "toy boxes" - they are fun! They were fun to make and we think they look terrific on display with our other needlework tools.

Each papier-mâché box is hand painted with a grain-painted finish, and filled with lots of "toys".

Adam and Eve

This hexagonal shaped box is a really special set. The bottom of both the box and the little "button box" is covered with felt chosen to coordinate with the colors of the featured sampler. On that ground rests a needlebook, complete with needles in that same coordinating felt, a thread palette with four coordinating silk threads, a pin keep and a scissors fob. The hand-painted ivory ruler on a recycled piano key and a variety of mother-of-pearl buttons inside the button box are included, though the scissors are not. Because it is illegal to export ivory, this set is available in the US only.

Each box and the accompanying toys are adorned with high-quality images from an antique sampler. The images are the same on each set, but the grain-painting is, of course, different - the colors are the same, but the "faux finish" varies from box to box. This particular batch is a lovely summer green enhanced with a golden brown, inspired by the scene on the box top.

These are limited editions - once they're gone they're gone!

.R.S. 1738. German. Private collection.

New!

Adam and Eve Boxed Set $47.50*

Blueberry Hill

This is a lovely set made from one of our favorite samplers. The bottom of both the box and the little "button box" is covered with felt chosen to coordinate with the colors of the featured sampler. On that ground rests a needlebook, complete with needles in that same coordinating felt, a thread palette with four coordinating silk threads, a pin keep and a scissors fob. A variety of mother-of-pearl buttons inside the button box are included, though the scissors are not.

Each box and the accompanying toys are adorned with high-quality images from an antique sampler. The images are the same on each set, but the grain-painting is, of course, different - the colors are the same, but the "faux finish" varies from box to box. This particular batch is a vibrant blue enhanced with a deeb brown-black, inspired by the scene on the box top.

These are limited editions - once they're gone they're gone!

Jessie Brown,13. August 4,1827. Scottish. Private collection.

New!

Blueberry Hill Boxed Set $38.50*

Boxed sets are available for retail sales only.

*$2.50 per item handling charge will be added to boxed sets at checkout.

Friendship Trifolds

Rosina Shultz 1817 Schwenkfelder Collection

A lovely token of friendship - just right for your stitching friends! Open the trifold to find bejeweled pins, needles and silk threads on mother-of-pearl rings. The outside of the case features motifs from an antique sampler, and all the embellishments were chosen to coordinate with the sampler.

New!

Friendship's Delight $11.75*

Eleanor Dade aged 13 years on the 14th of May 1835. Private collection.

New!

Adam and Eve Trifold $11.75*

Pin Keeps

Our pin keeps feature high quality photographs of antique samplers or contemporary pieces with an historic feel. They have 100% wool felt to protect your pins. These pretty pin keeps are the perfect finishing touch for your smalls collection. Actual size 1 1/2" x 1 1/2"

Elizabeth Bechtel 1833. Schwenkfelder collection.

New!

Queen's Stags Pin Keep $10.00*

I.R.S. 1738. German. Private collection.

New!

Ring Around the Rosey Pin Keep $10.00*

Eleanor Dade aged 13 years on the 14th of May 1835. Private Collection.

New!

This gorgeous pin keep features pins bejeweled with Jet Swarovski crystals. We think this is our most elegant pin keep, hence the name!

Elegante Pin Keep $13.50*

Bookmarks

Our Bookmarks feature high quality photographs of antique samplers and coordinate with our Book Plates. They feature a magnetic closing and slip over the top of your book's page to securely mark your place. A must for your special needlework books, and a wonderful gift to slip inside a greeting card for your stitching friends!

Lydia Yeakel 1799. Schwenkfelder collection.

New!

Spies of Canaan Bookmark $2.50*

Christina Schultz 1801. Schwenkfelder collection.

Now, don't laugh...we think this motif looks like a birthday cake on top of a flower - in fact, we almost called this design "Birthday Cake"! But at a recent seminar, we discovered that this is the Schwenkfelder version of the Pelican in Her Piety - so stylized that the mother pelican is gone and only her babies in the nest remain. (The babies are the things that look like candles on the cake.)

New!

Christina Schultz Bookmark $2.50*

Caroline Reeves, 1830 - her work. American - probably Pennsylvania. Private collection.

New!

Honeysuckle Rose Bookmark $2.50* (Coordinates with bookplate)

I.R.S. 1738. German. Private collection.

New!

IRS Alphabet Bookmark $2.50* (Coordinates with bookplate)

Bookplates

Our bookplates feature high quality photographs of historic samplers. The muted designs are in the soft colors and classic motifs of the antique samplers we love. They make a beautiful statement, and ensure that your books always come home to you. Several of them have coordinating bookmarks, so you can give a "set" to your stitching friends. The pressure-sensitive format means they are easy to apply!

We like to carry the plates with no writing with us to events to get an autograph from the authors we are lucky enough to meet in our travels. It's not always practical to carry your books with you, but a few bookplates don't take up much room at all!

The blank plates suggest so many other uses, too - as a small finishing label with just your name and date, or can't you see your wonderfully-organized stash drawers or baskets each identified with one of these handsome labels? Perhaps a gift tag, or to adorn your project bags...the possible uses are limited only by your imagination!

I.R.S. 1738. German. Private collection.

New!

See the coordinating Bookmark

IRS Alphabet Bookplates (Package of 10) $8.50*

Caroline Reeves, 1830 - her work. American - probably Pennsylvania. Private collection.

New!

See the coordinating Bookmark

Honeysuckle Rose Bookplates (Package of 10) $8.50*

Quick Start Sets

There you are at the beginning of a sampler class when the teacher says - "measure in three inches from the side and three inches down from the top to begin your stitching", and pandemonium reigns as everyone looks around for a ruler or measuring tape! While everyone else scrambles, you simply reach into your bag and pull out your Quick Start Set. The three-inch square sits at the top left corner of your linen and you put in your first stitches while your neighbor is still searching for a ruler.

The Quick Start set includes two inch, three inch and four inch squares - just place them on the corner of your linen, and you can put your needle in exactly where you want it. Get a quick start in class or when you're itching to begin that next sampler... The three squares are adorned with high quality photos of antique needlework. They are mounted on artist's board and have a protective coating.

We have a lot of fun shopping for just the right ribbon to enhance your Quick Start set - but sometimes when we go back to buy more, we can't find exactly the same thing - so rest assured the ribbon which adorns your set will have been chosen to complement the designs in the set, even if it's not quite what you see in the pictures here.

Our Quick Start Sets are not only practical - they're gorgeous! They grace your stitching basket and make you look really smart!

Just place your quick start square on your linen and start stitching!

1. 2. 3.

1.Caroline Reeves, 1830 - her work. American - probably Pennsylvania. Private collection.

2.Eleanor Dade aged 13 years on the 14th of May 1835. Private Collection.

3. I.R.S. 1738.German. Private Collection.

New!

Adam and Eve Start Set $8.50*

1817. Sarah Almy’s Sampler Wrought in the 11th year of her age, 10th month. American.

New!

Quaker Quick Start Set $8.50*

Adam and Eve

Sampler lovers often collect (or wish they could afford to collect) as many of one motif, or style as they can find! Adam and Eve is a very popular theme for samplers, and we have put together a collection of Adam and Eve items for those collectors. All of these items come from the same sampler:

Caroline Reeves her Work. 1830. American - probably Pennsylvania. Private Collection.

To place an order from outside the United States, please contact us!

New!

We have been so excited that Giulia Punti Antichi has designed a wonderful Adam and Eve Etui just to hold some of our Adam and Eve products! The design is gorgeous, based on motifs from our Caroline Reeves sampler. It may be purchased at many of your local needlework stores!

The coordinating Adam and Eve Cards, Finishing Labels, Bookplates, Needlebook, Thread Palette and Pin Keep are available now as a set.

Adam and Eve Set $38.50**

**$1.50 handling charge for Adam and Eve Set will be added at checkout

All images are the property of In the Company of Friends™

*50 cents per item handling charge will be added at checkout