Welcome to the New C Street Samplerworks' Blog!

It's time to join the blogging world so there will be a place to see all the current designs, as well as news of future designs.

First, perhaps I should tell you how I became a designer.  I have been doing needlework in one form or another since my childhood. I embroidered my first sampler when I was 8 or 9 years old after seeing an antique sampler at a museum.  I was intrigued to see that it had been stitched by a girl about my age, so I went to Woolworth's and bought a little stamped "God Bless Our Home" sampler and stitched it in bright primary colors.

 Not knowing any better, I used all six strands of floss!  I never finished the sampler, but a few years ago I framed it and it is now hanging on a wall in my stash room as a reminder that I have learned a few things over the years.

In the 1960's I joined in the crewelwork craze.  I was especially drawn to the old Jacobean designs, because in addition to my passion for stitching, I have always been a history junkie.  Then I discovered evenweave fabric, and I knew I had found my true calling!  There were few, if any, counted thread patterns in the early 1970's, so I began designing my own samplers as gifts for family and friends, as well as for myself. 

In 1995, friends at my local needlework shop House of Stitches badgered me into designing a sampler for the “Lifetime of Memories” contest sponsored by DMC Corporation, Just CrossStitch, McCall’s Needlework, and Crafts Magazine in honor of the DMC Corporation’s 250th Anniversary.  I was dumfounded when I received a call in 1996 saying my design, “My Grandmother’s Flower Garden” had won first prize!  There were lots of fun prizes, the best of which was a trip to the Spirit of Cross Stitch show in Sacramento, California.  And my sampler got to travel to France, where it was exhibited at the DMC International Embroidery Exhibition, as well as being pictured in the catalogue for the exhibition.  It was then I began considering the possibility of designing professionally, and C Street Samplerworks was born.

It took a few years before I got up the courage to submit designs to Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly, where a number of my designs have been published over the years.  And in 2010, Norden Crafts began distributing my designs, and now here we are!

All currently available designs are listed on the left side of this page.  If you click on a sampler, you will be taken to another page with a photo and information on stitch count, design size, and linen used.  If you want to know anything else about the designs, I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

And please let me know if you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see in future designs.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you!