I began to do needlework as a child, learning from my mother how to embroider pillow cases, to knit and crochet. I didn't’carry that tradition on until college, when I became interested in starting my own in home needlecraft business in 1982. When the company whose product I was selling went out of business, I started to work at a local needlework store and found I naturally loved to sit listening to music and stitching on shop models or on pieces for my own collection. Over time, I eventually grew into a love of old samplers. I began to learn everything I could about these samplers and the young women who spent time stitching these elegantly worked pieces.

Milady’s Needle was born when I was in the process of stitching a model for another designer. Since I was helping the designer with changes in color and accurately identifying errors on charts of reproductions; I decided that I could probably design a sampler from the beginning of the process instead of just stitching the final design.

Although most of the designs you see on this website are original designs based on old samplers; in the future, reproductions of a few old samplers from my own collection will eventually be offered as part of Milady’s Needlework Collection.

I hope you enjoy the product of my dreams, as I continue to sit , listen to music from the 17th & 18th centuries while designing new samplers and such for your pleasure.

By the way...Milady’s Needle was named after a character in a novel by Alexandre Dumas called “The Three Musketeers”. Although not exactly the heroine, Milady surely did needlework as all women of her century were inclined to do, both to pass the time and out of necessity.