Welcome to The Scarlet Letter

It's rather a generic title but in fact this sampler was directly inspired by an American sampler stitched by Alice Drinkwater, age 11, circa 1815, titled "The Sampler", and formerly in the collection of The Scarlet Letter. The Sampler is available now.
Updated April 26, 2013

Five "new" antique samplers are now available for purchase. Christy Clark is a very finely stitched English sampler with the theme of the four seasons dated 1809.

Elizabeth Forfitt is a very finely stitched English sampler with alphabets and three verses at the top, with a scene featuring a large and elaborately detailed flower flanked by two enormous butterflies, within a four sided floral and Greek key border.

Katie Sym is an exquisitely stitched classic Scottish sampler featuring illuminated letters, an arcaded floral band, traditional motifs including peacocks, birds drinking at the Fountain of Life, feather trees and family initials. This sampler will be available as a charted reproduction later this year.

Margret Nisbet is another beautiful Scottish sampler circa 1770. She is nearly identical to her sister sampler, Katie Sym, dated 1769, down to the near matching original frames.

Harriot Hammond, dated 1811, is an English Adam and Eve sampler. This wonderfully busy sampler is filled with many traditional and some quite unusual motifs.
Updated May 2, 2013

At age nine in 1818, Sarah Dutnel created this unusual "tree of life" sampler. This reproducion sampler kit and chart are now available.
Updated April 26, 2013

Would you like a new pair of scissors? We've just added a dozen unique styles including an angel, cat snips, cross, owl, storklette, swordfish and more. Price for each is $12.00.
Updated March 30, 2013

Inspired by designs from 18th century English, Scottish and American samplers, we have designed a sampler with a holiday theme that makes use of the bold, unfaded colors found on the reverse side of many antique samplers, where exposure to light has not altered their original brilliant hues. The Scarlet Letter's Christmas Sampler is available now.
Updated March 5, 2013

This English band sampler exhibits transitional elements of design spanning the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The work is signed "Mary Wilson born June the 20 1711" and is now available.
Updated March 2, 2013

Designed after an early eighteenth century tent stitched picture, this expansive needlework scene depicts many episodes in the life of an affluent English family. This piece was stitched in full cross stitch on 40 count linen, measuring approximately 19" x 30". It is executed entirely in cross stitch and is available in silk or cotton. More information and detailed pictures of The Manifesto are now available.
Updated January 18, 2013

Nicola Parkman is doing an online SAL (stitch-a-long) titled Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year at: http://scarletletteryear.blogspot.co.uk to celebrate her 50th birthday. You can participate by stitching and finishing one or more Scarlet Letter samplers between now and February 20, 2014. Those who post about their progress during the year will be eligible for monthly prizes. Each finished sampler will give you an entry in a grand prize drawing to be held on February 20 2014. It will be lots of fun to see what the participants are stitching and watch their progress throughout the year.
Updated January 11, 2013

We've updated our customer gallery with a picture of Marie Abbott stitched by Ilana Kaye.
March 21, 2013

If you want to see more items that have been recently added, check out our list of new items. It shows all items that have been added to the TSL website during the past year. You can display the list at any time by clicking on the cherub logo in the right column of any webpage.