Setting Free My Vintage Needle Book Collection

Written by Diane Harris on November 5, 2024. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Inspiration, Quilt Lifestyle

I’m a collector, which is entertaining for me, but it drives the rest of the household mad.

If you’re a collector, you know what I mean. If you’re not, why not?!

But seriously, now that I’m a little older, I feel less attached to some of my collections. And one of those is my vintage needle books. I’ve been collecting them for a few decades, but I haven’t gotten any new ones the past few years.

Some of the first ones I was attracted to were these Happy Home types, with their bright colors and graphics that reminded me of the 60s. But I’m not an expert on any of this, I haven’t done any research and I was not a serious collector. I just bought them for fun.

I mean what’s not to love about an inexpensive vintage item that says “Sewing Club”?! The needle books had all kinds of themes.

I have three with roses, but I don’t recall seeing other types of flowers on needle books.

A handful have animal themes. Let me show you inside the peacock book.

Older books seem to have had the needles wrapped in tissue and secured with labels. And this one also has a little fabric swatch into which I suppose needles were placed.

I do have some reproductions, like the Sew and Stitch with mother and daughter, above. Many of the books had a needle threader included.

I have quite a few with muddier colors that seem older to me. “Fashion Quality” is one of my favorites.

Some of the books are not very exciting, but the Woolworth book below intrigued me, so I did some digging. It should actually go with my set of New York-related books.

Pictured on the cover is the Woolworth Building, a New York City landmark. Wikipedia says this:

The Woolworth Building is a 792-foot-tall (241 m) residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1929, and it remains one of the nation’s 100 tallest buildings as of 2024.

I can’t say why New York is a theme among my needle books, but these are also some of my best ones.

This set celebrates modern progress. Here’s the back of the Century of Progress book, which I believe was the theme of the 1933 Exposition/World’s Fair in Chicago:

I like the books that are cut into interesting shapes. Here’s a loaf of bread, a milk carton, and boxes of Lipton showing off Flo-Thru tea bags. I wonder if this was when they debuted tea in bags? Maybe before that you had to use a diffuser. Not even sure that’s the right word.

If you remember when tea first appeared in bags, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

These Home Needle Cases are similar on the outside, but they’re from very different businesses.

One promotes Watkins products of various types.

And the other is all about gravestones. Did people need to be coaxed to “MARK EVERY GRAVE”? Now that I think about it, there was definitely a time when markers were more homemade and less permanent. So monument companies had to convince people to spend money on their tombstones.

The most I ever paid for one book was $10 (told you I wasn’t a serious collector!) for this Army and Navy Needle Book. It still has it’s protective wrapper, though that’s in tatters.

The back is interesting. Many of the books are the same on each side. And can you see where it was made?

Occupied Japan. I don’t think OJ items are all that rare, as a quick check of eBay brings up 18,000 listings, but still, kinda cool. Most of my books were made in Japan or “Western Germany.”

Plenty of grocery stores are represented on needle books. I love the name Piggly Wiggly.

And we can’t forget Hinky Dinky. What was it with weird rhyming names for the supermarket?

And maybe my most favorite of all is Raggedy Ann, although I didn’t know there was a food brand sporting her image. I like this one because I also have a collection of Raggedy Ann and Andy vintage dolls. That’s a post for another day.

I’ll leave you with One World books. That’s a happy thought for a stressful day, Nov. 5, 2024. I haven’t been sleeping, I am cranky and worried about the world, especially the USA. Let’s hope for better times ahead. Until then, quilt on.

P.S. The whole point of this post was to say that I’m putting my collection of needle books on the silent auction of my quilt guild this week. But now I’m rethinking the matter. 😏

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Tags: collectibles, collections, needle books, quilt guild, sewing collectibles