Some of the most timeless and captivating artwork in the world is inspired by nature - and that's as true today as it was 150 years ago.

The vintage patterns in this book, made over the course of more than sixty years, show how graceful line drawings of flowers and other natural wonders can be enhanced by lines, repetition and symmetry.

Until just a few generations ago, everyday items and clothes were regularly decorated with fancy stitchery. For creative inspiration, they turned to the newspapers and magazines of the day. By combing through print archives from the 1850s through the 1910s, we found dozens of antique embroidery and sewing patterns in Victorian and Edwardian styles - featuring floral motifs, leaves and vines, flourishes and combinations thereof.

Most of these vintage designs were intended to provide suggestions for embroidery or other needlework to adorn clothing and linens, or to for the kind of knicknacks people desired long ago. We wanted to restore these antique graphics and create from them coloring pages that would appeal to hobbyists and artists today.

No matter their purpose in the past, these carefully-curated antique drawings deserve to be appreciated in the here and now... and with your help, they will!