Thursday, April 8, 2010

A GERMAN SAMPLER 1765—MEXICAN SAMPLERS—MARY WALKER

ANOTHER GERMAN SAMPLER—1765

We are now at the year 1765. This sampler was appraised in 1939 at $20 and sold for 5520 pounds sterling at Sotheby's. She did not stitch her name only the initials CFL and DEN. The fabric is 31 count linen with silk threads. It is a large one measuring 10" x 42" with cross stitch only. In future posts you will see very similar samplers from Germany with only variations in design placement and choice of motifs.

 Once again I had to splice two photos together to make one large photo. 




In the cartouche at the top of the sampler are two sets of initials and the year. The lamb of God is in the second cartouch above the large wonderful parrot eating the cherry. 




Love the spotted sheep!


The motifs and alphabets and borders dwindle down to just rows of stitches.


MEXICAN SAMPLERS—

I stitched this sampler By Nancy's Hand as a correspondence course through the Embroiderers Guild of America. It was fun to stitch something with "wild" colors for a change. I do remember that some of it was reversible. I stitched the fish because my last name is the name of a fish. Oh, and I am either an aquarius or a pisces!





I purchased this Mexican sampler at a local auction and just love it. Love the different stitches and it's soft colors. As I recall, the back was also soft colors.













Love those little blue Chihuahuas!

MARY WALKER 1803—


Mary Walker is in a private collection. She is English but I was unable to trace her as her name is a common one. The dark brown fabric and the fold lines in the linen attest to her hard life! At first I though she might have been Quaker because of the large alphabet but it is not a true Quaker type of lettering. 





This is the reverse and if you didn't look closely, you would swear that it is the front. Mary was a very good needleworker and did not seem to drag her threads or leave loose ends on the back. Note that all the antique samplers that I have pictured in my blog have either selvedge edges or they are hemmed.


This is the Threads Through Time reproduction of Mary. Sometimes it is nice to stitch using only one color of thread. Keeps it simple! Also the black and white is a nice foil for all the other samplers on your wall.






I designed this sampler for the sampler guild in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Wanted to portray the boats and water from this area. While there in 1994, I was given a lovely tour of historic areas nearby—a very old church and a very old English-style house.


I am hoping to get down to my quilting room this afternoon and quilt 2 charity baby quilts with my long arm quilting machine for practice. The babies won't know how bad my quilting designs are, and I will, hopefully, learn some new techniques. I try to quilt a new quilting design on each new piece I quilt. Gotta stretch that brain and hand/mind connection. Am still working on the little Prairie Schooler Santas in needlepoint with 4 strands of floss. Will try to take some pics of them for the next time I write. I need to drag out one of my needlepoint stitch books so I can use other faster stitches than continental. 'Til next time... Nancy  

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