MORE SCOTTISH SAMPLERS

Been catching up around here as I have no scheduled events today or tomorrow. Took two orders to the post office this afternoon and finished reading Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt. It was a sweet book, and I liked it. Wanted to get out in the garden and weed and transplant things but never got there either yesterday or today, and now it is supposed to rain all weekend. It just started, and we do need the rain.

BEATLES QUILT and aphabet jackets—
Finally figured out how to work the computer quilt designing program EQ6 and was able to print up a pic of my quilt and the cutting instructions for the blocks. Now I have to decide which Beatles fabric to put in each block. They are all somewhat alike so I will emphasize all the different fabrics and not worry about the general design. It is for my brother who has always been a Beatles fan and I'm sure he won't care about a fabulous design! Also have a flannel jacket pattern laid out on my table. My friend Edie had some of that older alphabet/colonial houses flannel fabric left over, and I am going to quilt it to some sweatshirts that we have taken apart. Was going to quilt them on my long arm machine, but decided it would actually work better on my regular machine with a walking foot. We're making jackets. Want to get that project done.

MORE SCOTTISH SAMPLERS—


JANE ANDERSON 1822—
I purchased Jane Anderson from an auction quite a few years ago. Loved the bright reds on this sampler.  It was framed in a gold frame and had a red velvet ribbon glued to the border. She was stitched with wool thread on a linen fabric. I have done no research on her and have not charted her. Love those strawberries on the border.

Note the peacocks and trees and flower basket motifs—typical Scottish motifs. Also family initials.

A MC ALISTER 1835 sampler—

This sampler is owned by my friend Genevieve. It is stitched with wool thread on a linen ground. I started charting this sampler but never finished it as I recall. I might have been getting serious with designing my miniature samplers then. The five little cherry trees under the house were stitched over one thread. Note the twill tape sewn around the outside of the sampler. This was a common practice before framing. The twill tape would get holes punched in it from the nails in the frame not the sampler.

Note the family initials.

JANET IRVING SAMPLER 1845—

Janet Irving is in a private collection in Chicago. It is owned by a family member. Janet stitched her sampler with wool thread and some silk (upper alphabets and initials and signature line at the bottom of the sampler) on a linen ground. Note the initials JI JI and FE SE. They are stitched in black and are Janet's grandparents who must have been dead in 1845.

I did reproduce this sampler, and did include the family history or as much of it as I knew then before the days of the internet. Though I stitched it with medicis wool, I do include a color code with DMC floss.

The sampler was glued to a mat board, probably because of the deteriorating linen ground, but the wool thread did not fade as silk would have done. So I matched the wool to the colors on the front of the sampler.

Janet stitched the name of her school (Hillfoot School) in the signature line of the sampler. I love the bright lively colors.

This is the reproduction. In the flesh it does not have that bluish tone. I took the photo in the shade years ago when I didn't know much about photography.

Robina Drysdale Jack Sampler 1850—

This is a sampler that I reproduced and mentioned in an earlier post. It is Scottish. The first photo is the antique and the second is the reproductiion.

Reproduction below.

  

MARGARET FLETCHER 1834—

This is the final Scottish sampler that I can talk about. I purchased this sampler at a local flea market a few years ago. It is large and came in a wonderful frame. My friend Donna reguilded the frame with gold leaf. In this photo it is lying on my wood floor on a mat board. I have not reproduced this sampler.

There are some wonderful motifs on this sampler. It is stitched with silk, not wool. Note the familiar peacocks and the smaller version of our tulip flower arrangement below them.

I think Eve is a bit taller than Adam...or is it her hair?

A wonderful ship with eyelets. Note how tightly Margaret pulled her cross stitches.

LOVE the cat!

These lozenges with the family initials inside are kind of like the "Boston" lozenges. Love the little dog with the blue eye and collar. Again note how tightly she pulled her stitches in the green lozenge.

Very nice flower basket. I think this picture belongs above the previous one.

This is probably the best sampler that I own. I have not reproduced it. Been there. Done that. I guess I'm into other things now. When I hit 60 some years ago, I realized that I had a lot to finish up in my life—like several drawers of things to stitch, knit, sew, etc. I want to stitch Dutch Beauty. I want to finish the Prairie Schooler ABC's. I want to make quilts and knit sweaters. Don't have time to reproduce more samplers or design more miniatures. I am on to new things and other people's designs and am having a great time though it is great fun reminiscing about things on this blog.

Better go and eat dinner. I have the other half of the vegetable lasagne that I ordered when we went out to eat last night. Why do Italian restaurants serve so much food in one portion! I have the DVD of Grey Gardens to watch while I stitch. I think it won an Emmy or other award and is about some of Jackie Kennedy's wierd relatives. Will let you know what I think of it. I think Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore are in it. Gotta go now. See you later in the weekend. --Nancy

P. S.  I started this post earlier in the afternoon and left it a bit as I uploaded a bunch of the photos. Then when I came back to work on the blog,  I hit a wrong button and the photos were deleted so I had to do it over again. This is why I say I'm going to eat. It's 6 pm here in Chicago and I have cut out some of the sweatshirt jacket pieces for both jackets. Bye...