SPRING IN CHICAGO—DUTCH SAMPLERS

Note:  I have enlarged most of the photos on my blog starting at the beginning. This will help you get a better view of the samplers and stitching so go back and look at them a bit closer. --Nancy

Spring is finally here in the Chicago area!

The crocuses are in bloom by my front door, and the snow drops are blooming in the cold back yard, but I hear we might have a touch of snow over the weekend.

This is a photo of Lizzy (skinny Golden) and Henry who were visiting here last week. Once one decided to bark, the next one started in on it! Noisy! Here they are looking at our squirrels in the back yard.

This is my Murphy with Henry lounging in the kitchen.

Yesterday was my monthly Sampler Group meeting here. I have volunteered to have it here most months because then I make myself clean the downstairs a bit. There were ten of us which makes for a nice group. I understand that the First Ladies meeting went well on Eleanor Roosevelt's chidhood. The gals in this subgroup are dividing up her life since there is so much material written about her.

When I returned home from yoga, everyone was eating lunch. Karen brought wonderful milk chocolate brownies with mints melted in the middle for dessert. They were complete with green icing for St. Patrick's Day. Yum! After lunch we talked and stitched. I had to rip out two birds on my Quaker Lady as I had forgotten about the inside border of the cartouche and counted from the outside border—so my two birds were to the right by 2 threads. Decided I couldn't live with that mistake. Ripped them out while talking to all my friends. Used some scotch tape to remove any lint left on the linen. You can still see a bit of the black of the birds but I think it will disappear once the cartouche is completed. Tonight I hope to finish the piece and then move on to the Quaker Gentleman. My colors are a bit garish, but am not going to change them. All I have left to do are the large empty cartouche and a tiny butterfly to the left of the girl's head and the year.

ANTIQUE SAMPLERS and REPRODUCTIONS

Over the years I have bid on samplers at a local auction. One of these was a Dutch sampler which I won.

 This is the reverse side—what a mess!

 Close-up of top

 It is very difficult to determine her name.

 Again, the reverse side

This is the backing board on which the sampler was laid. The sampler was sandwiched between the glass and this board. One might almost stitch from the impressions on the cardboard! I did not reproduce this sampler.

This is the Trinie Pieters sampler from the former Carrie B. Neely Collection at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Trinie stitched her name at the top of the sampler in large capital letters with cross stitch over 3 threads! That makes you alert when stitching! Above this line, she made tiny picots (knots) on the edge of the sampler. The date on this sampler is 1706. In addition to the cross stitches and picots, she used eyelet and some satin stitches. The finished size of the reproduction on 35 count linen is about  18" x 9".

Notice the eyelet stitches in the last alphabet. 

We do not know who "PB" is—maybe her teacher or a friend?

This is the reproduction. The satin stitches are on the two birds in the lower right corner.

I hope spring is creeping into your neighborhood. It has certainly been a long winter. I'm trying to finish up a scarf for my granddaughter as I don't knit much in the summer but try to do a lot of stitching then while my hands are soft and smooth! --Nancy

LATEST PROGRESS ON QUAKER LADY

I wasn't able to write yesterday. I had my yoga class (Iyengar) in the morning, and then in the afternoon I had to get my 2 upstairs bedrooms and bathroom straightened up and cleaned. My two granddaughters and their two dogs—a Golden Retriever and a Shih Tsu) came over last night before dinner to stay until next Tuesday morning. I had to make the house ready for two more dogs. My two cats are relegated to the basement, and Murphy has not taken kindly to the two "intruder" dogs though he likes Henry, the Shih Tsu, when he is over here by himself. It was an interesting evening. The girls are in 3rd and 6th grade so we watched last week's American Idol that we had previously recorded. Would have loved to stitched while we watched, but I was on "dog patrol" to keep the visitor dogs from bothering Murphy. This morning Jess, the older grand daughter, helped me with my makeup. No more lip stick, Grandma, only lip gloss. The two girls are up stairs now actually being kids again playing with the two doll houses we have for them. This is Henry.

I also had to make up bandannas for a gal who is going to host a meet and greet for the Golden Retriever rescue group this weekend. I cut them out on Tuesday night, sewed them on my serger Wednesday morning before yoga and FedExed 31 of them to her yesterday afternoon. I try to find bright cute fabric.

I did work on my Quaker Lady on Tuesday night. My stitching/knitting group that meets here every Tuesday morning helped me pick out the green and red for the contrasting colors on the piece. I wish I had had a white linen but I used a cream color that was in my drawer. It doesn't look as crisp as I would have liked, but I think the bright red and green help. The green is a #12 perle cotton of which I use 1 strand instead of 2 strands of floss. I want to use it up as I am on a kick of trying not to bring more stuff into this house. Now that the dogs have settled down, I hope I can stitch a bit tonight. I decided to leave off the alphabet at the bottom when I saw one like that on line somewhere. Have done enough alphabets to last a life time!

This is one of my reproduction designs for my business Threads Through Time.  It is the Elizabeth Lloyd Harper sampler dated 1812. I tried to take a photo of the original through the glass outside my house—a disaster, but you can see how faded the original is—such a pity. This is a lovely sampler with a large house and several out buildings. I was never able to find out who Elizabeth was and I don't know whether she was born in 1812 or stitched the sampler in that year. I assume maybe her father was in Commerce as she stitched that word above the out building. Now with the internet as a resource I might be able to track her down.

I'm off to make cookies with the granddaughters! Will write when I can between now and Tuesday when they leave for school. --Nancy

QUAKER SAMPLERS I HAVE MET AND LOVED

Today I want to talk about Quaker samplers. I am currently working on Jardin Prive's (sp?) design A Quaker Lady. I also have the Quaker gentleman to stitch. Just wanted to show you how over one thread looks. I have stitched these with 2 strands of black DMC floss over 1 thread on 28 count linen. I do have them on a roller bar and in a Kay's lap stand. This is about 6 hours of "work." I try to stitch about two hours every night. Will post my progress. 

Threads Through Time reproduced a Quaker sampler c. 1810. We learned of this sampler while giving a sampler talk at a local antiques show. The antique sampler had been framed and was glued with Elmer's Glue to a piece of wood. When the owner tried to remove it, she rinsed it but it remained stiff as a board because of all the glue! The first picture is of the front of the sampler. The second alphabet is eyelet stitches over 2 threads of the linen. Notice that the sampler is a bit long and narrow. This is because the linen is an uneven weave.

When I stitched the reproduction, I first thought that I had forgotten to stitch something as it is so square as compared to the original. But it is the even weave of the fabric that shortens up the motifs and makes the piece square. We were not able to find any history on this sampler as the stitcher stitched neither her name nor date on the sampler. The reproduction was stitched on 25 count linen with cross and eyelet stitches. It is small measuring only 9.5" x 10". 

I have found that there are quite a few antique Quaker samplers out there. This is probably because the Quakers favored education for girls and had many schools for them. I own two Quaker samplers. The first one came from an auction house here in Chicago land. It was stitched by Rachel Collins in 1810 with a silk thread on a very fine gauzy linen. You will see many of the usual quaker motifs on this sampler. Notice that it is hemmed all around. I have it laying on my living room floor with a linen napkin underneath—which is why it seems so white.

This is the back of the frame the Rachel Collins came in. It is like those old fruit boxes with cardboard and wood.

The other Quaker sampler that I own I bought at a nearby flea/antiques outdoor market. It was my bonanza day as I also bought a fantastic quilt and a braided rug. I was beside my self with joy. 

Note the bad fold marks on the sampler. I think it was probably found in a drawer and quickly framed for the market. It has no name and no date. I had hoped she would have finished the large W in the middle of the cartouche with Westown School, but no...

I had thought that maybe there was a black mat board behind the sampler in the frame. It was not but was the back of a Budweiser poster of either Gayle Sayers or Walter Payton (don't know which) and the back edges had been outlined with black magic marker! What a surprise it was to open the frame and find this!

Just about time to go on my afternoon walk with my husband but wanted to tell you about a wonderful little book called the Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil. It is English and does sometimes take a bit of figuring out about the language (chips for fries, etc.), but it is a very nice book about a gal and her two young sons pulling up stakes from London and moving close to her Gran in a seaside town in England. Gran has given her the yarn shop to take over. It's a nice cozy up book that I think you'll like. I can hardly wait for the next installment...