Roland-designs , Virginie's blog.

"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunday 15 April 2018

Large family sampler



I’m proud to announce that I’m finally finished with my big family sampler.

I’m ashamed to say that it took 10 years to complete !

In 2008 I was a stay at home mom with small children, and a growing interest in cross stitch. I spend a lot of time browsing online and looking at photos of beautiful antique needlework, and birth samplers. I had already stitched 3 birth samplers for my children (though I still need to stitch one for my second son), and now wanted to stitch a family sampler.

I came across a website where you could get a sampler designed from antique alphabets, customized just for you. I contacted the lady, and we exchanged many emails before we agreed on how the sampler should look. I remember it was a little expensive to order a custom sampler, and buy the needed linen and hand-dyed premium silk embroidery floss. But I justified it by telling myself this project will keep me busy for a long time, and would become a beautiful piece to decorate my then plain walls with.

Little did I know that it would get me completely distracted, and initiate the start of a cross stitch business of my own – and such a distraction it was, that I only completed it ten years later.

Falling in love with antique alphabets, I started to buy my own from Ebay – which eventually led me to buy a cross stitch software, and experimenting with designing. Before long I had set up a website, and the rest is history….

Now ten years down the line I am contented to be finished with the sampler, and even more pleased that I purchased enough of the beautiful silk embroidery floss I had decided to use. It turns out the small company I bought it from eventually went out of business, and no one else does exactly the same silk dyes. 

All that remains is to have it framed professionally, then find a place to display it on my now very full walls.

Here is the link to the website where I got the sampler, I do not know wether it is still in business or not. www.nouveauencore.com



My large family sampler

Stitched on 32 ct linen with one thread of hand-dyed silk floss

Details

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