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| Antique samplers from the Roland-Designs collection |
When I first started to chart antique samplers from my collection I would ‘fix’ mistakes and edit the sampler designs to make them more uniform and properly aligned, that was until one day I was contacted by a lady who contacted me about a specific sampler and asked if it was possible to have a true to the original chart. I didn’t think anyone would want to stitch that sampler exactly as it was, with the damage, mis-matched colors and mistakes. So that was when I became aware that there was a large community of sampler lovers who stitched not only their own samplers, but who also made exact replicas of antique samplers, mistakes and all.
What is it that we find fascinating, and love about samplers.
Here are my four personal favorites.
1. The aesthetic.
Pleasing to see, with neat rows, variety of motifs, different styles of alphabets, the stitches uses and the rhymes or poems that are often found on them.
Unlike a floral picture embroidery – Samplers have a lot of different points of interest.
2. They are personal.
Often samplers have the name, date of completion and other information about the person who stitched it, such as their age, the school they went to or the place they live.
3. Nostalgic.
School samplers remind us of when we were young and presented our parents with a special project we had made. Those samplers must have made special gifts as they were treasured and kept safely for generations.
Samplers are also a time capsule of days-gone-by. The spelling, the choice of verse or poem. Even the letters which are missing tell the tale of a life lived long ago.
4. The alphabet.
Letters form words, words become sentences, paragraphs and books. Being able to read is the basis of all education. The ability to preserve and pass on information in written form is what has elevated some civilizations over others. With writing we can make a record our knowledge and in doing so we not only save it, but also study it and in so doing it multiplies.
With that said, I cannot say that the accumulation of knowledge has made us happier, in many ways we are now overwhelmed by it. This in turn brings us back to the nostalgic aspect of our fascination with samplers. The reminiscence of simpler days, of childhood, of innocence.
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If you are interested in stitching your own sampler reproduction, there are some antique sampler patterns on the website, and many for sale in my ETSY shop.
Free sampler patterns here (scroll to the bottom of the page for the free patterns): https://www.roland-designs.com/pattern-collection/samplers
