I would like to present to you two small school samplers from my personal collection:
The first one was stitched in 1853 by Eliza Islip and the other in 1859 by Mary Ann Batty.
School samplers are rarely perfect and as expected both Mary and Eliza did not count properly and sometimes stitched over one thread, or two, or three, this made it impossible to align the design exactly so I took that into consideration when charting it. When re-charting antique samplers I aim to stay as true as possible to the original, but in such cases have to slightly adjust the design to make it fit into a grid.
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| Mary Ann Batty sampler |
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| Notice the 'over three threads' mistake |
Stitching replicas of antique samplers is quite popular and you don’t have to follow the pattern exactly as it is, you can change/adapt it or simply pick out your favorite alphabet or motif.
However, if you are a purist and want to stitch it exactly as it was made a hundred years ago (or more), I would recommend stitching it in natural fibers (cotton, wool, silk) on linen or Penelope canvas; if that was what the original was stitched on. The colors may be faded or subdued now from years of exposure, but most antique needlework would have been quite bright and even gaudy.
Artisan or home dyed floss are particularly attractive, but be careful not to get your embroidery wet as some dyes can run.
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If you would like to stitch the samplers, the pattern is available here:
Eliza Islip on ETSY
Mary Ann Batty on ETSY
#rolanddesigns #maryannbattysampler #elizaislipsampler
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