"Sleep well dear guest." - Free pattern

Vintage cross stitched poem

 

Imagine being invited to spend the night in a simple, but comfortable guest room, antique furniture, some well read books, and on the night stand an old jug filled with freshly picked wild flowers. Hanging on one of the walls is a framed cross stitch embroidery, stitched in colorful wool on a now faded evenweave, it features a serene, peaceful poem……

I don’t know where this vintage embroidery came from, and whether or not it was ever hanging on the wall of a guest room, but I do believe it was at one time framed. I cannot date it exactly, but it came together with another, very similar embroidery featuring the hymn ‘If we could see beyond today’ written by Norman J. Clayton and published in 1931, this leads me to presume that it was stitched sometime after that date, and would thus be a vintage and not an antique embroidery.

A little research let me to find the author of the poem, it was written by Ellen Maria Huntington Gates (1835-1920). It seems our stitcher changed some of the words, as most of the examples I found had a slightly different wording. 

 

Sleep Sweet

by Ellen M. Huntington Gates

Sleep sweet within this quiet room,
O thou, whoe'er thou art,
And let no mournful yesterdays
Disturb thy peaceful heart.

Nor let tomorrow mar thy rest
With dreams of coming ill:
Thy Maker is thy changeless friend,
His love surrounds thee still.

Forget thyself and all the world,
Put out each garish light:
The stars are shining overhead —
Sleep sweet! Good night! Good night!

 

Courtesy of the poetry nook - https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/sleep-sweet

 

A replica of the cross-stitch pattern is available as a free download on the Roland-designs website: https://roland-designs.com/free-patterns

 

Design Area:  191 x 133 stitches

If stitched on  28 ct linen/ 14 ct aida the pattern will measure : 

13,64" x 9,5"  /  34,6 x 24  cm