I have talked a lot about my love of samplers, and how it started. And through this interest, I have learnt a lot about them over the years either by reading or attending conferences in the United States. When I see certain Dutch samplers, I am often able to identify where they are from. Some,… Read More
Having just spent the last 2 or 3 days browsing the Hoffmans Distributing and Norden Crafts websites, looking at the design releases from 2011, I produced a long list of designs that really appealed to me. I could have made the list even longer, but I was trying to focus on the finding the 5… Read More
That is the patchwork top I made last weekend. Ok. So it wasn’t last weekend. I wagged one day last week. Well, sort of. You see, my daughter, who has High Functioning Autism, had her orientation day at secondary school. It was only a half day. And she had to be there at 9am. And… Read More
For quite a while now I have been wanting to make samplers for my daughters to celebrate each year of their lives. I originally came across this idea on Anne’s blog, Tempus Fugit. When the lovely ladies at Blackbird Designs released the Anniversaries of the Heart Series, I decided it was time to start stitching… Read More
I have long loved my cross stitch, and today was thinking about who my favourite designers would be. I decided to restrict the list to only 10, but I could easily add many more… Blackbird Designs – I have loved their designs for many years, with many of the designs being quite quirky. I have… Read More
Stitched in 1827 , the Sarah Hartley sampler shows remarkable similarities to the sampler stitched by Mary Jane Gettys and reproduced in volume 1 of the Sampler and Antique Quarterly magazine. there are more floral motifs on the Hartley sampler, but both have the same basic design style. From this an assumption can be made… Read More
From time to time the question about whether to sign a reproduction sampler with your details and the year that you finished it is raised in various discussion groups. This question was raised on one of my yahoogroups recently, and although I responded with a one line statement, I have previously given a more detailed… Read More
