Friday, January 11, 2008

I'm Earlier Then Expected

I know I said that I would do this next week but I had a quite moment where I thought I'd get my son to put these photo's on the computer for me while I did some of my dreaded housework. It didn't take long at all as my DH bought us a new computer for Christmas because the old one was soooooo slow. Its amazing how quick this one is. I uploaded all these photo's in the time that it took the kettle to boil. So I will write my bit while I have a lovely cup of tea.

This is my progress on Margaret. She is still lovely, and the colours really remind me of my visits to Scotland. The colours remind me of the heathers I suppose they are called Glens. If it was England it would be moors. Truly beautiful and interesting places.
I had a lovely parcel from the lovely Joanie the other day. She sent me all these beautiful Mary Garry charts. I quite like Mary Garry's work. I had a old JCS magazine where she was the featured designer and it had 2 lovely pin cushions in it. They have always been on my list "to do", but as usual I haven't got there yet. Where does the time go. Yikes.

I thought I'd also show you this beautiful sampler. When my son was fixing the computer for me he found this lovely sampler on Goggle Images for my Deskground Background. She is called Margaret Logan and is a Scarlet Letter Sampler. On reading the above info discovered that she is an English sampler and has a lot of Quaker motifs in her. Apparently Margarets teacher was educated by Quakers and there are another 2 samplers by other girls that were also designed by the same teacher. All very interesting as they say.

While looking for something the other day I came across these 2 books with samplers that are on my "to do" list. It's quite long. I think the list will outgrow me. The sampler above is from a BH&G Special Interest Publications called Country Crafts 1997. The original sampler if you can see it is on the left. Its called Heart of Home Sampler. The one on the right is an adaption of the original.

All the following photos are from a book that I have had for a long time calledAustralian Needlework- Cross Stitch, Counted Thread and Canvaswork. It was published in 1993. The sampler below is called Kitty Bigg, 1793 and was started in England and bought out to Australia when the family immigrated out here. The graph for this sampler is included in the book. The original is owned by the Museum of Applied Arts and Science, Sydney.

This sampler is one of the earliest Australian Samplers. It is called Emily Lakeland and was done in 1825 when she was 6 years old. The picture on the top is of Emily. The V.D.L. on the bottom is Van Diemans Land which is now know as Tasmania. Unfortunately there is no graph for this one in the book.

This one is called Catherine Toms 1867. This is also Australian and is in Canberra. Catherine was a Governess to a family who lived near Canberra and was probably a teaching aid for her students needlework. My book has graphs of only the smaller things e.g. the large flower, the tree, and baskets.
These two are very interesting. I actually have the graph from another publication of the smaller sampler. The smaller one is called sabel Buist, 1839 and she also lived in Van Diemans Land. The larger sampler is called Mary Ann Williams 1831 and is English. Both these 2 samplers are owned by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, which I now believe is The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

Well I have finished my cuppa so I better get back to the dreaded housework. I have a pile of ironing to do that you wouldn't want to believe. Well I suppose its not that bad. Maybe an hours worth of quite contemplation while I do it or dreaming of my next sampler. Ahh samplers. Love em.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

12 comments:

Lapplisor said...

Hello Sandra
Thanks for your dear Post to my work.
I thank also for this for me extremely interesting report, from the "other side the earth" - sew-technically seen.
You know probably also the samples of "Wiehenburg"... in Germany give it the marvelous embroidery museum of Celle... I send you the left shortly there.
Now I wish you a fantastic weekend.
Hughs Barbara

Stitching-by-Jean said...

Margaret is coming along, can you post the whole name of the sampler? some how I'm just not finding it..
Lovely work by the way.

Anonymous said...

It's always a treat to visit your blog. I love samplers too. Any chance you can post the front cover of the BH&G book. I remeber front covers better than charts sometimes. In the summer I stumbled across an old issue of BH&G Christmas and worked the wonderful sampler inside. My sis was in England two summers ago and bought me a kit of an adaption of The White House sampler that's in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Image my surprise when I found out that the Scarlet Letter had charted the work! The kit came with aida and I've switched it to linen. Maria S.

Jane said...

Thanks for the interesting post. I love to hear about the history behind some of the old samplers, fascinating! You are coming along beautifully on your WIP! Hope you have a great week!

The Nostalgia Fairy said...

As always, I am in awe of all that beautiful stitchery and the patience required to complete these lovely treasures.
Hugs,
Sandi x

Crazee4books said...

Hello Sandra,

Boy, have I enjoyed your post today, with all the pictures of the different samplers. It's like a mini history lesson seeing each one, and reading the names of each child or person who stitched them, and the dates they were done. And in some cases also finding out a bit of the stitcher's life history too. How cool.

We have a place called Black Creek Pioneer Village, just on the northern edge of Toronto, and it's a group of buildings from around Ontario that were moved to that spot to preserve them and to form a village. People visit there to see how our earliest settlers lived. And in some of the houses there are old samplers hung on the walls which were stitched by young girls of the area. It's so fascinating to see them and study them.

Margaret Gibson continues to be both beautiful and interesting to watch grow.

Hope everything goes well for your son's wedding, and the weather co-operates for the occasion.

There's nothing I love more then a good thunderstorm. I sit and watch them whenever I'm home and have the opportunity.

It's always so nice to have you visit my blog and leave a nice, chatty comment. I look forward to it.

Take care

Jude said...

Hi Sandra
Thanks for visiting my blog and the good wishes! I've enjoyed your post about samplers very much: what a wonderful collection.

Kajsa said...

Love your WIP, it's really pretty! That's quite a collection of pretty samplers there, thank you for sharing them with us.

Deb said...

Hi, Sandra, Oh, how i love samplers and the tour you gave me! I was digging in the garage today..DH said my boxes are getting in the day of his path to his tools. I was sitting and relooking through an old box of charts/stash and found a bunch of great Scarlet Letter, Needles Prayse, etc. samplers. Just love them. I have an extra "Garnet Sampler," by
The Needle's Prayse..please send me your snailmail addy, if you want it! :) Hugs, Deb
email: interiorsbydeb2 AT AOL dot com

Deb said...

PS: Forgot to mention what a beautiful job you're doing on your sampler!!
Deb

Wendy said...

Your Margaret Gibson sampler is coming along great! And thank you for treating us to all this delicious samplers, each one is such a piece of art on its own.

I can't imagine a 6 year old today being able to sit and stitch a sweet little sampler like the one you've shown.

Lapplisor said...

Hello Sandra!
in my blog i have a gift for you...
hugs barbara