Acorn Sampler
A traditional band sampler of traditional bands of acorns. If you look carefully, you will see that there are acorns in each major band except the alphabet band.
Starting from the top, the bands are of Double Running Stitch, a traditional drawn thread technique, more Double Running Stitch, the center of a 'bouquet' of acorns, more Double Running Stitch, Reticella, an alphabet and Cross Stitch.
A non-stitching friend once asked me if I had any idea why acorns appear on so much historical needlework. Obviously for the symbolism, but I think there is another reason: they lend themselves to needlework so well, and in so many forms.
In my days of travel teaching, I made this sampler for an EGA Seminar and then taught it at Callaway Gardens and at various regional seminars and for various guild chapters around the country. In those days I was traveling a lot.
Instructions booklet is 77 pages long with detailed illustrations of the bands. plus 8 Oversize Graphs and a color photo of the sampler.
Congress cloth, 11" x 24"
Threads are Soie d'Alger and Pearl Cotton (not included).
P..S. I borrowed the alphabet from Marcus Huish -- he believed it to be the oldest alphabet used on a sampler.
Returning because of Requests:
Samplers with Cutwork
Instructioms only (no threads, no canvas)
Prices includes shipping.
ACORN SAMPLER
Instructions, $78.00 includes shipping
To Pay by PayPal click on the button:
DRAWN THREAD SAMPLER AND ITS DOODLE
Instructions, $88.00 includes shipping
To Pay by PayPal click on the button:
Drawn Thread Sampler
Drawn Thread Sampler, My History with Whitework
DH and I spent a total of just about 12 years in London, always a stone's throw from the V&A, and thus began my romance with whitework. The V&A then had a study room filled with a feast of samplers and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to adapt the cutwork I found on them to my own needlework.
I would sit at a table in the V&A with a sampler in front of me, and I would make drawings, then go home and with Elizabeth Prickett's book on one side of me, Onone Cave’s book on the other and a doodle in front of me, I would try to figure out how to do the cutwork. Double double, toil and trouble, I figured out a way, and Drawn Thread Sampler is my attempt at some of these techniques.
I am a great believer in easy. If I can accomplish what I wish with an easy stitch, why would I choose a difficult one? Drawn Thread Sampler includes the only genuinely difficult techniques I know.
Drawn Thread Sampler's Doodle
Drawn Thread Sampler's Doodle, Part 2 The Instructions for Drawn Thead Sampler and Drawn Thread Doodle
The Instructions for Drawn Thread Sampler include both Samplers and are approximately 150 pages long. I say 'approximately' because the instructions are divided into four parts, three are short parts dealing with the count for each sampler; the last section of the instructions is 142 pages long.
I don't have a hardcopy here (the instructions are digitalized and live at my print shop).
Back in the days I wrote these instructions I was all but computer illiterate. I laid out the pages in an old app called PageMaker, but I drew all of the graphs and diagtrams by hand. Years later, the kids at the Apple Store taught me how to use Illustrator.
I have not updated all my hand-drawn instructions. Yes, they would look better (although I have followers who tell me they prefer my hand drawn graphs), but who knows if I would get them tranferred correctly. As they are in their old form, I know they work. How do I know? In all these years there are lots of Drawn Thead Samplers and Doodles. So I have a hard and fast rule that I don't fiddle with instructions once a number of people have stitched the pattern and I know it works.
Why am I writing all this? Because a good number of people have requested I sell the pattern at E-Week this year (E-Week is my large sale in October).
Drawn Thread Sampler and its Doodle
Both are in the instructions, one on congress cloth and the doodle a rare stitch for me on linen.
limited copies available
Must have U.S. address
Outside the U.S.: Shipito.com
.
limited copies available