Usually ships in 5-12 days.

Designer: Scarlet Letter
Item: SCTL-009
Type: Cross Stitch Patterns

A derivative 17th-century canvas work picture. The Adam and Eve legend was a more popular theme on samplers after the early eighteenth century so this example is quite unusual. The pair are not often seen on earlier needleworks, even though most illustrated bibles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries concentrated their illustrations on Old Testament stories.

Standing naked, one supposes they were not as interesting to draw as biblical heroes and heroines in fancy dress performing heroic and moralistic deeds. This canvaswork (cross-stitched) picture adapted from a primitive early seventeenth-century gros point pieve shows a guilty, shell-shocked pair in their newly profaned garden. The focus here appears to be on the crime itself rather than on the earthly paradise found in the Garden of Eden. Eve tentatively reaches out to the wickedly gleeful serpent with a distorted apple. Apocryphal tales suggest the apple was really a quince, which might explain the ruddy elongated fruits in the tree. Adam lends a hand, signifying his shared culpability. Over and undersized birds, insects, and animals stand around them, drawing the focus to the ignorant human loss of innocence. Even the fearsome sun and groggy moon under heavy, roiling cloud masses convey the dissonance of the scene.

The piece is worked almost entirely in cross stitch/gros point, with the verse executed in counted satin stitch. On 35-count linen, the stitch count is 296 x 236. The finished size will measure approximately 17″ x 13-1/2″. The project is recommended for any needlework skill level.

Chart only.