Note from the designer: "A beautiful meandering four-sided floral border in an unusually rich color palette surrounds this traditional Scottish sampler, also featuring a beautiful arcaded floral band at the top and a substantial mansion house in the lower register. Trees, tulips and flying birds... Read more
Note from the designer: "This original design blends a mid-18th century floral sampler border with a late 18th century lettering and cartouche style, and a mid-19th century sentiment. Instructions are provided for working the sampler in a different color scheme (red, blues, greens) on a neutral... Read more
Note from the designer: "This intricate and involved sampler features many traditional German sampler motifs dating from the sixteenth century including a large parrot, a peacock with silver tips on its wings, the Lamb of God, as well as a depiction of the Crucifixion flanked by Mother Mary and... Read more
This sampler was made in Scotland and includes many of the traditional motifs associated with samplermaking in this region. Firstly, Janet has included many initials of family members. However the initials at the center- G R 3 -refer to the then-reigning monarch, King George III. The flowering... Read more
Note from the designer: "This small and brilliantly preserved band sampler demonstrates a wide variety of stitches found on many seventeenth century samplers. The beautifully shaded flower heads and leaves are filled in with connecting tiers of trellis stitch."
Rose's unusual middle name should have provided some clues about where she was born, and where she lived, but the name "Shenamon" is elusive despite my efforts to discover its origins as well as hers. It is spelled many different ways when researched (including Shinimon and Schinnamon which... Read more
Agnes Binnie was born in Stirlingshire, Scotland, on March 22, 1808, to Robert Binnie and Mary Addie. She married James Barclay on March 16, 1832, in Falkirk, Stirlingshire. The couple had at least six sons and three daughters. Around 1870 they emigrated to Scotland Township in McDonough, Illinois.... Read more
The original Scottish antique sampler had never been framed and so it was in excellent condition with the same vibrant, unfaded colors on the front as well as on the back. An unusual, elaborate four-sided undulating floral and leaf border surrounds a central reserve with a brief moral verse. Adam... Read more
This design was excerpted from the top of an early nineteenth-century English sampler. It features an unusual and amusing hunting scene with a solo hunter on horseback pursuing a single hapless stag with a pack of ten spotted hounds on its trail.
The verse reads:
Give me O Lord thy early... Read more
This mid-eighteenth-century Scottish band sampler features many classic seventeenth-century patterns, executed in cross, eyelet, double running, counted satin, back, and queen stitches.
The virtually unfaded color was reproduced from the front of the sampler. Six pattern bands precede... Read more
This is a reproduction of a Quaker sampler made in Chester County, Pennsylvania consisting of alphabets, numerals, ligatures* and lineal patterns executed in a variety of stitches. The uppermost border with the dangling central flower is often seen on American Quaker samplers of this period (see... Read more
A sampler from the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England.
Skill and expertise in sampler-making did not necessarily peak in the mid-to-late seventeenth century and then wane during what is often called the "golden age" of English sampler-making. These skills... Read more
This amazing, unprecedented English sampler illustrates so many unique and bold elements of design, stitched in a balanced way inside a four-sided strawberry border. In all my decades of study I've never seen an antique sampler with quite this much bizarre personality.
This is an expansive English sampler with an unusual four-sided leafy branch and floral border, centering a very busy reserve filled with baskets of fruits and flowers, stylized trees and plants, birds, lions rampant, butterflies, rabbits, and stags. A large building/mansion/institution is at the... Read more
Here is a dainty and colorful mid-eighteenth-century English sampler executed entirely in cross and petit point stitches making it a suitable project for any skill level.
A four-sided arcaded border of daisies and dianthus surrounds three pious verses with delicate horizontal floral bands... Read more
The canvaswork piece from which this bell pull was derived is a book cover, and dates to the first quarter of the 17th century. square tent stitched vignettes, reproduced here in the panels of the bell pull covered the book's spine vertically. It seems appropriate that the allegorical figures of... Read more
This extraordinary piece of seventeenth century needlework was originally executed with fine silks on a linen ground, in tent stitch, and is composed of many different slips" or spot motifs, cleverly fitted together. Many of these motifs have symbolic and/or heraldic significance, and they can... Read more
Note from designer: I bought the original sampler two years ago at market from Dawn Lewis of The Needle's Work Antiques. I fell in love immediately with the organic nature of the sampler. My reproductions come with a page inside where I talk about the sampler, things I noticed, elements that are... Read more
Pattern by Shakespeare's Peddler featuring an antique sampler design with the words "Virtues the chiefelt beauty of the mind. The Noblest ornament of human kind. Virtues our safeguard and our guiding star. That stirs up reason when our senses".
Note from the designer: This primitive marking sampler just captured my heart. The colors, the tone on tone, the rich patina and the whimsicalness of it. How can a marking sampler be whimsical you ask? Well, just look at the script K, L & M. They seem to be kicking up their heels and skipping along.... Read more
Pattern is stitched on 36 ct Cocoa using Weeks Dye Works, Classic Colorworks and Southern Fried floss. Stitch count is 199 x 201.
Recommended Southern Fried Floss:Bay Leaf and Spiced Cider
Cross stitch pattern from Samplers Not Forgotten featuring a lovely sampler with the phrase "Thou, before whose face the children's angels stand grant me a helpless child the grace that thy angelic band. May watch my ways and guard my bed and minister to me till I in death shall bow my head and... Read more
Not only do I love the colors Agness used to stitch her sampler but I love how she ran out of room to stitch the date 1844 so she moved the last 4 up to another line.
Pattern is stitched on 28 ct Vintage Sand Dune from Lakeside Linen using Gentle Arts threads. Stitch count is 176 x 238. Finished size is 12.6" x 17".
A charming Autumn sampler done for a friend who doesn't like to go too Halloweeny!
Pattern is stitched on 36 ct Wren from Picture This Plus using Gentle Arts and Classic Colorworks threads. Stitch count is 192 x 180. Finished size is 10.7" x 10".
Pattern is stitched on 36 ct Vintage Pecan Butter from Lakeside Linen using Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Arts threads. Stitch count is 116 x 116. Finished size is 6.5" x 6.5".
"Lord give me wisdom to direct my ways I ask not riches nor yet for Length of Drop. From rocks and sands And stormy weather Pray God Protect John Negus for ever". "My dear friends I will Bless and praise for giving me learning in My Early days Catherine Negus her Sampler finished... Read more
I love the simplicity of this little sampler. Eliza was 10 years old when she completed her sampler and beautifully hem stitched the edges.
Pattern is stitched on 40 ct Vintage Buttercream from Lakeside Linens using Gentle Arts threads with DMC conversion. Stitch count is 127 x 120. Finished size is 6" x 5.75".
"Lord what is life tis like a flower That blofsoms and is gone We see it flourish for an hour With all its beauty on". This sampler is dated December 24, 1834. I was told this sampler was a Christmas gift to Louisa's parents. Louisa was 9 years old when she completed this brightly... Read more
"Why this in haste sweet boy so soon To go. And leave in tears thy weeping Friends below. Some heavenly voice Dear object of their love calld hence
Thy soul to dwell in realms above Scarce hadst thou learnt the good from
All to know Nor yet had drank the Bitter cup of woe. When heaven ordaind no... Read more
"Few to good breeding make a just pretence Good breeding is the blossom of good sense. The last result of an accomplished mind. With outward grace the bodys virtue joined". I love the bands and motifs Mary Ann used in this sampler. The colors in this sampler are beautiful... the mix of blue... Read more
This original design was inspired by many antique samplers.
Pattern is stitched on 36 ct Aspen from Weeks Dye Works using Weeks Dye Works, Gentle Arts, and Classic Colorworks threads. Stitch count is 225 x 211. Finished size is 12.5" x 11.75".
"Teach me to feel another's woe To hide the fault I see That mercy I to others show That mercy show to me." The saying on this sampler was written by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) who is considered to be one of the greatest English poets of the 18th century. Sarah stitched this sampler on... Read more
Delicate and colorful sampler filled with insects, flowers and fruit! Standard DMC colors are used for this pattern. Pattern is shown in easy-to-read full color blocks with symbols. Stitch count is 96 x 99.
This cross stitch pattern from Stitchy Prose features a beautiful sampler with bees, beehives and the saying "Busy bees bustling to each fragrant flower, small honey craftsmen."
The model was stitched over 2 threads on 36 Ct. Milk and Honey by Fiber on a Whim with Classic... Read more