Vintage Wednesday: Collecting Samplers

My Mama can do anything. Now I know everyone thinks their Mama can do anything, but mine really can. Ask anyone who knows her and they'd probably agree. I'll never know as much as my Mama, but she did teach me a few things. For example, I was three years old when she first put a needle in my hand, threaded with neon yarn, and showed me how to pull the needle in and out of a piece of bright yellow fabric. From then on, I was hooked on needlework.

Needlework can take many forms: needlepoint, crewel embroidery, silk ribbon embroidery, cross stitch, counted cross stitch, French cut work, and on and on. Each cultivates a particular skill, but all involve precision with a needle. That's one of the reasons I love collecting embroidered pieces, but I especially love samplers.

Samplers of old (as in the 18th Century) usually chronicle a young girl's painstaking journey into the world of womanhood. Samplers prepared girls for the sewing tasks they'd be responsible for as they grew. They would usually start with an alphabet and numbers, could have a proverb and would have the name of the creator and date of creation. Older samplers were usually stitched on linen, which is why so many of them have survived. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a very interesting article here if you're interested in learning more about early American needlework.

I can't afford to collect 18th Century samplers as they can cost thousands of dollars. I can, however, collect samplers such as those created in the resurgence of sampler creation in the 1940s and 1950s. My collection started with a sampler my grandmother made, "Friendship's a name to few confined, the offspring of a noble mind, a generous warmth that fills the breast and better felt than e'er expressed." I then began picking up random samplers because I either liked the subject matter or the saying - and these samplers cost under $10. The quality of the needlework varies - our 18th Century sisters were often more careful - but the charm is always evident. I don't have an extensive collection, but I enjoy hanging them around the house to remind me to "Let nothing disturb you, nothing affright you, all things are passing, God never changes." or "Come dear friend, come here and rest, you'll always be a welcome guest."