HAND-CHARTED FROM THE ORIGINALS - BASED IN OHIO
Antique samplers,
reborn stitch by stitch.
Faithful reproductions of centuries-old needlework and original designs of my own — charted for you to stitch, and to keep for generations.
Teaching Proposals
Historic sampler teaching projects designed for students who want refined materials, museum-informed context, and focused instruction in distinctive needlework techniques. Each proposal highlights the historical source, principle techniques, materials, and student learning value so store classes or guilds can quickly match a project to their teaching proposal preference.
All teaching proposals can be stitched in different counts of linen and threads to best suit your stitchers. These samplers can be taught by zoom, in person, or both.
Sarah Ann Miller
Sampler, Needle Case, and Pin Cushion
From the Theodore H. Kapnek Collection of American Samplers
Sampler Design Size: 207 (w) x 157 (h)
Stitches: Queen stitch, rosette flower stitch, silk flower stitch, Algerian eyelets, and specialty finishing techniques.
The model was stitched on 46 ct. Cedar River “Overcast” with 100/3 silks, NPI silks, and 1DMC. (DMC conversions included.) Weeks Dye Works Wool - Lapis.
This lapis, gold, and teal sampler gives students concentrated practice with specialty stitches while introducing the coordination of a sampler, needle roll with pocket, and pin cushion as a cohesive teaching set.
Agness Ure - 1825
Sampler Design Size: 182 (w) x 259 (h)
Stitches: Cross stitch over two, limited cross stitch over one, four-sided stitch, satin stitch, Algerian eyelet, half cross stitch, and satin variation.
Model: 40 ct. Cedar River “Coffee Stain” with Au Ver A Soie d’Alger silks.
This vertically oriented silk and wool sampler offers students a strong study in alphabets, numerals, floral borders, house motifs, and balanced composition, with a museum connection through the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Mary Pack McNairy Collection 1942.50
Ann Simpson - 1837 - St. Andrews
Ann Simpson is a colorful 19th-century Scottish sampler associated with St. Andrews School, featuring ancestral initials, baskets, trees, flowers, and a fifty-flower border that give students a focused introduction to Scottish sampler characteristics.
Sampler Design Size: 320 (w) x 270 (h)
Stitches: Cross stitch over two threads.
Model: The linen used is Fox and Rabbit “Baked Clay” with NPI silks.
Verse: “From youthful sins that wound the soul may i be taught to flee And when I feel their vile control O Lord Remember me O let
me on the bed of death thy great salvation see And cry with my
expiring breath my God Remember me"
Diana Pierce - 1805
Diana Peirce’s 1805 sampler combines a light green ground linen, refined Soie Surfine floss, a strawberry border, and varied motifs to give students an elegant study in proportion, color restraint, and decorative detail.
Sampler Design Size: 307 (w) x 345 (h)
Stitches: Cross stitch over two, satin stitch, and diagonal basket stitch.
Verse: “AH! Few and full of Sorrow are the Days
Of miserable Man: His Life decays
Like that frail Flower, which with ye sung, Uprise
Her Bud unfolds, and with the Evening dies:
He like an empty Shadow glides a way,
And all his Life is but a Winters Day.”
Each project can be adapted to the group’s preferred linen count, thread selection, and instructional format, with emphasis placed on the techniques and historical features most useful to the students.
Please contact me at: oldewillowstitcherydesigns@gmail.net