For centuries, producing a sampler of stitches on canvas was a popular pastime. From the wide variety of styles represented here, you will learn all about the particular features of Welsh samplers.
Samplers were embroidered pictures made by girls, and occasionally boys, as part of their education. Scottish samplers are unique with regard to the amount of information that can be gathered from them. They often include the initials of extended family members as well as details of buildings, places and events, leading to the identification of almost all of these young embroiderers. Leslie Durst, an American with a passion for Scotland, has a collection of over 500 samplers dating from the early 18th to the late 19th century; a small section of them will be exhibited at the National Museum of Scotland. This book showcases these and reveals the stories behind many of them - embroidered records of two centuries of Scottish social history. Exhibition: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK (26.10.2018 - 21.4.2019). --
Reproduce a wealth of historic antique samplers -- simple schoolroom motifs, intricate band samplers, and charmingly personalized handwork to commemorate every occasion. Embroider samplers with alphabets and homey sayings, and "sign" them with your name. Stitch a Little Girl's Birth Sampler in pink-and-white or an Edwardian Boy's Birth Sampler. Give others at weddings, housewarmings, christenings, and anniversaries. Bonus projects include pillows, bookmarks, and bags. Every one is a classic!
A New York Times Best Art Book of 2019 “A riveting book . . . few stones are left unturned.”—Roberta Smith’s “Top Art Books of 2019,” The New York Times This fascinating and enlightening study of the tie-on pocket combines materiality and gender to provide new insight into the social history of women’s everyday lives—from duchesses and country gentry to prostitutes and washerwomen—and to explore their consumption practices, sociability, mobility, privacy, and identity. A wealth of evidence reveals unexpected facets of the past, bringing women’s stories into intimate focus. “What particularly interests Burman and Fennetaux is the way in which women of all classes have historically used these tie-on pockets as a supplementary body part to help them negotiate their way through a world that was not built to suit them.”—Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian “A brilliant book.”—Ulinka Rublack, Times Literary Supplement
Each title in the Easy Cross Stitch series provides a beautiful collection of designs to inspire and challenge beginning stitchers. These thematic resource books offer an easy-to-follow, full-color chart and a color key on every page. A variety of borders--from strong, geometric patterns to pretty, flower-inspired designs--are included in this cross-stitch book. The borders can be used to decorate tablecloths, towels, or cushions, and the book offers inspiration to put them together to produce an original sampler all your own.
"American classrooms have gone largely unrecorded, these astonishing embroideries which are usually signed, dated, and even sometimes inscribed with the names of the towns in which they were worked and the names of the embroiderers' teachers serve as historic documents, attesting to the existence of colonial education for women. There is a story behind each of the nearly eighty samplers illustrated in this book"--Insleaves.