Fabric:  40 ct Lakeside Linen Vintage Meadow Rue

Floss:  Au Ver a Soie 100/3 silk, conversion to DMC and NPI 

Stitch Count: 121 wide x 135 hi Design Size: 6.05 wide x 6.75 inches high 

Stitches Used: cross stitch over two and cross stitch over one       

The Antique: 7.25 x 7.50 inches on 32 ct linen, cotton thread over two and over one        Alternate Personalization Included to Stitch one’s own Name and Year

Provenance: This sampler’s appeal was its similarity to Bristol orphanage motifs, bands and alphabets. While clearly not a Bristol school sampler, as it was stitched at Daglingworth School, curiosity leads one to wonder why similar motifs? Daglingworth lies only fifty miles from Bristol, England. It has been found that pattern booklets were used to create the motifs and borders used on Bristol samplers but these patterns were also used throughout England, France and Germany at the time. These tiny paper pattern booklets were the source of many of the schoolroom samplers stitched in the mid to late 1800s. Compare the Amelia Fox Bristol orphanage sampler stitched in 1868 to Annie Matilda’s stitched in 1862. Many common elements appear, as does the monochrome thread colors. Students at schools at these times, whether orphans or not, were taught the basics of sewing and educational instruction so that once grown they might be able to obtain a position of use in society.