Needlework Samplers

Sampler making need not be difficult or boring!

In the early 21st century the reasons samplers are created and the role samplers can play in a stitcher life are different. They can be created to learn embroidery, or as a home decoration, or a record of skill development, or to see how a particular thread with look like when stitched up. Samplers can record not only stitches but a life or a family. How many family trees have you see worked as a sampler? Samplers can become a record of a birth, marriage, or be a memorial to someone dear. They can become a journal and record a life. If you are interested in history there is a huge revival in working reproduction samplers. Women no longer have to justify learning something new by constantly working projects and filling the house with knick knacks. It is OK to learn a skill for the sake of taking pleasure in the hand work and mastering it. Working a sampler improves your skill level.

There are hundreds of hand embroidery stitches. Only a few of these can be duplicated by a machine. In an age where technology and machinery dominates the fact that hand embroidery is unique and can not be duplicated means it is a particular form of human activity that is highly personal.

Once some key concepts are learned, the variation of what can be done with needle and thread is broad, You are only limited by your imagination.

The first thing you need to decide is if your personality leans towards following a traditional path or are you wanting to branch out and experiment with contemporary styles and techniques.

Some people love the look and feel of traditional sampler. They love the regular patterning, the controlled colours, the charm on one hand and classic style on the other. These folks delight in working row upon row of stitches watching the designs emerge from their hands.

If you are one of these people and a new hand to stitching start with a simple cross stitch or black work sampler. Once you have mastered the basics of cross stitch and back stitch explore some of the other stitches found in samplers such as Stem Stitch, Algerian Eye, Bosnia Stitch, Double Cross Stitch, and Running Stitch. After that graduate the many interesting varieties of stitches to be discovered in reproduction samplers.

However you may be the opposite personality with memories of needlework teachers who made you sit at your sewing for long boring afternoons only to have your work criticized. You may be one of those folks that feel restless and ill at ease when asked to repeat row after row of stitches. If you are one of those people who liked to colour outside the line you may enjoy a more contemporary free form approach that allows for spontaneity and exploration for the fun of seeing what will happen. You may enjoy improvisational samplering on cloth that is hand dyed or unconventional.

You will need
Fabric
Embroidery Thread
Scissors
Embroidery Needles
Hoop
Graph paper
Notebook

Many people start with a cross stitch sampler. Below there is links to resources that guide you through this process.

Blackwork was also called "Spanish work". Blackwork is characterized as using Holbein (also known as double-running) stitch (if reversible) and/or backstitch worked in a single colour. If a contemporary interpretation is applied and the embroiderer uses a hand dyed thread that shifts colours back stitch is used.

Some instructors will say or infer that there is one, and only one way to do embroidery. Don't let a narrow minded, bad teacher put you off sampler making! Contemporary embroidery is a highly creative activity and like other areas of visual arts practice it is more than OK to break the rules.

Why stitch a contemporary sampler?

If you want to develop your stitching skills you can start with a sampler of simple surface stitches and take it from there.

If you are an intermediate stitcher you can use a sampler to develop a repertoire of embroidery stitches that becomes a resource for you may draw on in future projects. In this type of sampler the development of stitching skill, technique experimentation and freeform exploration is the goal.

If you are interested in design you can experiment with design concepts and create freehand works of embroidery.

In contemporary embroidery there is and interest as developing stitches as you would a graphic mark which means there is no such thing as working with the wrong thread, the wrong fabric, and the wrong needle. In fact often doing the 'wrong' thing and using simple stitches you can 'draw' with a needle and thread.

If you are interested in colour you can use the sampler to record small experiments before embarking on a larger project.

As their Dutch name 'Merklappen' suggests, samplers are a form of stitched notes. They can record just stitches or they can record a story of a life or an event. Samplers are not limited to technique only. Often they have been stitched to mark major life events such as a birth, a death or a marriage. There are commercial patterns for family trees and growth charts.

You can design your own sampler to record any event in your life and there is a small but growing trend of people who also journal as they create their sampler.

Samplers do not have to be square pieces of fabric that end up framed on a wall. They can be in any shape or size. A sampler can be in any format. They can be fabric postcards, fabric books or worked on bands of fabric that kept rolled up in your sewing box as original bands samplers were.

This is a long band sampler that is not only a record of stitches and techniques but also a contemporary freeform journal sampler. The sampler is 15 cm (6 inches) wide and consists of different strips of fabric which are are stitched together to form one long band sampler. The sampler is currently 74 ft 8 inches or 896 inches (2275.84 centimetres) or 24.8 yards  (22.75 metres) long and still growing.

1 Read a bit about samplers and their history and browse sampler designs online and in books and museums.

2 Decide on what format you want to use and if it will be in a traditional or contemporary style

3 In a notebook gather together ideas. Collect embroidery patterns for motifs, quotes you find inspiring and alphabet designs you like.

4 Select fabrics and thread colors

5 Combine your research and apply it. If you are working an evenweave design draw a chart on graph paper of your design and select stitches.

Or
Simply stitch in a freeform and improvisational manner. This type of "stitch as you go" sampler making is more than fine in the 21st century!

6 If it appeals to you stitch a quote or story on your sampler and don't forget to include your name and date.