Antique Sampler --1849 and a Stitching Coincidence

Be still, my heart!

I recently stumbled upon a sampler that was stitched by my dad's great grandma Mary (or my great- great grandma) back around 1849, when she was ten years old. This little treasure was tucked away in an antique dresser drawer in my parents' house for years. I didn't know it existed until 2012.  My Great Aunt Ruth (the one who stitched the tablecloth)  wrote about the sampler in 1980, and said it was stitched between 1849 and 1853 when her grandma was between ten and fourteen years old.  Great Aunt Ruth gave it to my mother when she was near the end of her life and in her eighties, which was also in 1980.  Great Aunt Ruth's grandma Mary gave it to her when Ruth was just a young girl.

Mary lived in Switzerland when she stitched it, and it was brought over to the United States when her family moved here in the 1800's.

Here it is:

It has a bit of wear, stains, and moth holes. But I love it, and treasure it. I will have it framed soon at a specialty framing store.  I love the bright colors, and motifs.

Here's a few more photos of it:

Fast forward about 150 years, to around 2009.  In that spring I finished a sampler that I started a few years earlier. I threw together a bunch of patterns for this sampler, used a bit of graph paper, and came out with what I call my 'House and Garden Sampler'.  My old blog where I wrote about this sampler got hacked, but if you click here and scroll down to May 2, 2009 under the Summer Queen post, you will see more about the sampler.

Here's a photo of it here:

When I was studying the 1849 antique sampler this morning, I noticed that the lower right corner had a rose in red tones. I then realized that one of the last motifs I added to my own sampler in 2009 was a red colored rose, in the lower right corner. It's the only big bold flower on the sampler.  The design was from a pattern book of German 'Berlinwork' designs. I know it may not seem amazing to all, but I find it intriguing that 150 years earlier my great great grandma's sampler contained a similar motif in the same spot, and color. I had not seen the 1849 sampler until three years after I completed my own sampler. 

A comparison photo:

Thanks for stopping by today and looking at what I think is a very interesting coincidence.  I am so happy to be a needleworker, as was my Great Great Grandma Mary back in Switzerland in 1849.  I'm also happy that my daughter also shares this love and will pass it on to future generations in our family.

Heirloom Tablecloth

Today was a special holiday for many of us. It was Easter, and it was a great time of celebration and joy!

It is so wonderful to gather with family and friends on holidays, and at other special times.

I want to share a special tablecloth that I received from my great aunt's hope chest. My great aunt never married, and she passed away when I was a very young newlywed-- back in the early eighties. She was a wonderful lady who loved to read, learn, and visit with her family and friends.  She also really loved to cook, and do handiwork. She could cook up the best meals one could ever imagine, and yet her kitchen was so small one could barely fit more than one person in it. It was tiny, and yet she had the house built to her design specifications. I guess she wanted to do the work alone! I can't even imagine what she would have thought of today's modern women and men demanding large kitchens. Come to think of it, her previous home before the one she built had a rather large kitchen, and yet she chose to build a home with a tiny one. Interesting! 

My aunt also did a bit of handiwork, as she called it, which meant embroidery. I recall she subscribed to a magazine called "Workbasket".   In the mid 1950's, she started a tablecloth tradition in her home. When you would visit for a meal, one would sign the tablecloth, and my aunt would later embroider your name so it would be there for future guests to see and enjoy.  Most guests also added the date after their signature, and some added their address or at least their city.  I wanted to share a tiny bit of the tablecloth with you today.

Here's a few peeks at the tablecloth: 

This one makes me chuckle, as it appears Richard's nickname is "Gravedigger".  I know my uncle (her brother) was employed at a cemetery, so perhaps he truly was a person who dug graves.

This next part was written in 1963, and it includes my late brother's name.  He was in about first grade when he wrote it. My name is to the right, but I am sure my mom wrote it for me as this is her writing. I would have only been pre-school age so I am sure it wasn't from my own hand.

This lady's printing is so nice and clear, and it's fun seeing the year so plainly, too.

Last of all, you can see my aunt's name at the bottom, and the year she started it. I love that the tablecloth is trimmed with rows of rick rack. I so loved rick rack when I was a little girl!

I think I need to go buy another tablecloth of my own, and start this tradition again in our family. Wouldn't it be fun to see the signatures grow over the years. 

As best I can figure, she kept this tablecloth going for just about ten years. What a fun idea!