Dear Sarah! Thank you for sharing my sample. It’s a great honour for me. Your support and understanding are crucial for me and people in Ukraine. Many thanks to all people in the comments who stand with us! ❤️🇺🇦🇬🇧and all other flags!
Natalie, you sampler is so beautiful. I hope it gives you a little escape from what's going on in your country, and I hope very soon there is peace there. Take care.
Natalie, it was so lovely to see your sampler and know that stitching means such a lot in times of need. We have a wonderful stitching community and your contribution to Sarah's video underlines this. Sending respect and love from 🇦🇺 to you and all in Ukraine, we are continually uplifted by your courage. 🦘💙💛
Dear Natalie - your sampler and your story are absolutely inspiring. I stand with you and the people of Ukraine and am stitching for peace alongside you. Strength and love to you and yours, may you all come out the other side of this ready to rebuild your beautiful nation. Christine from Australia xxx
Natalie- you are my new hero. Just imaging you stitching this as bombs are being dropped both brings me tears and gives me strength. Know we are behind you and your country. All my love. 🇺🇸🤗🪡
I stitched many samplers in the 1980's. Most are framed and on my wall. I returned to college in my 40's and in my women's study class I did a research project and presentation on samplers. I recently found my paper and adhered it to the back of one of my samplers .
I’ve stitched more than 40 reproduction samplers. Still do …..They are framed and on almost every room. I did two samplers that I designed on my own with some ideas from historical records. To me they are very unique.
Another great video. So many helpful ideas. I created a piece (not a sampler) that ended up being a prayer cloth. My friend gave me a bunch of alpaca yarn. I was embroidering some llamas and alpacas from transfers. I got to a male llama in a sombrero and decided to use some of the yarn my friend had gifted to me. I worked his coat in French knots using a yarn mix from two of her alpacas. I mentioned it to her in a chat. The next day her poor alpacas and llamas were attacked and three were killed. One was her male alpaca named Estevan. It was his yarn I’d been using. Three of her babies were very badly hurt and she was up night and day tending them. I prayed for her and them as I finished the embroidered piece. When I was through she had lost her biggest llama, but all the rest have come through the attack by a pit bull and a German shepherd. It was when I was finishing I decided to send her the embroidery as a prayer cloth. Interestingly, the llama has his eyes closed as though he’s asleep. I hasn’t noticed it until I was finished and was adding a border of purple velvet ribbon. (Purple is her favorite color.) You mentioning Natalie’s sampler reminded me of how embroidery can be more than simply needlework. We pray for God’s favor over the Ukraine and her victory. So enjoy your videos. Thank you for making them. Cerise Cherry
Hi Sarah, I found your video because I'm on a quest--just started. About 30 years ago(!), I had a magazine that recreated a18th/19th century American sampler--I live in New England--that was worked on linen but reproduced on burlap using tapestry wool. Now I'm 76 yrs old with aging eyesight & long covid. I believe this is something I could actually do. I live in an Early American house(250 yrs old) & have the perfect wall to hang a 5-6 ft long sampler. I'm now searching for a pattern. American museums do provide the ability to zoom in for detail but still not something my old woman's eye could deal with. Wish me luck!
That free-hand sampler worked by 7-year old Ann Marie Wiggins is truly amazingly! Such talent at such a young age. Love the printed tea towel behind you-and your bead samplers too. Natalie-your sampler is so beautiful-thanks for sharing with us and educating us. Many heartfelt prayers for you and your countrymen-you and your sampler are inspiration for us all!
I did a double take when I saw the age of Ann Marie Wiggins! I am so thankful to be able to put all my energies into stitching and not have to worry about my safety....
Thank you Sarah for all the research and effort you put into these videos. I learned quite a bit about samplers that I did not know previously and I am very appreciative of the links you have provided. It was really lovely to see Natalie's sampler and to learn about the motifs and colours she used and their special meaning to her. Natalie, stay strong and I hope your victory comes soon! 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 ❤🙏
I am completely new to embroidery and this channel has been absolutely amazing. I've learned so much and enjoy playing these educational videos on my TV while I work on some pieces. Thank you so much for all your hard work and keeping it up all these years.
I love this video! All the samplers are so beautiful. My first embroidery project was a sampler of traditional Mexican techniques, which is very close to my heart since I live in the US now, so embroidery brings me closer to my roots. And my heart goes out to Natalie and Ukraine 💙💛 Thank you for such an inspiring and informative video!
Wow! Thank you Sarah for a really interesting and inspiring video. A special thank you to Natalie for sharing her work. I’m sure embroidery helps us all to relax in difficult times but Natalie’s ‘difficult times’ are a whole new level. Very best wishes to all the Ukrainian people with the hope that these difficult times will come to an end very soon and peace will prevail.
Such an interesting video, from early samplers to bright and shiny beads. Natalie's sampler is lovely, and I hope that working on it through the troubled times has given her some solace. Slava Ukraini
What a beautiful sampler from Natalie. It was very moving to appreciate the symbolism of this wonderful piece of work, Pop a little ornamental tree in a pot and pop it next to your house. There are lots to choose from. xx
Enjoyed the video I'm on the Met as in following them on RU-vid. Interesting indeed 🙂 I have found some beautiful embroidery books in charity shops. Stunning sample Natali well done 💗
I'm currently making my self a needle book (inspired by your video on the subject), with each page, I'm decorating it with new embroidery techniques I'm learning or need ones I need practicing. A practical sampler 🙂
Thank you Sarah for this wonderful video! I recently took up embroidering reproductions of antique samplers myself, so this is a hughe treat and a great chance to learn a lot more about the subject.
What a beautiful sampler from Natalie and I pray that the war will soon be over. I have lived through WW II as a child and still remember much of it as we were in pow camps, but I remember the women who tore out the few clothes they had so they could pull out thread and use them to stitch some little items, probably to keep their minds off the war and the situation we were in. My heart goes out to you, your family and your country.
I have embroidered lots of samplers. I am currently embroidering a very big sampler, a replica from 1790 called Hollandse Schone, which means Dutch beauty. Original made by a 13 year old girl. I really love samplers and when I finish it I will put a frame on it.
I love your videos about embroidery books, you have the best books 📚. I did actually buy the one on the Bayeux tapestry and it's soo beautiful 😍❤️. I do have a few books by Jo Verso she was very popular in the 90ies in the UK 💔 I have finished my first stage of the RSN certificate online by the way, tutor is Tracy Franklin. So enjoyed her teaching, I can tell you come from the same school 🤗🤗🥰🥰 I learnt a great deal. One if my favourite things was the finishing. Now I can redo the finishing in all my cross stitch samplers 🤣😉
I learned a lot in this video! I didn’t even know there could be such a thing as a working sampler. I would really like to try it with one of my stump work Beetles that I’m struggling with! Very timely. And I thank you very much!
I can see from your comment below that you worked it out, but in case anyone else is wondering, the answer is at 18:15 in the video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lcYCT9tEme8.html
I recently attended a talk titled "Woven Art: Village Textiles in Today's Ukraine" and am grateful to learn of Natalie's story and see her art representing the reality and hopes for Ukraine. It's eye opening to realize that Natalie and I are both watching the same RU-vid videos in completely different circumstances. Natalie I am sending you and your fellow Ukrainians love, hope for your safety, and wishes for victory. Thank you both for sharing.
FABULOUS! This is such an amazing video - thank you, Sarah, and thanks to Natalie for sharing her beautiful and meaningful sampler. I'll be enjoying learning more about samplers from the museum websites and some of the books you mentioned. I've even begun to think about a sampler that I'd like to design for myself! In the meantime, I echo your wish for peace for in Ukraine. 💛💙
Thank you for such an interesting - as always! - video, Sarah! Such great timing, I'm currently designing a sampler (more of a block than motif style) for my Level 3 C&G in Hand Embroidery... hearing about the history and seeing how intricate motif samplers are was super inspiring! Natalie's sampler is amazing - and I'm so glad she has embroidery to get her through this horrendous time. Slava Ukraini!
Thank you Sarah. A wonderfully informative video. Thank you also to Natalie for sharing her beautiful sampler. I too hope the war is over soon and Ukraine and its people can enjoy peace once again. 💙💛
Enjoyed the show today. Such beautiful work. Great work by Natalie. Know that I wish healing and peace for Ukraine and her people. Sarah, from someone who is a genealogist/historian, I suggest that married ladies incl their maiden and married names on their fabric art. It's hard to trace women ref history without their maiden name. 😃 😊...just saying. Thanks for a great show!
How things come together. Wessex work was not something that I'd heard of until about 6 months. My one stitch group, Warwickshire Stitchers, formerly Leamington Embroideries Guild, does a sales table on members' days. There was a book on Wessex work that had to join my ever growing library. Thank you for another fabulous video. Please send Natalie very best wishes from Coventry. It was lovely hearing about her traditions and stitch journey. 😍🙂
I was working on a sampler (my first) and there were missing letters. I asked about it online and found out the alphabet has changed throughout history. Do you have any information about what and when these changes happened?
Wonderful video. Such a variety of samplers to enjoy. Natalie's sampler was very special and so gracious of you to feature her. Prayers and hugs to Natalie and all those in the Ukraine. 🇺🇦
Thank you Sarah, I really enjoyed that. I always think the humble cross stitch often tends to get overlooked and viewed as being a bit of a poor relation to 'proper' embroidery, yet it is so incredibly versatile, and as you say enables you to record places, maps, buildings, special events and so on in life so perfectly. You have as ever inspired me to want to do some!!.
Wow, I took a look at your links, and there were over 246 'samplers' for that last one in the search, and with all due respect, some of those samplers look better than many finished products I've seen. Those white work samplers you really have to zoom in on to appreciate, especially with the figures of people created from holes and string to become lace in those sections with so much detail that blew my mind.🤯 That and then, there was one with at least three different font examples in the sampler at the beginning that couldn't get much better if you tried to write it. I will say that some of the sayings they stitched into their samplers, especially the biblically adjacent ones, seemed menacing at times, but then you look at the workmanship and detail and can't say much because you know how suppressed women were probably but it was still some, very impressive, very detailed work. Your video and then the links were all just, wow.
I'd love it if one of the museums around me held a showing of antique samplers. Although, I don't know how that could be done. I've been to museums before that have had some antique samplers up to see.
I love samplers and I’ve stitched dozens, mostly early band samplers, but some spot and Quaker ones. I’ve very lucky to live close to the National Trusts Montacute House, where they have the Goodhart collection of samplers. I have had access to all of them, and have shown them to visiting groups of stitchers. I’m always amazed by the talent and dexterity of these young girls who produced the originals, but wish I had their eyesight!
I liked your emphasis on working samplers. I was surprised you didn’t mention any of the reproduction sampler pattern designers like Hands Across the Sea, as I think that is what a lot of people think of these days when they hear samplers
Thank you so much for sharing Natalie's story and her beautiful sampler. Really enjoyed the glance thru history of samplers! As always, your videos are gems.
What a wonderfully informative segment. Recently subscribed to your channel and have learned so much already. When you were speaking about the piece Natalie has shared with us, it brought tears to my eyes...we pray every week in our church for Peace to come swiftly for Ukraine. It brings joy to my heart when such simple things as a piece of fabric and a few strands of thread can bring together hearts from around the world. Thank you, Sarah for sharing your time and knowledge. Peace for Ukraine! Sending Love from Michigan.
Very well said. and you are so right about what a piece of fabric and a few threads can do to bring us together and put a moment of peace in our hearts.
Thank you so much for sharing with us this wonderful informative history of Samplers video. I especially love the meaningful artistry of needlework being highlighted, and Natalie's courageous story of hope and victory for her home and country. One of the things I love the most about needlework is that it connects us- especially women - to generations past and all over the world today. Embroidery has evolved with our lives and to stitch is to tell a story of the heart, as so wonderfully shared by Natalie. To all of Ukraine and every country, we wish peace and freedom. Our prayers and thoughts are with you. Thank you for sharing, Natalie.
Lovely video… a delight to see Natalie’s beautiful work.. DMC have a nice selection of free motif patterns on their website. I also use the ‘antique pattern library’ a free online source of uploaded needlework booklets. I have used some art nouveau motifs from a 1910 pamphlet for a recent sampler . Thank you again Sarah for an inspirational Friday evening! Lorrainex
