I owe a technical post, and I’ll get there, but I’m still recovering from the weekend. I do not have the stamina of this session’s embroiderers, that is for sure.

 

Tonight, more from the show & tell. Lyn is working on a reproduction of the Jane Bostocke sampler. This one is notable for a few different reasons, all of which I’ll probably mix up, necessitating another Ooops post. I believe this is among the very first dated samplers. It also has the maker’s name on it, unusual for the early date. It has spot motifs as well as double-running stitch bands. It records the birth date and time of a girl baby. Common wisdom is that birthdays weren’t much noted in this period, that only royalty or other very high-born people remembered them and that when a day was remembered it was usually the baptism day, not the birth day. So why was the Alice Lee’s birthday memorialized in embroidery? In any case, Lyn’s work is just beautiful. (Click that link to see the whole piece to date.)

 

Lyn’s work was also amazingly resonant. The blackwork picture is a cap of Abigail’s, done in one of the patterns on the Bostocke sampler repeated outward in both directions. Meticulous work and fun for us to see a possible application for the patterns on the sampler.