ES's Floral Sampler by Danièle

Danièle from France recently sent me photos of her lovely ES's Floral Sampler. This is my newest reproduction sampler.

Danièle wrote me in French, "J'ai choisi de le broder sur du lin Permin 16 fils "teint-thé", au petit point; les fils utilisés sont les soies Needlepoint préconisées". (Danièle wrote that she tent stitched the sampler on tea-dyed linen from Permin using the same silk threads I did on my model. Maybe some of the French readers can help me figure out how the stitch count. I presume that 16 fils is per centimeter, but I'm not sure. In inches, I'm guessing this is somewhere between 32 and 35 linen threads. I could be totally off base in my thinking. EDITED--Jane wrote me that 16 fils is equivalent to 40 threads per inch--WOW!!! As you can see math is not my strong point! Thanks, Jane!) The chart lists DMC thread substitutions for anyone not wanting to use the silk threads.

In the first photo, you can see that Danièle replaced ES's initials with her own.

Here is a closer view of Danièle's sampler.

Don't you love the frame Danièle chose and the way she staged her photos with flowers? How perfect for a floral sampler! Perhaps the flowers are from Danièle's garden. Thank you, Danièle, for sharing photos of your beautiful work.

The original sampler, from which our reproduction was created, was undated, but thought to be from around 1840. The stitcher didn't sign her name, only her initials. Wouldn't you love to know more about her? Surely, she must have loved flowers, but what else do we know about her?

This sweet little sampler is so charming with its lovely flowers and irregularities, particularly in the border. My model hangs over the desk in my office where I can see it often.