Sue shows off a class project!

Last November, I taught A Needleworker’s Sampler Huswif for the Queen City Sampler Guild here in Cincinnati. This is the guild I co-founded nearly 15 years ago, long before I ever thought that I would be designing, much less teaching.

The class was filled to capacity with 30 enthusiastic stitchers from Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Michigan, and Kansas. (I hope I didn’t leave anyone out.) It was a great day!

One of those in the class, Sue B. of nearby Milford, Ohio, recently finished her huswif and its accompanying needlebook. She even added a scissors weight using the carnation motif on the huswif. It's been fun to follow her stitching progress at our guild’s monthly stitch-ins.

I haven’t yet seen the final “fruit of her labor”, Sue’s assembled project. Hopefully, she’ll bring it to our next stitch-in. Judging from these photos, she did a beautiful job both with the stitching and assembly.

When Sue sent her photos, she wrote, I really enjoyed taking this class. Almost a year had elapsed since the class and my assembling, but the instructions are beyond great. I find it especially helpful that concrete, exact measurements are provided, because linen stretches, and knowing what size it should be is very helpful.

Sue is a relatively new member of our guild, having joined in 2003. Knowing that Sue really wasn’t into samplers before then, I asked her how she found us—just my idle curiosity, I guess. She replied that she was volunteering at Promont House, an historical Victorian home in our area, and one of our guild members, Jan, came in. As they talked, they discovered that they both loved cross stitch. Jan invited Sue to check out our guild. The rest is history.

Sue has fully immersed herself in our guild by taking a number of leadership positions. She has also become quite interested in samplers. Promont House, where she continues to volunteer, has several antique samplers which Sue volunteered to reproduce. Sue likes to include any information she has about the stitcher. I think she has reproduced three samplers. The charts are available in the Promont House gift shop.

In 2007, Sue suggested to members of our guild that we stitch a reproduction of the Caroline Turpin sampler for Promont House. If you go here, you can read more about the project and about Caroline Turpin, and also see photos of both the original and reproduction samplers.

Sue is such a fun and enthusiastic person…always a joy to be around. Sue once told me something that always makes me chuckle when I think about it. She said that before she joined the guild, she was a one-project person—she would finish a project before starting a new one—but now that she is in the guild, she has quite a few going at the same time. Then, she paused and added with a laugh, and I love it!!

Sue also added, Stitching has been my rock, providing me with MANY hours of relaxation. The members of the Guild are the best!

Thanks, Sue, for sharing photos of your wonderful work and also for all that you do not only for our guild but also to promote the love of needlework and to share your ever increasing knowledge of samplers.

Teaching projects: A Needleworker’s Sampler Huswif is one of my most popular teaching pieces and available only to those who attend a class. I've not yet decided if I'll release any of my teaching pieces once I stop teaching.