Monday, May 5, 2014

Hanging Out with My Sampler Friends

This past Saturday my sampler guild (The Queen City Sampler Guild) was thrilled to have Joanne Lukacher lecture on Norfolk samplers.  Many of you may recognize Joanne's name as the author of the book Imitation and Improvement: The Norfolk Sampler Tradition.  We were mesmerized by the beautiful images she showed us.  If you ever get the chance to hear Joanne lecture, make sure you take advantage of the opportunity.  You won't be disappointed.



After the lecture, Joanne signed copies of her book.



Joanne lectured in the morning, and in the afternoon we had a stitch-in.  Our guild decided to make Quaker samplers our focus for 2014, and here are photos of some of completed projects that were brought for "show and tell".







The photo above is my design An Emblem of Love, stitched by Sue B.  Sue decided to put her finished sampler in a very large Whitman Sampler candy tin that a friend had given her.  (I've never seen such a large Whitman Sampler tin!)

In addition to the Quaker projects, Lynn K. brought in her completed A Lady's Worke Box.  I taught this project at the guild last spring.



Lynn has been so kind in the past to let me share photos of her work on my blog.  I recently sorted some old photos and found some of Lynn's completed Work'd Pocketbook.  I had taken the photos at a monthly stitch-in before our trip and had neglected to show them to you earlier.  (Sorry, Lynn.)




Didn't Lynn do a beautiful job with both projects?

A Work'd Pocketbook has over 7000 queen stitches!  Yes, you read that correctly.  I've nicknamed this project  Not for The Faint of Heart. While this project is LOTS of work, I think you'll agree the results are well worth the effort!

At the stitch-in more than half the group was working on a Quaker project of their own choosing, but I neglected to take any photos.  I also noticed that Lynn K. was working on my Family Ties sampler, so perhaps in a few months I'll have a photo of that to share with you.

Three of us are working on the Snooty Parrots Sampler (from Barbara Ann Designs) as part of a Facebook SAL group.  Below is a photo of our samplers side-by-side.  Jana's is on the left, Lisa's is in the middle, and mine is on the right.  Jana and Lisa are using 40-count linen, and I'm using 36-count.


Here is a better view of mine.  Since Saturday, I've added the parrot on the right.



I hope your week is off to a great start.

8 comments:

Barb said...

It is great to see so many beautiful pieces of needlework! Thanks for sharing.

Margaret said...

Looks like a wonderful meeting. I do wish I had a sampler guild to enjoy. Love your snooty parrots!

Jackie's Stitches said...

7,000 Queen stitches?! Lynn is AMAZING! And so is her work.

I noticed you have basted your Snooty Parrots sampler. Can you tell me how/when you decide to do that? The thought process?

Anne said...

Lots to ooh and aah over in this post Ellen. What a special treat to hear Joanne lecture! All the quaker samplers are amazing! Beautiful work on the Snooty Parrots too!!

Marjo said...

Beautiful stuff. Nice that you belong to an active stitching group!

Annette-California said...

Stunning works of art - every stitched piece. I spied the bottom of your gorgeous Elizabeth Woods sampler. Congrats to Lynn on her fantastic finishes. Amazing.
Loved your post Ellen.
love Annette

Kerri said...

what a wonderful way to spend a day! You are lucky to have a guild in your area and such talented stitchers. I am so excited to take your class in Austin at the end of this month!

woolwoman said...

what a great post Ellen - so nice to hear of the wonderful time you had at the lecture with the Queen Sampler guild members. lovely finishes being displayed and it was great to see the Snooty Stitchers work too. I'm behind from a terrible mistake I made but still hanging on. Cheers ! Mel