Greetings from Merry Wind Farm on a blustery Ohio autumn day...


I thought I would post a little about my favorite type of schoolgirl samplers...Scottish samplers, namely Scottish House Samplers.  I recently purchased an antique Scottish house sampler on ebay, Mary Inglis 1830.  Note the house, the family initials (the ones in black indicate deceased), the laurel around her name, the large eyelet alphabet, and the trees on either side of the house.  I would love to chart this so I could stitch a reproduction of Mary's sampler.

Compare this sampler with three Scottish reproductions that I have stitched.  First, here is Isabel Redie 1816 (chart by Scarlet Letter).  Isabel was a more accomplished stitcher, as evidenced by the intricacy of her arcaded bands and alphabet.
There is a similar large gabled house ...

Then we have Agnes Scott 1810 (chart by Ellen Chester of With My Needle).  Once again ... a very similar house and black initials of deceased family members...

There has been much research into the source of the large house so frequently depicted on Scottish samplers in the early 1800's, but nothing has ever been found.  Was there a real building somewhere, or was is just a pattern used by many teachers?


Finally, a Scottish sampler without a house, but with the same laurel and trees.  This is Jean Scrimgeowr 1779 (Scarlet Letter again)

I do not claim to be an expect on any of this, far from it, just an embroiderer who loves stitching and Scottish samplers.  I hope you have enjoyed looking at them.


Have a nice weekend!  'Til next time ....
Melinda

On September 29-October 1, I was privileged to take the wonderful 3 in 1 Creative Workshop, a primitive rug hooking class right here in historic Tipp City, Ohio.  The three nationally known teachers were Ali Strebel, Nola Heidbreder, and Karen Kahle.  They offered a different approach to a rug hooking class, in that different patterns could be interpreted many different way, thus everyone's rug was different.  


The subject this year was Geometrics and this is how I chose to interpret my design.  Much care was taken to make the hit or miss design look like an antique rug, following Karen's advice and examples.   I learned so much about color values and what all you can mix into lights and darks.


The class was wonderful and the shopping for hand dyed wools and other goodies in their shops was to die for!!

So, what do you think?  Does it look like an old antique rug?


Hugs till next time... Melinda

Anne Maria Clarke sampler

Here is the latest sampler that I just finished stitching yesterday.  It is a beautiful reproduction of Anne Maria Clarke's sampler stitched in 1824/1825 at age 12 (in the 13th year of age is 12).  She dedicated her sampler as an invitation to LaFayette, who made a triumphant return tour to America.  This was an enormous deal at that time, with the entire country celebrating his return.   The original sampler is in the collection of the Valentine Museum in Virginia.  A good deal of the original verse was missing, and I did not want a blank spot on my sampler.  I spent several weeks researching everything I could find online about Lafayette's visit,  reading books, poetry, and songs.  I was unable to find the original print source of Anne Maria's verse, so I used other phrases that I found that worked with the rhyming and cadence of the verse.  Although Anne Maria did not stitch all of it herself, I feel she might have used these words that I chose.

The sampler is stitched on 35 count linen using cross over one and two, rice stitch, and a queen stitch variation in the border that is my own creation, since I disliked queen stitch.  The reproduction was an online class by Margriet Hogue of The Essamplaire  in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.

Here is a sampler stitched by me.  It is in the antique style, I dated it 1821 and signed it Mary Ann Holliday.  It is stitched on linen, then aged with a walnut dye made from walnuts gathered on the farm,  and framed with glass.  The sampler itself measures measure 7 3/4 x 9 3/4, framed it measures a smidgen over 9 x 11.  Features two alphabets, numbers, a kitty, and a flower pot design.  Kindly asking $95 plus shipping.  Please e-mail if interested.  Mehitable1@aol.com  Thank you!

Here is a primitive hooked rug for sale.  Drawn and hooked by me, design is based on an antique rug that I saw in a book.  Wonderfully primitive, with house and lollipop trees surrounded by a heart border, and finished with yarn whipped over cording.  Signed and dated on back.  Primitive colors of red, green, mustard, black, and blue and brown.   Measures a tad shy of 19x24".   Kindly asking $225 plus shipping.  Thanks for looking!

Primitive hooked rug for sale

Welcome to my first post!

Hello, and a big warm  Ohio welcome to Merry Wind Farm!  I am going to be posting a few of my hand-dids for sale, reproduction samplers and hooked rugs, maybe quilts in the future.  I love anything that is done with my hands, and pass much of my time this way.    I hope you enjoy looking at my things.

I also hope to blog about life in general here at Merry Wind Farm, with 10 cats, 4 dogs, 2 horses, 1 college aged son, and one elderly Mother.  Both my mother and I lost our husbands two years ago, so sometimes it is hard to handle everything here, but we love the farm so much and so enjoy the beauty of nature and the countryside that we can't bear to let it go!