All of the regular stitching is done on this, including the white borders that were so hard to do except in sunny daylight. All that is left is the stitcher’s name and date. I looked through my family tree on ancestry.com and found several women who could have made a sampler like this, and then just had to decide which one to use. In the end, I decided on Margaret Winzenried, my second great grandmother on my mother’s side. I had wanted to use Elizabeth Feaster, also a second great grandmother, but she was born in Virginia. I looked at antique samplers from the time period in that area of the country, and they were quite different from this design. On the other hand, Margaret (Maggie) was born in Ohio and samplers from there often had simple alphabets like this one. If I find a suitable sampler with a large brown house on it, perhaps I can stitch that one for Elizabeth. (Google antique samplers Virginia and you will see what I mean.)

This sampler looks like it is already well worn, but it is actually just due to taking the picture late at night! The shadows aren’t there in the actual piece. When I am done I will have some distressing to do to it. Unfortunately, the fabric was so badly wrinkled that when I wet it to iron it, most of the “staining” came out. This would have been the perfect already-distressed fabric if that had not happened. I was given the fabric from an acquaintance, so I don’t know what it cost her. I do know, however, that R&R Reproductions fabrics don’t come cheap. When I use the rest of it, I will have to remember not to wet it when ironing.

XXX
Carrie