When Anne Thruckston stitched her sampler, she followed in the footsteps of other Quaker girls whose stitch and motif choices were similar to hers. We will look at some of those samplers later, but today, let’s focus on Anne’s work.
To understand the fine work Anne did, you need to know that her entire sampler is only 19 cm/7.5 inches wide and 30.5 cm/12 inches high. Under magnification, the linen has 68 threads per inch vertically and 60 threads per inch horizontally. Without magnification, it is difficult to see the weave of the linen. Oh, to have young eyes again!
At the top of the sampler are four alphabets. We will look at three alphabets, two stitched in eyelet stitch and ne in satin stitch. The fourth alphabet at the very top of the sampler is worked in eyelet stitches over two threads and is all uppercase letters. It’s a smaller version of the first alphabet we will look at here.
In the photo above, the alphabet labeled #1 is embroidered entirely in eyelet stitch over 4 threads and in a soft brown silk. The alphabet is all uppercase letters. The eyelet stitch creates squares of stitch with each eyelet, so the letters look quite “blocky.” When working letters this way, Anne made her stitches even and exact. A small mistake would stand out and disrupt the letters’ geometry.
The second alphabet (#2) is all lowercase letters, in a style we would call cursive. The eyelets are over two threads in the linen, so the building blocks of the letter are smaller, making it easier to create letters that look curved rather than blocky. This alphabet is stitched in two shades of blue.
In the third alphabet, Anne has embroidered satin stitches over 2 threads. Again, the small stitch size allows the letter curves to look smoother. In this alphabet, Anne alternates the shades of blue, working two letters in the darker shade, then two in the lighter, and repeating this pattern until the end of the alphabet.
When embroidering the sayings on the sampler, Anne chose not to use the large, blocky letters. She did, however, embroider even smaller letters in the example above. The words are “Thorns” and “With”. The uppercase letters at the start of each word are composed of cross stitches over two linen threads. The lowercase letters are all cross stitches over 1 linen thread. On the sampler, these words are so small that they’re difficult to read clearly without magnification.
The red stars marking decorative stitching in the photo above point to Anne’s use of satin stitch as a decorative stitch in many of the motifs she used. By alternating the height of the satin stitches, Anne created a crenelated design that spans the entire width of the sampler.
In the photo above, Anne is showing us her skill as she stitches this motif. It’s my favorite motif on the sampler! The arrows point to the various stitches I want you to notice:
#1 are eyelet stitches over 2 threads in the center of the flower.
#2 are cross stitches surrounding the center, worked over 1 linen thread.
#3 are satin stitches over two, surrounding the center. The satin stitches over two continue, filling the flower with blues, pinks, greens, and soft brown, which may have been purple originally.
#4 are either half crosses or cross stitches stitched so tightly between the satin stitches that the cross isn’t visible, even with magnification.
#5 are cross stitches over 1 thread, surrounding the flower shape. These cross stitches define the flower beautifully.
#6 are tiny cross stitches over one which…
#7 outline the wonderful long-armed cross-stitching that creates the undulating vine around the flowers.
Anne chose to embroider the leaves in this part of the sampler using not only different shades of green, but different stitches as well.
The leaves labeled #1 are embroidered using only cross stitches. She chose a light shade of green on the outside of one leaf and a darker shade of green on the outside of the leaf below. The transition from light to dark and dark to light gives the leaves life.
Leaf #2 is embroidered in the same manner as the flower, using satin stitches in various shades of green and outlining the leaf with cross stitches to give it definition,
The two leaves marked #3 are all embroidered in queen stitch. Again, Anne has used three shades of green in the leaf on the right, but it appears that she used only two shades in the leaf on the left. However, fading over time may have changed the shades to what we see today and may not reflect what she saw when it was complete.
In this final close-up of Anne’s embroidery, notice how she has used short satin stitches to create a stepped vine, a star flower, and leaves. The satin stitches run consistently vertically and horizontally. The top and bottom petals of the star flower are stitched horizontally on the linen, while the side petals are stitched vertically. The same is true for the leaves.
The satin stitches of the vine rise three threads upwards for every three stitches she completes, making it pleasingly symmetrical.
Looking at the sampler as a whole, we can see that her stitch choices and their placement show mastery of the art of embroidery. We will never know how much her teacher directed her choices, but whether the stitches were Anne’s choice, her teacher’s choice, or a combination of the two, we can agree it’s a masterpiece!
Next time I will share Anne’s story with you. It’s an interesting one!
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