Edited 2024-09-09

(I am very fortunate to have my 3x great grandmother’s needlework sampler hanging on my wall.)

I can hardly contain my excitement! Mother says it is time that I learn my stitches and embroider my very own sampler. And I am only ten years of age! 

What a shame, though, that I must complete my daily chores before I am allowed to work on my sampler!  I wish my little brother would help out a bit more.  However, I must remember that Mother and Father work so very hard and we must do our part without complaint.

Creating the border around the outside edge has been excellent practice getting used to the needle and thread.  I have quickly mastered this simple first stitch.  Oh, how I love the stiffness of the cotton fabric! The silk threads feel heavenly but are annoying when they get tangle too easily. And it’s a shame that their colours aren’t somewhat brighter. Mother says the important thing is to learn the stitches and never mind complaining about the rest.  She has many to teach me  – the cross-stitch, the slipstitch, the whip stitch, the satin stitch and eventually the French knot!

Sometimes it’s difficult to pay attention during my classes at school.  The headmaster tells us that James Madison is our President and that we have 15 stars and 15 stripes on our flag which represent all our states.  The British are restricting our local trade and making our young American men join their Royal Navy which doesn’t seem fair.  And what about the Indians…is America ours or theirs?  It’s very hard to concentrate and be a good pupil when I’d rather work on my sampler!

I’ve started sewing my alphabet letters now.  Capitals first and then the lower case ones.  They are quite tricky and take a lot of patience.  Oh, how I wish I had more patience!  But Mother says that I am doing very well and that some girls are two or three years older than I am before they begin their samplers.

The other day, my brother put a huge beetle in my sewing basket!  Ewww! Why do boys have to be so silly? Maybe if he did more chores, he wouldn’t have time for pranks!

Numbers are wonderful. Stitching twelve numbers is much simpler than all those upper case and lower case alphabet letters!

It’s hard to believe the number of stitches that I’ve already completed  when there so are many more to go.  Much patience is needed.

…and less chores!  Just think how quickly I could finish my sampler if I didn’t have my daily chores!

Hurry! The daylight won’t last much longer and it’s too difficult to see my stitching by candle light.

I am focusing on stitching my name now.  I like my name.  Mary House.  It looks and sounds very neat and tidy – like a row of my very best stitching.

Beside my name, I am now slipstitching the date.  It takes quite a while to create a sampler so the only the year is sown in: “my eleventh year” and 1811 A.D.  “My eleventh year” sounds so much grander than “ten years old”.  I know A.D. stands for the number of years since the death of Jesus.  Ah! Maybe I should pray for more patience.

My stitches are improving and I haven’t had to undo as many lately.  Undoing stitches is almost worse than doing chores!

Now I am working on the short poem and it is as follows:

                          When I am dead and laid in grave

                          And all my bones are rotten

                          When this you see remember me

                          Lest I should be forgotten

I wonder who wrote this poem.  It makes me sad.  And can you imagine someone admiring my sampler after I die?

At last I am finished my sampler!  Mother praised me saying that I did a very fine job indeed.  I am thrilled with it and very proud of myself. I will store it safely under my bed until I grow up.

 

NOTES:

 Mary was my 3x great grandmother. She died in 1830 at 29 years old.  Her sampler hangs proudly in our home.  She is not forgotten! 

The excerpt is a verse from the famous poem “To His coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)