Meet Ann Dickinson

She was 13,
the year was 1819,
when her needle
crossed her last stitch.

One hundred ninety two years later,
I lovingly
crossed my last stitch
in her reproduction.

Ann must have loved flowers, both earthed
and
potted in fancy urns...
there are 12 of them.

I pondered the significance the two ships a sailing had,
if any...
Ann must have liked birds.
There are big birds,
little birds
and
even a couple of funky striped birds...
15 birds to be exact.
As I was finishing up the bottom band of the sampler,
I was getting to the point
where I had the "bird pattern"
almost memorized!

A row of unusually shaped trees...
10 to be exact.
I wonder
if Ann's beginning point of this sampler
was the bottom band of the house, birds and trees.
It is fairly long,
running the width of the sampler.
This band then opens up
to the motifs
which are spaced somewhat far apart.
Did she stitch the bottom band first,
only to finish it and think,
Heavens to Betsy
it's going to take a lot of little motifs
and stitching to fill the sampler?
Did she opted for larger motifs,
spaced further apart,
as her method to fill all the space?

Whatever her method or thinking was,
I liked her end result
I love the naive look
and feel it gives the sampler.

The verse reads,
in it's form of 18th century handwriting,
"The Grass is green
The Rose is red,
This may be seen
When I am Dead.
Ann Dickinson
Work Aged 13
1819".

In keeping true to the antique,
I charted the wording in the center cartouche
using the same usage of letters
as Ann.

The sampler has two sweet little woman
with their walking sticks
and two funny little men.
One is what appears to be smoking a pipe
and the other...
well,
I'm not sure if he's blowing a horn
or smoking a pipe as well.
Or perhaps its a looking scope?
What did these two little men
in their top hats
represent for Ann?
We can only wonder...

There are two 8 pointed stars on the sampler.
One has a stem,
the other
does not...
probably a stitching error.

The omission of the stem
could have been Ann's
intentional stitching error.
It was often believed
that perfection
was left to be
for the Almighty Creator...

And here she is...
meet Ann Dickinson 1819,
the antique
from my personal collection.

And the reproduction...
lovingly reproduced
&
stitched
with thy
needle & thread
so that others
may enjoy
too.
Pattern coming soon!
I began the reproducing/charting
of the Ann Dickinson sampler
in the Autumn of 2010.
Stitching of the piece
began around the holidays.
This piece was what I call my
"in between"
project.
I would pick it up
in between
other seasonal designs
and work on it leisurely,
motif by motif,
saving the bottom band
for last.
I crossed my last stitch
on
the last day of July, 2011.

Stop by tomorrow
for a visit
to view sneak pics
of the "Stitcher's Sewing Purse"!

Have a good Saturday,
Brenda