Baltimore Market Releases

 Three C Street Samplerworks designs were released at the Baltimore Market earlier this month.  First is the Jane Rushton Sampler, a reproduction of an 1829 English sampler from my collection, and the second in a series of reproductions featuring Solomon's Temple motifs.  (The first in the series was CS-109, Ann Bagley Sampler, a reproduction of an 1824 English Sampler, which was released in late 2011.)

Jane Rushton was from Newark on Trent, which is likely where she stitched her sampler.  I've done some genealogical research on Jane and her family, and the chart includes a bit of her family history.  I found it interesting that one of Jane's children, Dennis Wood, emigrated to the United States around 1890, settling in Delaware, where he married and raised his family.

Jane's sampler has two of the temple motifs--one at each of the bottom corners.  As you can see, these Solomon's Temples aren't the elaborate temple buildings seen on many samplers, but the smaller motifs which are sometimes called Solomon's Porch or Solomon's Gate.

I matched the colors to the antique sampler which was amazingly unfaded for being over 180 years old.  I chose to stitch the reproduction on natural linen in order to replicate the aged look of the linen.

The second market release  is an original design Tree of Life Birth Sampler which was published in the Winter 2009 issue of Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly.  That issue is out of print, and I received several requests to release it as a chart.

It is stitched on Meadow Rue linen by Lakeside Linens.  I chose traditional sampler motifs for their special meanings: the tree of life signifies all living things on earth, the storks denote parental love, the crown stands for eternity or eternal life, the eight-pointed stars symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the pierced hearts signify divine love.  And I added the bluebirds for happiness.

Last but definitely not least,  is the Anna Brambles Sampler,  a reproduction of an 1864 English sampler from my collection.  I have always been partial to simple marking samplers, but I must admit the first thing that drew me to the sampler was the name Anna Brambles.  Doesn't it sound like it should belong to a little animal character from a children's book?

I generally stitch my own models, but Linda Rinkel, owner of House of Stitches in La Porte, graciously volunteered to stitch Anna so that the model would be completed in time for Market.  (Her stitching is impeccable, by the way!)

Anna is stitched on Lakeside Linen's luscious Pecan Butter linen, which closely matches the aged linen on the antique sampler. 

I was fortunate enough to locate Anna in English records, and the chart contains brief notes on her family.

Now that Market is over,  it's back to the drawing board--or rather the computer and the embroidery hoop.  I'm charting several "new" antique samplers, one of which will be the third in the Solomon's Temple series.  And I'm currently stitching the model for my reproduction of an English sampler that was stitched in 1827  by 13-year-old Ann Leech, probably in the town of St. Bees, Cumbria.