Door
Prairie Barn Sampler
One of
the most notable landmarks in my home town is the Door Prairie Barn, built in
1878 by Marion Ridgway. It is quite
unusual because it has nine sides. It
must be one of the most photographed structures in the area--I have seen photos
of the barn taken in the summer, fall, winter, and spring. It has also been the subject of countless
paintings by artists both amateur and professional.
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| Door Prairie Barn, La Porte, Indiana |
Years
before I had released any C Street Samplerworks charts, I designed and stitched
a band sampler featuring the Door Prairie Barn.
It was for my own pleasure and I had no intention of charting it. However over the years, several local
stitchers expressed interest in the sampler, so I finally published the chart. Since the sampler depicts a local landmark, I
didn’t expect the chart to be popular nationally, so at first it was available
only through House of Stitches in La
Porte , Indiana
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| Door Prairie Barn Sampler |
Several
of the bands reflect motifs that have come to be associated with the barn and
the area. For a number of years the
field in front of the barn was planted with thousands of golden
sunflowers. Other years pumpkins filled
the field. I included a band of maple
leaves, because La Porte
I spent
many enjoyable hours researching the barn, including reading through 19th century newspapers for advertisements to find the names and breeds
of the horses owned by Mr. Ridgway.
The verse on the sampler
reads: "South of LaPorte, Ind.
The
sampler is stitched on 28ct Dirty Linen Cashel by Zweigart, and uses 12 colors
of DMC floss. Stitch count is 116 wide
by 245 high, and when stitched on 28ct linen the design size is 8.25 inches
wide by 17.25 inches high. Stitches used
are cross stitch over two threads, cross stitch over one thread, vertical satin
stitch, back stitch, straight stitch, herringbone stitch, rice stitch,
long-legged cross stitch, Smyrna
Hannah’s
Conversation Sampler
The
second release, also available through Norden Crafts, is a reproduction of a circa 1830s English sampler stitched by
Hannah Wilson, aged 11. I was first
attracted to this sweet sampler by the purely secular verse about the art of
conversation. It was such a change from
the more common, and sometimes depressing, religious verses. Then I noticed that the central motif at the
bottom was a variation on the small Solomon’s Temple
Here is
a photo of the antique sampler:
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| Circa 1830s English Sampler by Hannah Wilson |
It is
stitched on an off-white linen which has a horizontal thread count of
approximately 19 per inch and a vertical thread count of about 17 per inch, and
the stitched area measures approximately 7.75 inches wide by 12 inches high.
The
reproduction, shown below, is stitched on 32ct Homespun linen by Lakeside
Linens, using 6 colors DMC floss, and is worked entirely in cross stitch over
two threads. The stitch count is 149
wide by 202 high, and the design size is 9.25 inches wide by 12.63 inches high.
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| Hannah's Conversation Sampler |
Wouldn't you love to know more about this little girl who preferred to stitch a verse about the lively art of conversation rather than one of the more usual religious verses? Unfortunately, she is likely to remain a mystery to us. The sampler isn't dated, and "Hannah Wilson" was a very common name in 19th century England, so I have been unable to determine which one of many possible Hannah Wilsons stitched the sampler. I like to think that she must have been a very special girl, though.
