In my part of the world we say you are a fool if your passion for a pursuit overcomes all practical sense. I am a stitching fool, and I stitch foolishness.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Ooopsy!

For the last several days, I've been thinking about Sarah Williams, who stitched the original sampler I'm currently working on.

Actually, I've been visualizing fourteen-year-old Sarah, throwing down her embroidery hoop, stamping her foot, and yelling "Phooey" or whatever the Welsh equivalent for an exclamation of disgust and dismay would have been in 1833.

Please note the left side of the top of the sampler:


See how the motifs are nicely spaced, each set off in its own area.

Now look at the right side of the top of the sampler:


Not so much space here, and the dive-bombing butterfly has clipped the edge of a flower.

I have a feeling that Sarah miscalculated or miscounted or just plain missed something. I bet she had the border worked in and suddenly realized that . . . oh, dear . . .things just weren't fitting the way she had planned.

And, oh, wow, I've had those very same feelings on occasion.

I can see Sarah trying to decide what to do. She could have ripped out and restitched and spaced things a little more closely on the left side so everything would fit a little better on the right. And I can also see her thinking about the hours of work and wondering if anyone would ever really notice. If it can't be seen from the back of a galloping horse, does it make a lot of difference?

This is one of the things I love about stitching reproductions. You find that the stitchers who lived before us were just like us in so many, many ways.

Including the desire to avoid frogging if possible.

(Although, I have to admit, I probably would have frogged. But then, I'm not fourteen years old. Except possibly mentally.)

6 comments:

  1. I love that they included the imperfections - how hard do you think it was for the person who charted this to leave it in??

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  2. Ann, it really does make you wonder if the person who charted the sample had several twinges where she wanted to correct the spacing. I mean, who would have known? But she didn't, which sealed her fate as a true historian, writing what was, rather than what we want it to be.

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  3. This is fascinating. I had not thought about these reproductions staying so true to the original.
    Meanwhile, I am certainly not 14, but I was one or two blocks off throughout my last large cross stitch I worked. I made the decision to live with it.

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  4. Generally, I've found that Joanne Harvey of The Examplarery and Margriet Hogue of The Essamplaire try to make their repros as accurate as possible, given changes in materials since the originals were stitched. I wish the ones who don't would call them adaptations rather than repros--doesn't mean I won't stitch their designs, but I enjoy the idiosyncrasies of the originals.

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  5. I love samplers that have little motifs scattered about.
    Sometimes I put family initials here and there.
    Love your work and your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love samplers that have little motifs scattered about.
    Sometimes I put family initials here and there.
    Love your work and your blog!

    ReplyDelete