Over on Sew We Sew, Madam Samm is hosting a Meet and Greet for us to show our three favourite items we have made, for me it has to be three celebration samplers;
I like making things to celebrate an event, particularly births and weddings. The first birth sampler I made was for my niece, it was a cross-stitch of the Beatrix Potter frontispiece with the details in the middle, very pretty and sweet. By the time I came to stitching one for my friends children, I decided I would prefer to make a sampler that would still appeal when they grew up, I started looking at designs where I could take a band or two out to insert the birth details. The other advantage of this was that I could include whatever details I wanted, such as the christening date. You can see the two samplers here.
When James was born in 1995 it took me some time to find a design that I thought would appeal to a male, there’s so many flowery ones out there! I finally found a design which I think was printed by DMC, it was illuminated calligraphy from a book at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. It was perfect, the original design had a second alphabet underneath, I simply substituted in his details instead. It’s a beautiful sampler, the leaves are in gold thread, there are tiny red beads in the border, I love it and more importantly my 20 year old son still likes it! It took quite a while to stitch, the gold thread was not easy to use, the eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed he was 7 years old before it was completed!
Helen was born 2 years later, I knew exactly which design I wanted to use! A few years before I was given a book called Home Sweet Home by The Vanessa Ann Collection, inside was a really pretty sampler. I had stitched it before for a friends wedding. It’s in lovely shades of blue and purple, with lots of Mill Hill glass beads to add extra detail. I decided to include the whole design this time, just make it longer by adding Helen’s birth and christening information. If I was stitching it again, I would probably leave out the lower alphabet as I think the proportions would be better, but I still think it’s beautiful.
Eight years ago this week Ken and I got married, it was very much a handmade wedding. We had a wonderful day and afterwards I wanted to make a sampler to celebrate the joining of our two families. I had often admired the family word art pictures you get on sites such as Not on the High Street, so I decided to work out a cross-stitch one! I included things we like to do, where everyone was born, birthdays, wedding details. I interspersed it with phrases and words that are important within our family. I wrote out each phrase on graph-paper, cut them up and sat and played with the shapes until I had a design that worked.
Having chosen three shades of grey floss to embroider the words, I decided to use red for the word ‘love’ every time it was used, it just lifted the design. It hangs above our fireplace in the lounge where we have a red feature wall, it looks great!
What do you make to celebrate a special event?
thecraftycreek 
I so celebrate not just spring this day but your samplers…your choices are all so unique and beautifully displayed…
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Thank you, and thank you for organising the Meet and Greet!
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Your stitching is beautiful! What great pieces to celebrate special times in your life!
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Thank you Linda, I love them too!
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Fantastic stitching! I love the pieces!
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Thanks Anita, I enjoyed stitching them too!
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Your stitching is so pretty. I love the stitching about your family, beautiful.
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Thanks Mary, it took a while to work the design out!!
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The birth samplers are amazing — so personal and so much detail. Lovely blog too.
Cathy
CraftyCat
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Thank you Cathy, I love stitching samplers!
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Wow, they are great! Wish I could do that. I am not good at embroder work. I do try though. What I make for special occasions. …I guess it would depend on the occasion.
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I always think cross-stitch is easy to make neat, you just follow the holes! Your quilts are awesome, the applique is just perfect, I wish I could do that 🙂
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Such lovely samplers!
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Thank you, I’m pleased with them all
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I have also made cross-stitch projects to celebrate births, weddings, anniversaries and graduations. Recently I have been designing my own when I can’t find exactly what I want. Your samplers are beautiful.
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Thanks Cathie, I usually adapt patterns rather than design my own, the family one was a first for me!
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Wow! Your cross stitch is amazing- love all the projects you have shown on this blog post, especially the sampler you designed when you married.- very clever and a gorgeous memento.
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Thank you so much, I enjoyed stitching them
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I love your samplers! And the way you design them…not in the computer programm, but by hands, with cutting and playing the shapes is brilliant!
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Thank you Maria, it would probably been easier on the computer if you have the know-how, but for someone with a blog, I’m not very computer savy!
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Beautiful samplers !!
I love the black and red one!
Greetings from Germany
Marion
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Thank you Marion, I’m proud of the family one seen as I designed it myself
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Hi Margret,
sorry I am late for my visit at your “Meet & Greet” post in by the virtue of internet-line problems at home (at some blogs, my cellphone internet did not work well). Nevertheless I enjoy it today to see your wonderful samplers. As I am a sampler lover I really admire your works. Especially the wedding sampler you designed is amazing.
Thank you for visiting my blog and your lovely comment!
Have a nice first week of Spring.
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Thank you Hilda, thought you’d also like to know that having seen it on your blog, I’ve just ordered the pattern for the long sampler, thanks for the inspiration 🙂
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