Stitch Week: Fat Lady Sampler

I've had the pattern for the Fat Lady Sampler (actually called Dutch Beauty) for about fifteen years.  But it's huge and intricate and I was always daunted.  However, I was recently given a kick-in-the-pants by the ladies at the Embroiderer's Guild (of which I am a member), and decided that it was now or never.

This is a picture of the completed sampler - see the fat lady in the top left corner - hence the name.  The original was stitched by a 13 year old girl in Holland in 1790, and aside from modern thread colours and linen it is reproduced exactly as she did it.

It measures 96cm x 59cm (ie huge) on 32 count linen (ie teeny weeny holes)

So far I've got the centre section done, the part with the deer.  Its the size of an A4 page.

Yes, expect to be hearing about the progress of this one for at least the next few years!

I love these old samplers.  I love the uneven-ness of them, the bits that don't fit in properly, where you can see the maker was doing it all by eye.  I was comparing it to Miss 7s little sampler...

Better photo than yesterday - its been washed and ironed now

... and you can see this has been designed on a computer - its just a bit too even, a bit too perfect.

Give me the old woggly ones any day.

:)