Special 2010

Luise proudly displayed her skills on her school sampler worked in two nice strong reds: the cross stitch, the square stitch, the eyelet stitch and the satin stitch! In the second alphabet row, she practised to work with two colours alternatel. She applied all kinds of stitches to the beautiful wide border.

As a pattern, she used among other things a little booklet by Selma Schoene, very popular in those days: "Alphabete und Muster zum Wäschezeichnen und Sticken (Alphabets and Patterns for Marking and Stitching)", published in Leipzig. Short sayings, here: "Sich regen bringt Segen (Hard work brings its own reward)", were very popular at that time.

Luise's sampler is 37 cm wide and 33.5 cm high. It is privately owned.

Crosses: 154 x 141
Size: 22 x 20 cm
Stitches: Cross stitch, square stitch, eyelets, satin stitch

The great Jugendstil alphabet in Johanna's sampler from 1920 immediately draws the eye to it. Its clear, beautiful composition, two alphabets, a row of numbers, border, two corners, "signing"" - done!

Johanna came from ROTTLUFF, a small town near Chemnitz in Saxony. Since the beginning of the 19th century, Rottluff developed into a housing estate of the Chemnitz workers and their families ("Chemnitz--Manchester"). Rottluff was incorporated into Chemnitz in the year 1929.

The well-known painter and graphic artist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884 - 1976) added his place of birth - probably proud of - to his name!

Crosses: 195 x 195
Size: 27,5 x 27,5 cm
Stitches: Cross stitch

Louise's school sampler was given to the museum by the family in 1961. Most of the treasures of museums are based on donations. How wonderful!

The Ziegler family comes from Weischuetz, a village between Freyburg and Laucha in Saxony-Anhalt.

The Museum Schloss Neuenburg has a nice collection of samplers, which are presented as often as possible in various exhibitions. I thank the museum staff, who allowed me to look behind the doors of the archives.

Crosses: 214 x 192
Size: 30,5 x 27 cm
Stitches: Cross stitch

Antonie designed her sampler with four alphabets and two rows of numbers like a picture. In the end, she lined her work with fine cloth, edged it with a coloured band and fixed red ribbon bows at the four corners. If that would not impress the teacher!

The beautiful floral tendril in the bottom section is a motif from the 18th century, published by Christian Weigel Junior in Nuremberg in 1784. Later, it appears again with the Swiss Elly Koch! Popular motifs last long and were passed from country to country.

Antonie's sampler comes from Klagenfurt, Austria, it is owned by Kulturhistorisches Museum Schloss Merseburg and the original is 41 cm wide and 62 cm high.

Crosses: 173 x 261
Size: 24,5 x 37 cm
Stitches: Cross stitch