Sarah Mary Larkworthy was featured in the 2016 exhibition “Now Whilst My Hands Are Thus Employed – Three Centuries Of Historic Samplers” and is held in the private collection of Nicola Parkman. Sarah’s exquisite sampler is a wonderful example of the legacy left behind by long forgotten school girls and their needlework teachers.

The original sampler was finely embroidered in silk with a palette of only five colours using cross stitch over two threads, satin stitch, Algerian eyelet and stem stitch. An undulating berried border with a flower head in each corner forms a surround to the centrally positioned The Lord’s Prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer (also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, among other names) is the best loved, most spoken prayer throughout the Christian world. Over two billion people recite this prayer. According to the New Testament it was taught by Jesus to his disciples. Two forms of it are recorded in the New Testament: a longer form in the Gospel of Matthew (6:5-13) as part of the Sermon on the Mount, and a shorter form in the Gospel of Luke (11:1-4) as a response by Jesus to a request by one of his disciples to teach them to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples.

There are two other documented samplers known to us that have clearly been stitched under the same instruction. Elizabeth Flood 1729 is illustrated in “Samplers and Historic Embroideries” Witney Antiques.  Agnes Hodge 1723-4 is in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, Object ID 18564403 (Click HERE). Agnes also worked her sampler aged nine years.

The 20 page chart is in a booklet format and has been printed in full colour throughout. All the motifs have been counted out for you within the graph, there is no tracing required. The chart comes with stitch diagrams together with historical information about the period the sampler was stitched in. An online tutorial for this sampler is available, further information can be found HERE.