This beautiful band sampler from the collection of Nicola Parkman of Hands Across the Sea Samplers, was originally reproduced by her as a workshop project exclusively for The Attic Needlework’s 2019 Sampler Symposium. Now you can stitch Elizabeth’s sampler and take the workshop online.
This edition of her booklet has been published specifically for The Attic Needlework’s 2020 Stitch-a-Long. For more details of the Stitch-A-Long please visit The Attic Needlework’s latest newsletter. The Stitch-a-Long will be lead by Robert Harris who will post details of his progress each month. Please join us and share your progress too. Copies of the special edition of the booklet and the online workshop are available only through ourselves or The Attic Needleworks who also have kits with various options for counts of linens, silks and DMC.
Elizabeth tells us that she finished her sampler “in the eleventh year of her age 1753”. She diligently plied her needle laying reversible cross (marking) stitches, cross stitches over one thread, satin stitches, Montenegrin stitches, double back stitches, stem stitches and eyelets. There is an online tutorial available to purchase either through The Attic Needleworks or hands-across-the-sea-samplers.com. The seven “how-to” videos demonstrate the stitches needed to complete the sampler. Click HERE to purchase the online tutorial. If preferred the sampler could be stitched with cross stitch replacing the reversible cross (marking) and Montenegrin stitches.
John Ruskin wrote that “the purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most”. Elizabeth certainly loved colour and the reverse of her sampler pops with the mouth-watering and intense colours that the early Georgians were so fond of. Reds, golds, and yellows were all the rage, but achieving such colours for silk was complex, time consuming and expensive.
Whilst referencing the colours on the reverse, Elizabeth’s sampler has been reproduced using the colours found on the front of the sampler today. The fifteen colours include garnet, rose, terracotta, peach, grey green, soft gold, yellow and celadon green. A most delicious palette to stitch with!
Elizabeth’s sampler has whispers of Dorcas Haynes 1720 (the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum), Grace Catlin 1719 (the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum), Martha Haynes 1704 (the Marcus Huish Collection), When Thou Art Rich (formerly in the collection of Nicola Parkman and now in the collection of Jean Lea) and the stunning Mary Wills (the collection of Nicola Parkman). These samplers are known to have been stitched by Quakers. However, we can find no record indicating that Elizabeth was a Quaker. It is possible that her needlework teacher was of that faith. The two bands of repeating medallions speak so loudly of Quaker needlework.
Our research shows that Elizabeth was born on November 11th, 1742 and was baptised at the Anglican church of St. Mary Magdalene in Bermondsey, London three days later on the 14th, a Wednesday. Her parents were James and Elizabeth Cotton. She had two siblings, a sister Martha and a brother unusually named Smallbones Cotton. Smallbones was her mother’s maiden name. Both her parents came from a long line of Londoners. More family history information is included with Elizabeth’s booklet.
Elizabeth Charlotte Cotton, the daughter, wife and mother of many, has faded away through the passing of time but some 256 years after finishing her sampler, she is now very much in our thoughts all because of the diligence she demonstrated with her needle. Her beautiful band sampler stitched as a child is all that remains to mark her footprint in time.
With our grateful thanks to Bhooma Aravamudan who lovingly stitched the model for the Sampler Symposium. At the very core of Hands Across the Sea Samplers there is a team of needleworkers who are passionate about antique samplers and being able to share those samplers with you.
