Available as a PDF download or as a printed booklet. Click HERE for the printed booklet.

Each year Hands Across the Sea Samplers publishes a sampler which we consider to be not only beautiful but outstandingly so and worthy to be crowned our Queen of the May.

We are pleased to present to you Elizabeth Stephenson – our Queen of the May for the year 2025. Elizabeth is a bobby dazzler of a sampler, she glows in her frame!

Elizabeth finished her stunning sampler on Wednesday, February 1, in the year 1854. The sampler would have been worked as part of her education. It would have taken many hours to complete and is an amazing achievement. A bobby dazzler of a sampler! Elizabeth created a cohesive, engaging, and visually balanced sampler. The sampler draws the viewer’s eye.

Regrettably, Elizabeth did not record her age or a location on her sampler; without this information we could not identify our Elizabeth as there were numerous girls of that name born in the 1840s. We do know that Elizabeth was born in the very early years of the Victorian era. This was a time of strict social structure, traditional gender roles, and rigid expectations, particularly for women and young girls. A Victorian girl’s life was largely shaped by her family’s social class, but across all classes, she was expected to be modest, obedient, and well-mannered. Her upbringing revolved around domestic skills, education, and preparation for marriage and motherhood.

While wealthy girls were groomed for lives of refinement and marriage, working-class girls often faced hard labour and limited opportunities. Regardless of status, most Victorian girls grew up in a world that emphasised obedience, modesty, and domestic skills over personal ambition or independence. Though their experiences varied, they all lived under the rigid expectations of a society that saw their primary role as future wives and mothers.

We hope that Elizabeth led a happy and fulfilling life and that she continued to create beautiful needlework.

“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

Elizabeth’s beautiful sampler has been reproduced using a palette of 22 colours carefully matched to the colours found on the front of the sampler. The model was stitched using Soie 100.3 from Au Ver à Soie, and we have included below conversions for Soie d’Alger (SDA) and DMC.

The sampler is executed with cross stitches laid over two threads of linen. There are a small number of cross stitches that Elizabeth “squeezed in”, and these are laid 2 threads wide and one thread wide. The sampler is suitable for needleworkers of all levels of ability.

With grateful thanks to Lisa Brown who painstakingly reproduced Elizabeth and lovingly stitched the model. 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.

There are 2 versions of the pdf. You will be able to download a twelve-page colour chart and a one-page colour chart (intended to be viewed/used on your tablet, phone, laptop, or computer).