The needlework of Dorcie Sampson is offered to you in two different formats ~ as an instant PDF download  and as a printed booklet. Details of the printed booklet can be found HERE.

Dorcie Elizabeth Sampson was born in 1892 in Kintbury, Berkshire. She was the eldest of five children born to George John Sampson, a carpenter and joiner, and his wife Sarah, née Norris.

There were two fee-paying boarding schools in the village together with Anglican and Wesleyan Methodist Sunday schools. Dorcie recorded on her 1905 sampler that she attended St Mary’s School which was a daily school founded 1831.

A friend who is a needleworker was born in the village of Kintbury and lived there until she married in 1963. She wrote to me to tell me “… the name Sampson was quite common in the village, and I was (unsuccessfully) given piano lessons by a Mrs Sampson in the 50s; her family were farriers with a smithy in the nearby village of Elcot and another in the village of Hamstead Marshall. Her son Geoff was farrier for Royalty and had a Royal Warrant from the late Queen Mother, as he shod her racehorses.”

Dorcie married Albert Jubilee Beavis in 1916. In the 1911 census return, Albert can be found boarding with the Sampson family in Church Street, Kintbury. Albert’s occupation was recorded as a farrier and Dorcie’s as a draper’s assistant.

Dorcie died on April 4, 1949 at The War Memorial Hospital Andover, Hampshire. Albert died two years later in 1951. We have found no record of them being blessed with children. When Albert died, his estate was left to one of Dorcie’s brothers.

We wonder how Dorcie’s childhood needlework stayed together down the years. If only we could ask her!

When reproducing Dorcie’s three samplers, we finished the “Honesty” sampler into a mattress pin cushion. We have not included detailed finishing instructions with this booklet as there are numerous “how-to” video tutorials available on YouTube.

For the base of the pin cushion, we stitched out the border pattern used on the three larger panels that are charted within this booklet. You may wish to add your own name to the base panel using the alphabet Dorcie stitched in her marking sampler.

We finished the pin cushion by whip stitching the backstitched blue lines together and used crushed walnut shells to fill the pin cushion.

The samplers are worked with cross stitch over two threads of linen and some Algerian eyelets. They have been rated suitable for all levels of abilities and can be worked on Aida or linen.

There are 4 versions of the pdf. You will be able to download any or all of the following versions of the pdf and the graph:

Version 1 ~ A PDF with multi-page colour charts.

Version 2 ~ A PDF with one-page colour charts which can be printed but are intended to be viewed/used on your tablet, phone, laptop, or computer.

Version 3 ~ A PDF with multi-page black and white symbol charts.

Version 4 ~ A pdf with one-page black and white charts which can be printed but are intended to be viewed/used on your tablet, phone, laptop, or computer.