I am the proud and happy owner of this gorgeous baby that has been anxiously waiting to be exhibited in one of my drawers ... Had gotten it from Germany and it is in fascinating condition compared to its age. All samples done in silk floss ... As to fabric, it may well be silk too but cannot really tell. I'd say very finely woven linen. Except for the corner "peacock" bit as I call it, all patterns are about 5 cm square. Peacock is an 8 cm square!

   

  

I thought this to be a quite interesting way of presenting and preserving a darning sampler. Surely, there is no way I could know if this was done by its owner or later by one of the family members. May be this is very normal to a German lady and is mundane. Nevertheless, of all the zillion samplers, I have not yet seen one like this. It is sewn into a form of envelop and the bearer had something in mind to place in it. The wrapped width is only 22 cm, so it cannot be meant for lingerie. May be to place a hand-written note to the dear one, who knows!

I want to preserve it as is but, using my simple picture software flavoured with determined patience, managed to cut & paste the corners along with the central bit, made the necessary rotations, retouches ... And voila, this is how it should look if the pompom was to be removed and the linen ironed flat :)

Not well visible from the pictures above but there are five different darning samples and here are the close-ups :

   

      

Darning-mending sampler

Possibly early 1900 - Germany

 

   

         

My Darning Sampler

Progress so far!

       

        

Change in plan !!!

I was originally planning to stitch my new darning sampler on silk gauze but alas, was not the best of the plans. Have switched fabric to the hand-spun / hand-woven silk from the Eastern Anatolian looms. And changed floss colours totalling to six instead of two :)

By the way, anybody in the USA interested with this wonderful one-of-a-kind pure silk fabric, in its genuine colour, woven on the centuries old Eastern Anatolian looms with hand-spun natural silk, please consult French Needle who now have it in their stock - exclusive in the US!

             

Anyone perusing through my blog will get a feel of my obsession on darning samplers, particularly the good ol' ones. I had been planning to design my version and am happy to announce that I finished it yesterday after working for two days with intervals. Not the easiest thing for someone who is not from the culture. I shall be stitching it with variegated silk threads over hand-woven silk fabric again introduced in this blog. I am partially showing the darning pattern cause I want to present it to your eyes once I finish stitching it :)

Another project I plan to consider starting is a cross stitch and beadwork combination kit of Victorian lilies. Surely, the silk darning project will have priority.

And something to keep my hyper hands occupied while watching TV :)

Mail Art

Today I want to introduce the small mail art made for a wonderful lady I met while in Holland last year. It took me a while to finish it because I wanted it to be something different. I used silk floss for the whole project and a bead crochet carnation with a mother-of-pearl button for the closure. Ever since I got to learn of darning, especially the darning samplers which I find fascinating, I chose to use a small darning pattern to enrich my little souvenir.