This is Charlotte Murdoch 1815, a reproduction sampler from The Scarlett House, and a first for me. I've been admiring the sampler walls I've seen on Flosstube and Instagram and thought I'd like to have one of my own, so I've made a start on it with this sweet little Scottish piece.
I looked for Charlotte in the records and discovered that she was a farmer's daughter, born in Elgin in the north of Scotland in January 1804. She stitched her sampler in 1815 and sadly lived only another 3 years, dying in October 1818 at the tender age of 14.
I love that she chose to feature dogs in her work, but I'm amused at the colours she used for them (dark green and ointment pink alongside the more usual browny-beige and white). And a further idiosyncracy: did it bother her, I wonder, that she ended up with insufficient room to complete her surname and had to slip the 'H' into the line below?
Whatever the answer to that, her diminutive sampler* is charming and I'll be glad to have it on my wall.
*Mine measures 4" x 4 3/4" and was stitched on 36 count Edinburgh linen in Light Mocha/Mushroom with all the specified threads.
Charlotte left behind a sweet reminder of her life. I used to enjoy doing crossstitch.
Posted by: Anne | 07 April 2022 at 08:12 PM
It is a sweet reminder.
Today I had my first go at lacing a stitched piece, so Charlotte is now in a frame and about to go on the wall!
Posted by: Cornflower | 07 April 2022 at 10:03 PM