Thursday, April 11, 2013

Sarah Chapple 1831

Look at all of the great little plants tucked here and there on the lawn!
I'm not great at keeping secrets... but I kept this one for a couple of years.  I purchased the Sarah Chapple 1831sampler at auction online and paid a pretty penny for it (well, thousands of pretty pennies). But, oh, was it worth it!!!  Look at those cherry reds and olive greens.  They knock my socks off (first, though, they knock my shoes off...then my socks.)  I love anything with a house on it, a red house is even better.

Sarah's signature ... what a girl!
Two years ago, I taught about my sampler collecting at a Silver Needle retreat in Tulsa, and I did take this sampler there.  The gals at the retreat were pretty jazzed about getting their hands on a chart of this one, so I'm pleased the graphing is done.

Can you believe this wonderful girl was only 11 years old when she stitched this sampler?  There are over 42,000 stitches in this one.  Way to go, Sarah!  She was a diligent stitcher.  This one was tricky to graph, because there were sections of her stitching where a lot of the stitches were off by one thread this way and that way and the other way, so I was constantly having to make adjustments.  The back of the sampler is way neater than anything I ever stitch, and most of the verse is stitched over-one on FORTY-EIGHT COUNT LINEN.  I suspect she may have had super powers in order to see those tiny little stitches.

Sarah Chapple 1831
The sampler is in good shape -- very few areas of loss...not many holes.  The sampler at one point had been GLUED down to a board just along the edges, and there is some discoloration right through the center of the scene at the bottom (you can see it as a dark smudge that runs through the fanciful tree on the left of the house).  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the U-shaped border around the verse!  The urns on either side of the house (in the center) don't match, which I also LOVE!  The flowers in them are different, and I think those motifs would make great little fobs or pincushions.

Here is the verse:
                 On Isaiah c. 40th v. 8th 
And is it so that to life's journey's end
God still will prove my Father and my Friend,
To all my weakness still will bend his ear,
And my most feeble accents deign to hear?
Sweet truth _ the fading flower that blooms today,
May ere to_morrows dawn, have passed away.
The grass may wither, and the flower may fade.
Our brightest hope be wrapp'd in deepest shade,
"But God's own word for ever shall endure,"
It stands to all eternity secure!. 
                         Sarah Chapple
                             Her Work
                        Aged 11 Years
                                 1831
Matching the fabric was tricky. It's definitely a natural linen, 48 count, like I said, but it's got that 200-year-old grime thing going on.  It's not DIRTY, but it's not CLEAN, you know what I mean?  I actually have given stitchers a few options: 40 ct. 18th Century Rook by R&R Reproductions is my top pick, but you can also use 40 count Natural or 40 count Dirty linen by Zweigart.  Coffee-, tea-, or walnut-dyeing these fabrics before you stitch will give the fabric a more authentically grungy look.  The fabric has a definite greenish-cast to it.  The stitch count is 301 by 407.  Here are the FINISHED sizes, depending on the count of linen you're working on:
28 count: 21 1/2" by 29"
32 count: 18 3/4" by 25 1/2"
36 count: 16 3/4" by 22 1/2"
40 count: 15" by 20 1/4"
Here is the fiber list.  There are a number of colors of which you'll need multiple skeins, and that information is here as well.  All stitching is done with one strand, if you're working on 40 count.

Au ver a Soie: 2212, 3724, 3745 (2), 4525 (3)
Needlepoint Silk: 333, 336, 505 (3), 976
Gloriana: Elizabethan Green (2), Holly Berry, Spanish Moss (2), Vanilla
Silk N Colours (The Thread Gatherer): Linsey Woolsey (2)

The Sarah Chapple 1831 reproduction chart is $25.00.  There are a few ways you can get a hold of this graph.  The quickest/easiest way is through my Etsy store.  Click on this listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/166183862/sarah-chapple-cross-stitch-sampler.  Or, have your local shop order it through Hoffman Distributing or Norden Crafts (both will have their copies in the next week).

You can also order the silks set ($113.00) or the fabric ($50.00 for a half yard of 40 count 18th Century Rook or $38.00 for a fat half of 40 count Natural or Dirty Newcastle linen).

Anyway, I hope you like Sarah's sampler.  I really do!  I purchased another new/old/antique one this week from eBay, and I think that's going to be a secret, too.  Secrets can be fun, I'm learning!

20 comments:

Inguna said...

Sarah Chapple is absolutely beautiful! Gorgeous! I am so glad that you have charted her! Thank you!

Rita said...

What a beauty!!

One (of the many) things that attracts me to these samplers is thinking of those little girls doing the stitching. I imagine that there were probably more than a few "tomboys" then wanting to hurry up and get their stitching done so they could go be outside with their brothers.

Unknown said...

so proud to get another one of your sampler...she is very pretty,well done.

HollyXSing said...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!!

Love it, love it, love it!

-Holly in VA

Elizabeth said...

I love this one - it is so unique. I have to agree that the U-shaped border does something to make the piece so elegant but whimsical too!

Patty C. said...

It is just beautiful !!!

Kiwiflowa said...

wow... what a stunner! Secrets like that are good to keep :) Thank you so much for re-charting her so we can make such a pretty sampler too!

woolwoman said...

You are SO good at keeping secrets Theresa - This is just beautiful and your color selection sounds stunning. YGG - Melody

marly said...

Magnificent sampler!

Faye said...

Oh my!!!! This should be Marlys next project!!!! Seriously, this is stunning.... And even though Chapple is spelled differently than the Chapel Hill, NC that I hold near and dear to years, it is definitely going on the wish list...along with those silks!!!! Nice job, Faye

Brenda said...

OH ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!! Time....I need more TIME to stitch!!!

Thank you for continuing to design and reproduce samplers!!!

Keep up the great work!

llknbillburg said...

Lord Have Mercy!! I actually found it on EBay just now, ordered it, and then went to the blog to see how I could have missed it!! You are one sneaky devil, but I like it! You're right about the house thing. I'm hung up on them too and I knew I had to have this one as soon as I saw it! Looking forward to the next one!!
Laura

SocksAndMittens said...

This is a very beautiful design, love it!

Ginger said...

Oh my goodness! This is definately my LNS will have to get for me! It is beautiful!

As always, love, love, love the samplers you find and simply wish I had time to do them all. (I have them all, just in case!) hee hee!

BTW - what happened to the 2 little bobsey twin kitties that you had??


Take care, have fun and stay safe!

The Nebby Needle said...

Stunning!

~*

Theresa said...

Ginger, you will be happy to hear that Eclaire and Muffin were adopted TOGETHER to a mother and her young daughter. Very happy ending for those two!

- Theresa

Ginger said...

I am so happy to hear it. I really would have loved to have been able to come get them and bring them to VA, but that was just not in the cards. Hopefully I will find a fun pair up here some day.

Have fun!

Lisa said...

Absolutely stunning! Just when I have told myself (for the 1000th time) that I cannot buy another chart I see something I will not be able to resist!

Natalia said...

I love it Theresa !!! Already ordered my copy :-)

Anonymous said...

Anon,
I love your Sarah, Theresa.
When I first saw her, I thought the color variance was part of the chart only to find that it's a glue smear. But I'm so impressed by what the smear does to the overall beauty of Sarah that I'm going to stitch the "glue colors" into the sampler.
Thanks for another lovely.