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One of the earliest surviving examples of a north European cross stitch sampler dates to the first half of the 16th century and is believed to come from Germany. It is now housed in in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (T.114-1956). The sampler is made from an even weave linen ground and is embroidered in both cross stitch and long-armed cross stitch using silk yarns in various colours. Details about the sampler will be included in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Embroidery, Vol. 3, which is being produced at the TRC in Leiden and will be published by Bloomsbury, London.

Late 19th century sampler worked by Johanna Alewijnse, from Zeeland in The Netherlands (TRC 2018.2380).It is neither a great piece of art nor particular special. It is a sampler that was probably worked in the late nineteenth century by Johanna Alewijnse from Zeeland, The Netherlands (TRC 2018.2380). It's just school work, but with a surprise to those who turn it around.

The cloth measures 37 x 37 cm. It is made of a linen canvas, which was woven especially for teaching purposes, and it is embroidered with aniline dyed wool. The woollen embroidery thread is too thick for the (10-thread) mesh. The cross stitches form a thick mass, and the large squares are cushion-like and deform the fabric.

The layout is not very traditional. The sampler contains an alphabet and the beginning of a second, but there is no row of numbers. The letters are worked in the middle, rather than starting from the left. Above the alphabets is a row of squares with simple surface filling patterns, accompanied with other motifs, including baskets with flowers, animals, birds, and a star. Underneath the alphabets is a line of stylised flowers, a tree with paired birds, a male figure, and what appears to be a tea pot. All of this is framed by a simple border, which includes small geometric patterns in a seventeenth century style.

Women working a quilt under the 1930s WPA Sewing Room Project (Lee LC USF34 010885 D 768x573).Last week the TRC took down its exhibition on American quilts. What became clear when organising and displaying the exhibition, is the importance that quilts have played in American history. A remarkable story is recounted by textile historian, Kyra Hicks, who tells about an Afro-American woman called Estella Weaver Nukes. She made a postage stamp quilt and presented it to President Roosevelt. TRC volunteer, Shelley Anderson, retells this fascinating story.

Before the US entered World War II, the country was struggling with massive unemployment and poverty. In an effort to provide jobs for millions of destitute Americans, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) established the Works Projects Administration (WPA). The WPA hired jobless men to build roads, dams, schools and libraries.

Today is a day of mixed feelings! It is the last day of the American Quilt exhibition. We will take everything down tomorrow. The Gallery will be cleaned and we will then start putting up the next exhibition. A sad, yet exciting phase, as we say good-bye to a popular display, and build up something new.

Preparing the exhibition Textile Tales of the Second World War, TRC Leiden. Photograph by author.

It is also a time to ponder on the 'fate' of the quilt exhibition, since it was closely linked to the spread of the corona virus. The exhibition was opened on 5th February by Marja Verloop, the depuy Chief-of-Mission of the American Embassy in The Hague. Lots of activities were planned, including lectures, workshops, quilt identification days, even a quilting week in May as part of the large Textile Festival held every five years in Leiden.

Unfinished sampler from the late 19th century, with aniline dyed embroidery threads (TRC 2020.2396).Some objects you do not keep just because they are attractive, but because they have a story to tell. One particular sampler in the TRC collection (TRC 2020.2396) is unfinished, the colours are garish and they have bled. If there was ever anything beautiful about it, it has completely disappeared. But we can really be glad that it has not been thrown away, because there is quite a lot to see.

Samplers were often left unfinished. Sometimes the girl was taken from school because her parents could no longer pay the fees, or because she had to work, or because she had to come home to help. Some girls died before they could complete their samplers. That would be a reason for the family to keep the cloth. It was a reminder of the deceased.

The TRC in Leiden has just finished a 1-day study day on the theme of ‘What is embroidery’ (29 July 2020) and a 5-day intensive textile course (17-21 August), which also included a session about the basic nature of embroidery. What is actually required to make a piece of embroidery? What tools are needed? Which stitches are used? When is this form of decoration actually carried out? And what is it used for, and how?

The general consensus was that (technically) embroidery is worked on a finished piece of material (whether it is woven, non-woven, leather, etc), using some form of yarn, with one or more stitches, worked with a needle, a hook or a similar tool.

Embroidered part of a woman's headdress from late 20th century Yemen (TRC 2015.0610).

But there are always exceptions!

Next to a series of 17th century Portuguese cross stitch charts that will appear in the forthcoming volume of the Encyclopedia of Embroidery (Scandinavia and Western Europe; Bloomsbury 2021/2022) and that were discussed in a separate blog, we will also be using a German pattern book that was published in about 1742.

On Sunday, 23rd August 2020, Gillian Vogelsang wrote:

As part of the work being carried out at the TRC in Leiden, on volume 3 of Bloomsbury's Encyclopedia of Embroidery (Scandinavia and Western Europe), I came across a fascinating sample book now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (MMA 25.92).

The book dates from the early 17th century and comes from Portugal. It is filled with numerous small pieces of actual embroidery worked on a linen ground using silk yarns in various colours. The samples were stitched together and then made into the booklet that is loosely bound.

Who did this is unknown, but he or she created a fascinating compendium of stitches and designs used in early 17th century Portugal. A variety of stitches are represented in the book, including cross stitch, satin stitch, bullion stitch, double running stitch (Holbein stitch), various types of knots, as well as reticello and drawn thread work.

Some examples of geometric patterns, which were worked in cross stitch, are given below: