Quaker Samplers Adapted for Needlepoint
I don’t do the whole shopping thing today, so I thought I would share with you a delightful type of Cross Stitch that can easily be adapted to needlepoint. It’s called Quaker Stitch and has whole stitches, delightful motifs, often from traditional folk art, and uses a single color per motif.
The Quakers were well-known for their fine needlework wand their samplers had individual motifs, called “spot motifs.” This is different from what you might normally think of as samplers, with letters, sayings, borders, and an integrated picture. The old and modern Quaker Samplers I’ve seen tend to be dense with these motifs. They are often octagonal in shape. Webshots has nine pages of stitched Quaker Samplers (many in progress). An important historic source for Quaker samplers was the Ackworth School (link is to Google search for these samplers).
Virtually all the designs I found in my research were whole stitch Cross Stitch patterns. These can be converted stitch for stitch to needlepoint.
Steve Rousseau, who has designed many charming Quaker Stitch pieces has a free download of 27 (yes, you saw that correctly) Quaker Stitch patterns, suitable as ornaments (pictured at the top of the post). Along with ones such as items from the 12 Days of Christmas and flowers of various kinds, there are some stunning geometric ones. It’s a PDF to download and print. Done in different colors, I could see these being useful all year long.
I heard about this free pattern from Denise at Graft Gossip and sometimes in her free pattern round-up she shows designs that are Quaker in style or inspiration. Other patterns I found include a Scissors Fob from Cross Stitch Happy, and several Quaker Designs from The Workbasket.
If you like what you see and want to buy a pattern to stitch, I found Quaker Samplers from The Scarlet Letter, the Goode Huswife, With my Needle, Historic Stitches, and others.
Now that I’ve discovered this cool stuff, what am I going to do? I just got some wonderful silk odds and ends from Vicki Clayton and I’m going to stitch some of Rousseau’s ornaments on Congress Cloth and finish them on button forms. Stay tuned for the results.
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Oooooo. Won’t that be gorgeous! I just lucked into a huge haul of silks at an estate sale. Now I know what I’m going to use them for — I’m going to copy your idea!
Denise