Samplers have never gone out of fashion, and the personal link they provide with the embroiderer make them very collectable. Carol Humphrey, honorary keeper of textiles at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, produced a beautifully illustrated book of samplers made by schoolgirls at Ackworth School which attracted what can only be described as ‘rave’ reviews in the embroidery press! Both Embroidery and Stitch magazines were impressed with the standard of work of Quaker schoolgirls in the late eighteenth and early nineteeth centuries. Their talents inspired sampler work throughout Quaker schools the UK and the USA. (Quaker School Girl Samplers from Ackworth is published by Needleprint.)

Labels: embroidery