Sampler for Rosemarie Browne

Alex was asked to be Godfather to his sister’s little girl (of course he said yes!) and so we are off to a christening! He presented his other niece and nephew with a special gift at their christenings and I thought it would be nice if I could give the new arrival a present too…

When we were born, my Granny made Matty and I samplers each – we still have them to this day and they are treasured possessions. I thought, how lovely it would be if I could continue the tradition!

Now my Granny creates the most beautiful cross stitch…she did teach me when I was little but I could never hope to replicate such perfection, so I decided to do one in my own style instead!

I did a bit of research and found some lovely examples on Pinterest and decided that an embroidery hoop would work well for a frame, like the gift I made for Alex – so I got about choosing fabrics…

I went with a lovely dusty blue so that I could use a white thread and colourful felt flowers would stand out really well on it as a background.

I split up my hoop with very carefully, I didn’t want my writing to be all lopsided and squiffy! That would never do for a gift! I also made sure I did a little sketch before I started so I knew what I was trying to achieve.

I added all the details that Pippa provided in our ‘New Arrival’ card to make the sampler as personal as possible. And then started cutting, making and arranging the felt flowers…

I wanted there to be as much colour as possible to lift the plain background so I just kept going and going – I started with the smaller flowers, which I added some glass beads to to add a little extra detail…

And the started organising the rest of the flowers to frame the name, and finally cut off the excess fabric and attached a piece of ribbon for hanging…

Overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of the sampler! It has a lovely handmade feel to it and glows with colour! I hope Rosemarie likes it as much as I do!