msput2write

The original sampler maker was a teenaged girl called Loara she’s the only one known of seven siblings in that family. She was born approximately 1632 and had passed before her father had in 1656 which they know because it was mentioned in his will.

So in the 1630-40s a girl made a sampler, in 1991 a woman had put in years of research before recreating the sampler as Loara had 350 years earlier , and I’m reading about it in 2024.

Embroidery keeps women alive in history, and it’s part of why I love samplers so much.

Here’s a quote from samplers that I think about often:

@krisabobbi, Loara’s full name is Loara Standish. The 1991 remaker is Joanna Harvey.

Harvey actually named a specific unique stitch from the work after Loara, The Standish Stitch which takes 13 passes of the needle to complete!

@shieldmaidenofsherwood a great question!

Only one and it is not the best, but it is lovely regardless. I would love to have seen them printed a bit bigger!

I tried to find a bigger image but there are too many photos of women who have made their own! What a wonderful problem to have. I can’t find an original because too many people are celebrating the work of this single girl from three centuries ago :)