I was catching up on some blog reading today and came across this post about “women’s art” by Sandra Dallas:
I love quilts. I appreciate the artistry and workmanship and the fact they are women’s art. But mostly, I love finding the secrets they tell. But I also love samplers, because like quilts, they have hidden stories.
Unlike quilts, samplers were not made by women sitting beside the hearth in the evenings. They were fashioned by young girls in finishing schools, girls learning French and music and etiquette. They began samplers at a young age, practicing alphabets until they were able to produce magnificent needlework pictures with human figures, houses, mourning scenes, and almost always a religious verse. They were a sort of 19th century girls’ school thesis. Many were signed with the maker’s name and the date. Then they were framed and hung over the mantle.
Several years ago, I bought a crude sampler with two dancing, black-haired stick figures and the words “Wez Free.” The proprietor of the South Broadway antiques shop where I found the sampler, told me he had acquired it in a yard sale in Five Points, Denver’s historic black neighborhood. Had the sampler been made at the end of the Civil War by a former slave, perhaps using materials purloined from her former mistress? Had she been a plantation seamstress who used this method to celebrate freedom?
Read the rest of the post here….
First, I LOVE her books – they’re historical and yet usually incorporate “Women’s arts” into the books – there is such a respect given to the subject that I always lay down a book wanting to learn more.
Now she has me thinking about samplers. Even as an “exercise”, they’re such a wonderful expression of the person doing the stitching.
Anyway, if you are familiar with Sandra Dallas and live in the Denver Metro area, she’ll be doing a book signing at Holly’s Quilt Cabin on August 30th.