The Work of Our Hands Sampler

Recently I read a book by the Judaic needle artist Mae Rockland Tupa. Her art portrays her commitment to heritage though the use of all forms of needle art. One of her quotations, "The work of our hands begins with a single stitch" spoke in a special way to me. How often I have held a beautiful needlework heirloom and felt the love and handwork that went into its completion marveling at the stitching. Our needle work truly does begin with a single stitch as well as a single thought ~ and so this sampler is meant to commemorate not only Mae Tupa's quotation, but to serve as a true sampler containing many various stitching techniques which hopefully will inspire and enhance your future stitching projects.

The sampler (12" x 14") is worked on 32 ct Attic Lace Linen from Lakeside Linens with imported Norwegian Linen Thread and Thread Gatherer's Silk Hand Dyed Thread. The design of this sampler is a combination of various hemstitch techniques, holbein stitch and alphabets. The English alphabet, the Norwegian alphabet and the Hebrew Aleph-Bet are incorporated within a border of the Danish H-Hemstitch technique. An additional five different hemstitch techniques are incorporated as dividing borders between the alphabets. Additional charted alphabets are included for personalization.