A sample of samplers

As I think I've mentioned, I've been embroidering for years and years.  It all started when I was about 8 and I found an old biscuit tin of my late grandmother's full of embroidery silks.  I asked my mother what they were for and she explained and showed me ... the rest as they say is history!

I've been hooked ever since.  I think the first thing I embroidered was an unfinished tray cloth of my grandmother's (she died a year before I was born and was a seamstress and milliner).  I showed it to her sister and the following Christmas I got an embroidery kit for another tray cloth from her.  I still have both of them.

I've made sampler, followed by sampler, followed by picture, then another sampler ... you get the gist.  I'm ashamed to say that most of them are kits and not my own designs.  I've been a bit reluctant and unconfident about designing my own.  I have, however, made a number of friends samplers to celebrate weddings and births (but not for my sister, as she keeps reminding me!).

And that is where you/this comes in - I hope. 

Three years ago I made my (then, soon to be) brother in law and sister in law a sampler as a wedding present.  Then my mother in law asked for one too.  And last year I made two birth samplers for my cousins' children.  So, in a way, I'm on a roll. 

Then a friend recently asked if I'd make one for her daughter as a 'pair' for the one I made her son when he was born.  Embarassingly, I'd intended to make one when her daughter was born and had even bought the materials, but never got around to it (this seems a bit of a theme in my creative life!).  So, now I've embarked on my first true commission.

I'm not going to make the sampler I'd originally chosen and bought the materials for.  Instead, I'm going to adapt the design of her brother's - so this is a step towards designing my own!