RULE OF LIFE: A Quaker Inspired Design – PDF PATTERN

For this sampler I settled on a quote by John Newbery, from his 1770 book of verse for children titled “A Little Pretty Pocket- Book”. The book is filled with little rhymes and life lessons. One of the “rules of life” reads as follows: “Bestow your alms whene’er you see – An object in necessity”. To me, it seemed very fitting for use on a Quaker style sampler. I chose to chart the lettering exactly as it appeared in the book, where the long S replaces the common S we are used to seeing nowadays. All letters on this sampler were inspired by actual 18th and 19th-century Quaker alphabet samplers.

When charting, I was reminded of a flosstube video by the wonderful Caroline of Off the Grid Needlearts. She was showing off some of the gorgeous new hand-dyed cotton floss colours from Leo&Roxy Yarn Co. I designed this pattern with three specific colours in mind. All of these colours (and more!) can be purchased exclusively through Caroline’s shop – www.evertote.com – and who knows, you might see some other colours and be inspired by them for other projects as well!

CHART DETAILS

This design measures 178 crosses wide and 219 crosses high. If you stitch it on 32 count, it will measure approximately 11 1/8” by 13 3/4” (28. 5 x 35 cm). When worked with 2 pulled strands, you can stitch approximately 1800 crosses with one hank of Leo&Roxy Yarn Co floss. This means you will need to buy the following hanks to complete this design:

VAMPISH – 6 skeins
PLUM SHADOW – 2 skeins (just over 1 skein needed) CARAMEL – 1 skein (less than half a skein needed).

Although a flat colour can never substitute the complexity of an over-dyed floss, the following DMC colours could be substituted: Vampish with DMC 3371, Plum Shadow with DMC 779 and Caramel with DMC 435.