A Cloud of Sweetness: HS 1850 – PDF Pattern

An unknown Dutch stitcher with the initials HS worked this charming sampler – possibly in the province of Friesland – in the year 1850. This would not have been her first sampler and was likely worked by a girl or young woman in her spare time as a decoration for her home.

The original sampler was stitched in 8 different colours of embroidery wool and was stitched in perfect symmetry. The border contained no errors, and all motifs were stitched very evenly and neatly, something quite rare for a young stitcher on her first sampler.

This pattern is charted for the original 8 colours as seen on the front and back of the sampler, and has instructions to stitch the 3-colour version as seen in the artwork.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

This design measures 187 crosses in width and 163 in height, with a total of 9,305 stitches. Please see the graph below for size estimates. Floss estimates are based on working with two pulled strands (14 – 18-count Aida or 28 – 36-count linen) or one strand (20-count Aida / 40-count linen and higher). It is, of course, up to you how many strands you want to use for your project. When working the 8-colour (charted) version, I recommend purchasing 3 DMC 936 (or 730) when stitching on 28, 32 and 36-count linen (14, 16 and 18-count Aida). DMC 347 requires two skeins for 28-count linen (14-count Aida). All other colours require only one skein.

The key below gives all the colours for the front and the back. There is one important note: the tree-of-life motifs  (roughly around 100 crosses from the top) feature a two-colour diamond pattern. On the back, the bottom half is the same colour as the letters, initials and year. On the front, it is closer to 814. All colour options here are, of course, recommendations – feel free to substitute any colours of your liking.

Two motifs at the top feature backstitches: the outher backstitches are worked with DMC 816 (front and back)
or Berry Queen, the inner square is stitched with DMC 369 (back), DMC 10 (front) or French Vanilla.

The model on the front was stitched with Roxy Floss Co (exclusively available through evertote.ca in Canada)
and uses three colours: Berry Queen, French Vanilla and Artichoke.  Berry Queen replaced the first four red shades. French Vanilla replaced the pink and mint green, and Artichoke replaced both darker greens. I stitched my model on a hand-dyed piece of linen – Roxy Floss Co’s “Pannetone” would be a great linen for this colour combination! The last three columns in the graph below provide you with the skein estimates for the 3-colour version.