Country Sampler Stitch Camp - Part One

It’s been awhile since our last road trip! We just returned from a long weekend in the Madison/Spring Green area. As with any trip that takes us East on I-94, we made a stop at the Norske Nook and our stop was perfectly timed for lunch! 

I forgot to take a picture of the pie. I had a delicious piece of banana cream and my partner in crime had a piece of Cherry, Cherry Crunch. Onward we traveled. First stop Lodi, WI. We stopped in a couple cute shops and continued on. Spent the night in Middleton, a suburb of Madison.

Day two of our journey took us to Lynn’s of Madison. Lynn’s is a multi-craft store, selling art and needlework supplies. They have a wonderful selection of linen, and some of their older cross stitch charts were discounted.

My primary goal at Lynn’s was to work with them to get one of my antique samplers framed. Before leaving home, I had taken it out of it’s frame. A lot of dust came out with it! Fortunately, no bugs. The stitched piece had been basted to another piece of fine fabric and then the edges were nailed to a wooden frame. I gently vacuumed it front and back. Lynn removed all of the nails. Once we laid the sampler on a piece of white mat board we could see how beautiful she really was!

This is the front - not much damage! She used four-sided stitch for her first alphabet. There’s also a row of eyelet stitches. I think she then gave up on specialty stitches - the rest of the sampler is done in cross stitch. Toward the bottom, the house and the tree to the left of the house, the stitches were pulled very tight - maybe she was dealing with some stress in her life, or maybe she just wanted to get her sampler finished.

Here is the back. As you can see, the colors did not fade much on the front. The sampler was stitched by Eliza Guy in 1845 and she was 10 years old. Some day I’ll try to see if I can find out more about her. Thanks to Lynn’s this beauty will be preserved for many years (centuries) to come!

Which brings us to Thursday and that means the start of Stitch Camp at Country Sampler in Spring Green, but first a visit to the shop is in order. I took lots of pictures of their displays for you to enjoy. Such an inspiring place to be!

More shop photos later!

The retreat started Thursday night with dinner and a meet and greet with the designers, but the classes started on Friday. First up was Alma Allen from Blackbird Designs. I love everything Blackbird. I’ve probably stitched more Blackbird than any other designer! I’ve probably also had the good fortune to take more classes with Blackbird Designs than any other designer! Alma did not disappoint! Her project was based on motifs and colors taken from an old sampler she had acquired on eBay.

We’re just getting started! I will come back with Part Two either later today or tomorrow!