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Tuesday 16 June 2009

How did those Ackworth girls stitch?

Dee Lucas has just asked me two very interesting questions about how the Ackworth girls might have stitched. Did they needle up, needle down (poke) the stitches - or did they use a sewing method? Also did they use frames or hoops, or stitch in their hands? I must say that I don't know. Apart from their samplers, the girls left hardly a trace of themselves. There are school reports for the boys, but not the girls. There are accounts of Ackworth School life from the boys when they are older, but the women are generally silent. All I can say is that there was not much furniture in the early days of the school and so there was probably nothing to clamp a hoop to, but small hoops like the one Jacqueline in France is using here to stitch her Mary Wigham may well have been possible, and would have been necessary, I think, to tension the other samplers the girls stitched - the fine darning samplers. Look at the crochet edging on Jacqueline's sampler - is that an old cloth you are stitching there, Jacqueline?

4 comments:

  1. Everybody's samplers are looking great! Is part 3 available for download yet - when I go to the download page I can only access part 1 and 2. Jacqueline - do you have a headgirl in South Africa yet? Michelle

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  2. Hello Michelle - I am sorry you are having problems - it looks as though you are still accessing last week's page - the page changes every week. Did you click on the Mary Wigham picture on the blog? Or did you save last week's link and try that again?
    We have no head girl in South Africa - how about you??? Please email me we would love you to be Head Girl in South Africa! J

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  3. Jacqueline - I would love to be headgirl in South Africa. What is your email address? Michelle

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  4. Lovely news, Michelle - my email is:
    information@needleprint.com

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