Description
Reproduction Sampler from Hands Across The Sea Samplers (HATS)
It is with great pleasure and grateful thanks to Claudia Dutcher Kistler of Dutch Treat Designs that I am able to present to you the reproduction of Mary’s enchanting Bristol Orphanage sampler. Regrettably, Mary did not record her surname on the sampler she so diligently stitched. The only clues she left behind are the year she finished her sampler “1869” and the number of the bed she occupied “395.” Each orphan has a heart-wrenching story to tell but our little girl, identifying herself by a bed number, has touched me deeply from the first moment I saw her.
With the help of the George Müller Charitable Trust we are going to tell you within the booklet the story of a Mary in their care that was the right age, at the right time, to make her the prime candidate to have stitched this sampler.
The one thing Mary did not stitch was her last name on her sampler. The number “395” was her bed number at the time she stitched her sampler. The George Müller Charitable Trust still has the records for the children they cared for, but none of those records include their bed numbers. The children were moved within the houses as they got older, so they did not keep the same bed or number. Mary left us no other clues. Sometimes girls stitched the initials of their friends or relatives after the alphabet rows. Mary left us her intricate motif filled sampler which was her resume with a needle.
