Happy New Year!
Like many of you, I’ve been thinking about the journey of these past 2 years & what it’s taught me about myself.
It was a year ago that I was introduced to ‘Polly Maria’ & began working with Ginny of Shanty Stitchers on retracing this needlewoman’s journey from her roots in the northeast to the Midwest where she made her home with family, and we claim her as an Iowan! Imagine, traveling as a young woman to parts unknown without the benefit of Google Maps, Yelp reviews & Zillow to find that perfect homestead.
I am so thankful that Ginny asked me to help reproduce Polly – not one of the more intricate samplers ever to be reproduced – but a history lesson to be sure of what a young woman should learn to prepare her for life in the 1800’s.
We offered the sampler in 2 colorways to represent what the sampler looks like today & what it might have looked like in 1826. I chose to stitch the 1826 cover model version…the simple alphabets were soothing to stitch once I got familiar with the ‘fonts’. It was ‘interesting’ to adjust to the spacing of a young stitcher who was trying to fit all of the words on a line and, as you could tell, apparently worried that she wouldn’t make it all fit!! Oh, how easy it is today with computers that can copy/paste & adjust!
I found myself thinking about Polly as I stitched…what were her concerns, her worries & what made her happy?
Polly Maria is available for purchase from Shanty Stitchers – Ginny has it offered several ways with chart only, 36ct Weeks Dye Works linen & Gloriana Silks combos. Here is a link to her website (chart & kit options are listed on her main page): Shanty Stitchers
Ginny is looking to start a stitch-a-long in early February 2022 – #pollymariasal – I hope that you join us. (Look for more information soon on our social pages but order your chart & supplies now to be ready!)
Thanks to the helps of some friends, I was able to piece together a little of Polly’s family history that included some notable characters – I share that history inside the charted design.
We were very fortunate to have actual proof that Polly is, indeed, an Iowa girl – you just never know when those notes, scribbled onto the back of frames, will come in handy!
I hope that you embrace your inner Polly Maria as you stitch her history.
Cathy, Hands On Design, LLC
(Family photos are not original to the Simmons family. Sampler photos are from the original sampler & reproduced sampler)
MOre of a question. Will the history of Polly Maria be inclued with the sampler? FOr me, genealogy and stitching compete for my time. I have only found one sampler belonging to anyone in the family but not my straight line. I did also find in another line that two spinsters sisters listed “Fancy Needlework” on a census form for their occupation.
The history that we were able to find is included in the chart – I had fun reporting what we found with a little story-telling slant.
-c