Advanced Sampler Workshop, Fitzwilliam Museum, Eilene Cross. 23/3/18

Yesterday I went to Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum to a Sampler Workshop.  It was the best workshop I’ve attended in a long time.  Eilene Cross, is a stitch researcher and tutor from San Francisco.  It would appear she regularly tours the UK and Europe, researching specialised textiles – in this case, the 17^th sampler by Elizabeth Billingsley in the Fitzwilliam collection.   Prior to her retirement, she was working in the biotechnology industry (holds PhD in physics) and was very active mentoring girls in science education.  She said she had always taught stitch in her leisure time.

We were working on 30 count linen, with 4 colours of silk threads.  I learned 2 new stitches – Montenegrin stitch and detached buttonhole.  Eilene also taught us how to finish off our threads the same way as the 17^th century stitchers.  Because the embroidery frames these girls used were heavy and static, they could not be turned over to finish threads on the back.  So you run the thread under the Montenegrin stitch on the front.  Because it is so dense, the thread won’t show, but you need to snip it off very closely.  

What was amazing was the level of detail Eilene had researched about the way Montenegrin stitch is worked.  She had been given access to the back of the sampler, and must have studied it using incredible magnification, because she had worked out the direction of each stitch.  Montenegrin stitch is a version of cross stitch – but a very, very complicated version – which varies how it is stitched depending on whether it is worked up or down, left or right, straight or around a corner.  Eilene gave out about 50 handouts of large scale diagrams so we could work a replica of a section of Elizabeth Billingsley’s sampler.  This was a huge amount of research and analysis – and she gave it to us freely on a one day workshop!

Eilene had worked a replica of Elizabeth Billingsley’s sampler.  She had studied the stitch directions in such detail that she had worked out that half way through the sampler, the stitch directions had altered, thus giving a different pattern on the back.  The first version gave a thick coloured line and the later version gave a tiny pattern of squares.   Eilene’s opinion was that the first version was preferable because on the front it gave better coverage.

I was very glad I had taken my cumbersome illuminated magnifier because the scale of stitches was so tiny.  I also tried out Eilene’s thread conditioner – a block of silicone – which saved the wear on the single silk thread.  I also tried my beeswax when I got home, and silicone seems to work much better.  I worked on my sampler for about 4.5 hours in class – and completed about 1 square inch!  The pattern we have been given is about 8” x 10”!

We had a debate in class about why Montenegrin stitch was used back in the 17^th century, as it is so complicated.  No actual answer was established, but one person on my table (researcher from Norway, Nordic/Language/History studies) observed that older languages are very complicated, and as languages modernise, they become simpler.  So is it the case that Montenegrin stitch gives great fabric coverage but is very complicated, and cross stitch is the simpler, more modern version?  She was looking at stitchwork in Norway and had tried to replicate Montenegrin stitch from a book – and failed! – so came to this class to learn it – successfully!.  This demonstrates there is a different type of learning achieved from doing and practising, rather than reading and theorising.  There is a place for both. 

I asked why samplers had gone out of vogue – again no definitive answer, but general acceptance that as life has accelerated, mechanisation has come into sewing, and with the advent of sewing machines, deskilling has taken place. 

Of the 9 people in the class, quite a few of us simply sewed for pleasure.  Some repetitively made samplers – often used for commemorative reasons – others just ended up in a drawer.  I don’t really get this.  I like things to have a narrative and a use, or to be of appeal to a wider audience. 

I’ve mounted the Montenegrin stitch sampler on a roller frame, which makes it much faster to work.  While I’m researching my Liverpool St toilet cleaners, I don’t have any stitch of my own design to complete.  So I’ll practice my historical stitch skills on Eilene’s sampler and include it in my Masters portfolio.

Eileen Cross's copy of a section of Elizabeth Billingsley's sampler

Reverse of Sampler.  See left hand border
Shows how the change in order of stitches in Montenegrin stitch affects the pattern on the reverse.

Bottom of sampler.  We did not get this section in our kit.

This is the section of the sampler given in our kit.
It has a LOT of Montenegrin stitch.

My efforts from the workshop.  This took 4.5 hours!
Montenegrin stitch worked from the right and left, up and down, and around corners.
A VERY complicated stitch!