A personalized design created just for you and your family. You can create the design for your current family or one where you are the child with your own parents. Those of you who love exploring your genealogy can create a sampler celebrating one of your family groups. The choice is yours which is why this sampler is uniquely your own! If you come up with a new way of portraying a family, email me and we'll post your idea on our blog!
If you scroll to the very bottom you will see the area that we are using to feature the finished designs by stitchers like you!
The Family Sampler
“THE FAMILY SAMPLER”, by Diane Williams
Little House Needleworks, Copyright 2010 - The following text is provided as a service to the stitchers who are deciding if this chart is a right fit for them. Please do NOT copy this material to any internet web site. It is a partial peek at our back cover and is copyright protected. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"The Family Sampler"pattern pack provides you with the ability to create a one-of-a-kind family heirloom with all of the personal elements to make your finished design truly yours. The pack includes the chart which is 4 pages, 2 pages of design elements, one sample layout page and of course the cover and back page. While the stitching is easy, some may find creating your personal layout a bit challenging. The sample page will be a great help to those of you struggling a bit. Note: extremely long surnames or hyphenated names may not fit in the open area. Also, families with more than six children will not fit either. You can still stitch the design leaving the parents in place but perhaps instead of stitching children in the open areas you could stitch their names. SIZE AND FABRIC:The design size is 209 stitches wide by 311 stitches tall. We used Lakeside Linen’s 32 count Vintage Buttercream for our model. The finished size is approximately 13” x 19-½”. Hand dyed fabric is usually a little smaller due to shrinkage but it should be very minimal. THE LETTERING LAYOUT: Permission is given the stitcher to make three photocopies of page #2 of the “Family Sampler Elements” for the purpose of cutting and pasting of the alphabet and family members. Or, you may use a blank sheet of graph paper to chart your surname using our alphabet. If your name is too long for the blank area, remove some or all of the leaves on the left and right sides. If it still does not fit, you will have to use the alphabet that is at the bottom of the actual sampler itself. THE FAMILY LAYOUT: The cover model gives you the best look at proportions and layout. Without removing the tree, six children can fit in the area with two parents. See the layout page for ideas as to how you can fit your family into the space. Placing six children in the design changes the tree since you must remove a blossom on each side in order for them to fit. Color choice of their clothing and hair color is up to you. We’ve given you suggestions on the elements page but of course you should use the colors that would best portray your family. There will be no right or wrong in the family layout of the design since it will reflect a family that is uniquely yours. However, we strongly urge that you take your time in planning the layout since that task is solely your own.
THE THREADS This thread list was used to create our family sampler. If you are changing skin tones you will not need DMC 945. You will also not need DMC 433 if you aren’t placing pets in the design. DMC 221, 223, 3022 and 3722 are used in clothing and are not seen on the four page chart itself.
THE COLORS Classic Colorworks: Roasted Chestnut (1), Pea Pod (3), Clay Pot (2), Wild Berries (2). DMC: 221, 223, 420, 433, 434, 469, 611, 676, 801, 869, 936, 945, 3012, 3013, 3022, 3031, 3722, 3865. Keep in mind that if you alter any coloring to suit the needs of your personalized sampler, the above colors and/or quantities could change.
