The stitched area of the sampler is 11.75" wide x 9.5" high. There are 35-36 Cross stitches per inch, worked over two threads, with cotton thread on an unevenweave cotton fabric. As you can see from the picture the sampler was cut at some point to fit a frame. That was a common practice. Sometimes the frames were more valuable than the needlework. Many samplers stitched in the orphanage did not survive because it was a stigma to be an orphan and the girl sometimes got rid of anything that tied them to an orphanage once they had secured a place of employment. We are glad this sampler has surfaced and can be shared.

This one is called the Dancing alphabets sampler because you can see that our unknown stitcher had trouble staying on the same line to finish her rows. Doing cross stitch over two threads on 70+ threads per inch fabric would be just as much of challenge for any needleworkers today. From the style of this sampler we can guess that it was stitched between 1885 and 1900. As it got closer to the turn of the century (1900) the girls worked on a different type of fabric and left more spacing between the rows of alphabets. This sampler was stitched on that type of fabric and has the format of more open spacing for her dancing alphabets.

This sampler is in the collection of Lorraine Mootz. The picture and information shared here was used with her permission.