Melitastitches4fun's Blog

Our beautiful grandniece, Norah, was born back in April. So, I designed this sampler piece to commemorate her birth. She’s Irish & so, her name is spelled out in green with touches of the colors of the rainbow & a pot of gold in the letter H. We wish her good health, happiness, & good fortune throughout her life.

The letters came from either the Leisure Arts Leaflet 2285 called 120 Alphabets or Leisure Arts Leaflet 3071 called Alphabets Galore 136 Alphabets.

From top to bottom:

• Blocks (3 rows from A-Z): Diagram 88 on pg 32 (136 Alphabets)
• Welcome baby with balloons: Diagram 113 on pgs 39-40 (136 Alphabets)
• Norah (modified to fit my width): Diagram 73 on pg 26 (120 Alphabets)
• Diaper pins (without the letters): Diagram 49 on pg 14 (120 Alphabets)
• April: Diagram 19 on pg 7 (136 Alphabets)
• lower case pm, lbs, and oz: Diagram 53 on pg 15 (120 Alphabets)

There are mainly DMC flosses used: yellow 444, green 701 and 700 a little darker for Norah, blue 825, violet 552, red 666, red-violet 915 because red 666 looked terrible right next to violet 552, orange 970, and black 310 for the balloon strings. I also used Kreinik #12 braid 010HL for the pot, #8 braid 002J for the gold, and #12 braid 001 for the metal portion of the diaper pins (thanks to Linda – I had #16 which was too thick while my #8, #4, and balger were too thin).

I am amazed that I used graph paper, pencil, & plenty of erasing to lay this out but 100 years ago young girls stitched samplers without such aids!!