Drawn Thread Sampler Description

The layout of the sampler is simple but the techniques that fill it are among the most difficult I've done and my instructions among the most detailed I have written. As a result the instructions are 166 pages long.  The instructions include both the Drawn Thread Sampler and its Doodle Sampler, as well as my original class letter.

This sale is for the Instructions only  (no threads, no ground fabric) and I am bringing it to my sale because of requests.

The size of the congress cloth for the Drawn Thread Sampler is 14" x 25".

The size of the congress cloth for the Doodle Sampler is 11" x 20".

The supplies you will need are simple: 5 balls of pearl cotton #12 and 5 balls of pearl cotton #8.

Paying attention to mesh size and scaling it as appropriate, you may use any ground fabric that has a substantial body. I do not suggest you work on flimsy, wiggly linens. The challenge of this sampler is tension which is always more difficult on a flimsy ground.

Notice that the supplies list is a simple one: pearl cotton in two sizes. Before you choose a ground fabric, make sure that its size coordinates with pearl cotton #12 and #8. In today's marketplace, I do not know of another thread that will work easily for the sampler.

Colors: I stitched my models in ecru pearl cotton on a white ground. Over the years I have seen the sampler stitched in ecru on ecru, in white on white, and in a number of very pale colors on white or ecru ground fabrics. Pale blue on white comes to mind as one of the prettiest of the samplers I've seen. I don't suggest a dark or bright color thread as the contrast will be too great. Remember, these are traditionally  whitework techniques, the stitches for lace and imitation laces.

Drawn Thread Sampler

Drawn Thread Sampler, Part 4  Stories About Teaching Drawn Thread Sampler

In the old days when I was more industrious than I am now I applied Drawn Thread Sampler to EGA's National Seminar in Williamsburg and I had a class of 24 people.

In my long teaching career, this was the only project I billed as 'Advanced'. The class was a full four days long.  The pre-class work was 50 hours, or so my students told me. The first day of class we cut threads which can be daunting in a classroom situation -- what if you cut wrong?  The second day the easier techniques, the third day the difficult ones.

I woke up on the third morning of class and willed my hands to work well. I had a daunting task: I had to make the hardest techniques I knew work as if they were easy. Nothing is worse than showing my struggles in front of students, for it puts them off. The students think, if the teacher struggles, I'll never be able to do it. So I demonstrated these techniques for 6 hours and at the end of the day I was bushed.

A friend of mine was in my class. At the end I said to her, let's go somewhere, I'm absolutely bushed! She said, why? You had an easy day of it, And I thought, Yay! I succeeded.

I taught Drawn Thread Sampler a handful of times after Williamsburg: at Callaway, at regional seminars and a few times at chapters, then I retired it and moved on.

Years later, after I had retired from travel teaching, Jane Ellen Balzuweit taught it for Shining Needle Society.  

I am offering the instructions once again because of requests

from Gary Parr and his followers.

Drawn Thread Sampler and its Doodle

Both are included in the instructions. Scroll down for descriptions