Dorcas Haynes 1720
When I at last in my stitching career moved towards becoming a sampler stitcher, I fell in love with Dorcas Haynes, one of the most beautiful samplers I have ever seen. I love her colors, motifs, and symmetry. I love the specialty stitches, verse, grapevine, strawberry band…I could go on and on. There is nothing I don’t love about this sampler! I picked up my needle to begin stitching Dorcas in May 2021, but was disappointed. The colors were not as I hoped. I really didn’t like how the greens had faded to blue and the grapes were now so pale!
As I studied her, and stitched reproductions (or adaptations) of her, I discovered the many ways she’s been stitched by others and began to refine what I regarded as my favorite “look” to this iconic design. I discovered how she has been charted more than once, by Darlene O’Steen for a limited class project, and by the Scarlet Letter, and that many stitchers have adapted the colors to their preferences, even some who have studied the colors on the reverse side of the actual antique. Inspired by the model at Attic Needlework, which is stitched from the Darlene O’Steen class, I decided to try my hand at choosing my own colors to match that richer, less faded palette. I had some guidance from stitchers who have used that palette in the selection of colors but found I had to make some adjustments due to changes in dye lots of the Soie d’Alger silks over the years. For instance, a color that was once a pale blue now is gray in new new lots from Soie d’Alger. And the way my own eye sees and interprets color will be slightly different from another stitcher’s. The color selection for Dorcas could go on indefinitely but in April 2024, pushed by Dorcas being the Attic’s Sampler of the Month, I decided to just go for it, one band at a time, creating my own palette and adjusting the colors as I went. Here are the posts that chronicle my journey. I hope eventually to add stitching notes to this page to assist anyone who may be stitching Dorcas because she is NOT an easy project!
April 9, 2024: Testing, Testing
April 12, 2024: Band 2 Finished and a Plan
April 23, 2024: Grapes and Squirrels
June 5, 2024: Strawberry Band II
June 10, 2024: Strawberry Band III
June 17, 2024: Do you want another post about the Strawberry Band?
July 1, 2024: How It’s Going (alphabet)
July 12, 2024: 2 WIPS (floral arcade start)
July 19, 2024: Progress on Dorcas (floral arcade)
July 31, 2024: A Weekend With Dorcas/Updating the Plan
August 3, 2024: The latest on Dorcas