Hands Across the Sea - Ann Forfitt 1812

If you would like to order the complete kit for this project including all threads and linen required, please contact me on 07 5546 0558 or [email protected].  We carry the complete range of Au Ver a Soie d’Alger. We carry most of the 100/3 threads with the remaining colours currently on their way to us. This shipment also includes all the Legacy Linen available for HATS Samplers. The threads and linens are due in the shop by mid July. If you require the kit before then, we have a wide range of other beautiful linens in stock.

Ann Forfitt 1812 is a very large and impressive sampler at 519 stitches (w) x 570 stitches (h) and is sure to be a blue ribbon winner for the competitive cross stitcher.

The 40 page chart, of which 36 pages are the graph, comes in booklet form in full colour throughout.

There are some 71,788 cross stitches, a small amount of straight satin stitches and a handful of Algerian eyelets. The verse is stitched in cross stitch over 1.

No songs of Triumph now be sung

Cease all your sprightly Airs

Let sorrow silence every Tongue

And Joy dissolve to Tears

If at this Sight we don’t repent

What other Sight can move

Ingrateful shall we not relent

And pay him love with love.

The verse Ann chose for her sampler is from a hymn written in the 1700’s that was sung on Good Fridays.  It appears in the “The Universal Spelling Book” published in 1756 in Rotterdam by Daniel Fenning an English school teacher.  It was greatly used in America and was first published in 1769 in Boston, Massachusetts. Imported English editions were available before then.  It also appears in a musical piece called Laindon, composed by Samuel Holyoake.  It was first published in “Harmonia Americana” in 1791 for three voices:  Treble-Tenor-Bass.

No trace of Ann Forfitt can be found in official records and all we have to remember her by is from the efforts of her own needle.  Ann stitched, with great care, her large and charming sampler using silks and very fine linen. We know from the information Ann recorded with her needle that she completed her sampler during the reign of George III on March 21 1812 whilst living in Lyndhurst in the county of Hampshire, England. Little did Ann know that during the next two centuries her sampler would travel across the Atlantic to New York, where it was conserved, and then many decades later back to England where it was acquired by Nicola Parkman for her private collection.

Ann’s sampler has been rated as suitable for an enthusiastic beginner.

Hands Across the Sea Samplers are on hand to help those stitching our charts. If you need assistance or have any questions we can be reached via the CONTACT page on our website. 

Ann Forfitt has been brought to you in collaboration with Suzanne Sirotti who stitched the model. At the very core of Hands Across the Sea Samplers is a team of needleworkers who are passionate about antique samplers and being able to share those samplers with you.

Thread Legend

The sampler has been charted with Au Ver à Soie d’Alger silks and the skein quantities calculated based on 1 strand on 36ct fabric. We have provided a DMC conversion based on 2 strands on 36ct fabric. The model was stitched on 40ct Lakeside Linen Vintage Buttercream.

Soie d’Alger/ DMC

4623 x 4 / 3722 x 4 – Shell pink – medium

1844 x 3 / 3815x 3 – Celadon green – dark

1846 x 4 / 500 x 4 – Blue green – very dark

2211 x 2 /  834 x 2 – Golden Olive – very light

F18 x 1 / 612 x 1 – Drab brown – light

2242 x 2 / 3046 x 2 – Yellow beige – medium

3822 x 1 / 676 x 1 – Old gold – light

2234 x 1 / 729 x 1 – Old gold – medium

4233 x 1 / 680 x 1 – Old gold – dark

641 x 1 / 948 x 1 – Peach- very light

4613 x 1 / 3859 x 1 – Rosewood – light

2911 x 3 / 3774 x 3 – Desert sand – very light

3825 x 1 / 435 x 1 – Brown – very light

4536 x 1 / 3031 x 1 -Mocha brown – very dark

3416/Noir  x 1 / 310 x 1 – Black

 LINEN SIZES

The design area is 519 stitches (w) x 570 stitches (h). Our calculations have included a 3” margin for finishing and framing.

30ct – Design: 34.60″ x 38.00″ Fabric: 40.60″ x 44.00″

32ct – Design: 32.44″ x 35.63″ Fabric: 38.44″ x 41.63″

36ct – Design: 28.83″ x 31.67″ Fabric: 34.83″ x 37.67″

40ct – Design: 25.95″ x 28.50″ Fabric: 31.95″ x 34.50″