The Catherine Archer Trio
2 in stock
After the delivery of my first roll of Catherine Archer fabric, I designed a project case that suited my needs (now made for me by another Jane!) but that was only the start of what I wanted to make from this lovely fabric. Jane H is a wonderful maker and has come up with this mini trio. It would make an excellent travel set.
Catherine’s trio includes a square pincushion filled with dry rice and embellished with two shell buttons, a needlebook with linen pages and three gold-plated needles and a scissor keep attached to a pair of lovely Italian gold-plated chatelaine scissors. (Tiny but fiendishly sharp!)
Catherine’s Trio is supplied wrapped and boxed. The pincushion measures 2.5in square (6.5cm), the scissor keep 2 x 1.75in (5 x 4cm) approx, and the needlebook 2.5 x 3.5in (6.5 x 9cm).
£25.00
2 in stock
2 in stock
Findings
The story of this little treasure
I bought my Catherine Archer sampler over 20 years ago and I still do not tire of looking at it. It was stitched by the young Catherine Archer in about 1865 and is one of many hundreds of so-called ‘Bristol’ or ‘Müller Samplers’ and is now very collectable. Catherine’s original sampler was worked on ecru non-evenweave linen in one strand of red thread. The design was worked over one thread of the fabric – equivalent to 45 stitches to the inch! This is even more amazing when you consider that Catherine had no electric light or magnifier to help her.
I had the idea to create a printed fabric version using screen printing but it was not wildly successful. Not one to let an idea drop, I discovered an English company who could reproduce Catherine’s sampler on lovely linen fabric. I was over the moon, and you will see various items now available using this lovely fabric:
