The return of Mary Thompson

Well, Mary Thompson leapt out of my WIP basket again this weekend and demanded some attention. I had a lovely time working on her. This time around I worked on the yellow wreath (inside the wreath are the initials MT to FT and the date: 1805). I also stitched the flower basket below the wreath and the letters N, E, D and P. Below is a picture of the whole thing so far…


Here’s a little information about Mary from the chart (which is inside the Jacket of the book, Quaker Schoolgirl Samplers from Ackworth by Carol Humphrey)…

Mary Thompson stitched this sampler in 1805, the year she left Ackworth School. She was at Ackworth for just two years and this is the only sampler by her in the school’s collection.
Mary was, relatively speaking, a local girl. She is recorded as coming from Ferrybridge which is close to Pontefract. Ferrybridge is in the heart of old coal mining territory and so the stay in Ackworth would have been a temporary respite from the smog, coal-grimed faces and the hard, yet closely knit life, of a colliery community.

It’s been an interesting experience working on a reproduction of her sampler.