Tent and Cross Stitches
Neither tent-stitch nor tapestry-stitch appears to have been largely introduced in sampler-embroidery at any period; still, portions of a few specimens worked during the early and middle years of the eighteenth century are executed in one or other of these stitches. Tent-stitch, for instance, plays an important part in the wreath border of [Fig. 8]. The beautifully shaded leaves are all worked in this way, as are many of the flowers, other varieties of grounding or cushion-stitches being used for the rest of the border. The Commandments, which the wreath enframes, are worked in cross-stitch. This last-named stitch in its earliest form is worked over a single thread, and produces a close and solid effect when closely massed, or, as may be seen in many sampler maps, very fine lines when worked in single rows. Ordinary cross-stitch taken over two threads is, of course, the familiar stitch in which nineteenth-century samplers are entirely worked, whence arises its second name of sampler-stitch.
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Fig. 76.—Darning Sampler. Signed M. M., T. B., J. F.
Dated 1802.
The late Mrs Head.
Fig. 77.—Enlarged Portion of a Darning Sampler.
Dated 1785.
A pretty and—in sampler embroidery—uncommon stitch is that in which the crowned lions in the samplers of Mary and Lydia Johnson ([Figs. 35] and [36]) are worked. This stitch is formed of two cross-stitches superimposed diagonally, and since its revival in the Berlin wool era has been known by the names of star-stitch and leviathan-stitch.