Wednesday 10 June 2009

Mary Wigham

Today, whilst reading stitch-creations post about Mary Wigham here I was placed in a dilemma. I was aware that there were some 'errors' in the original sampler in that some of the motifs were not symmetrical. However, I had not realised until I looked at the chart in some detail, in particular the top left motif in chart one, just how not symmetrical it was. So at lunchtime I decided to have a go at making it so. A colleague asked me what I was doing, so I explained. She then pointed to other places where the symmetry was out.

Anyway, this is my symmetrical,hopefully, take on the top left motif.

Mary Wigham top left motif recharted
The three stitches in red on the right hand side are on the original chart but the rest are not. I think it is possible to include them but it will mean shifting the motif done in DMC 972 down a few stitches. This does not appear to alter the positioning of the flower motif below.

Now my question is should I do this sampler as symmetrical as possible, correcting any mistakes, our do I just do it as charted? I am not trying to make a replica as I am doing it in different colours.

When I was much younger, probably not in my teens, we went on a family outing to a stately home here in England. They had on display a lot of samplers, not Quaker, more the ABC, abc, 123 type. We were told by the room steward that the girls were only allowed to make one mistake, deliberate or otherwise, on their sampler as only God was/is perfect.

If anyone out there wants to correct the mistakes then feel free to use my chart if you want to. Also feel free to spread the word but be warned I might have made a mistake too!

If you have any thoughts or would like to use the chart please let me know by posting a comment. If there is interest in the charts I will post other 'corrections' if I decide to do them.

11 comments:

Pauline said...

Interesting post, Jen. I haven't stitched that motif yet, but the one beneath I have, which has a small symetry(sp?) error. I stitched the error as it was stitched, but a big part of me wanted to balance it out!

I think it's a personal thing, either the mistakes will annoy you, or they won't, also depemnding on how obvious they are.

I'm stitching this for myself, so the inbalance doesn't worry me too much, but I know if I was stitching it as a gift, any blaringly obvious mistakes would.

I guess if I wasn't stitching this as a reproduction, errors and all, then I would probably adjust as I stitched.

Wonder what others think?

Yoyo said...

I am a bit wishy washy on this too. My grandma would not let us have errors either, 'take it out - do it over'. So I really dislike errors in stitched samplers. This is a case where errors are not going to annoy me though because they are not my errors -- is that bad or what? In this case though, it's a 'copy' of someone else's work, so I think I would copy what they did. Then...because it does have errors, I probably would not chose this as a gift piece.

Anita said...

It is more work to change the pattern and correct the errors as far as possible, but i know myself... i will always look at the errors when it is finished.
Your new pattern is almost good but you are still missing some stitches. If you like i can send you my pattern.
Greetings Anita from Stitch-Creations

Mel said...

This is an interesting dilemma for sure. I think either fixing or not fixing it's all good.
I do tend to make at least one mistake (if not more) in all my pieces, sometimes I fix them... sometimes I don't.
Maybe these kinds of things are what makes us all human. :)

Cindy F. said...

Jen, I knew that first motif was off, but kept stitching! I'm not strictly following the chart, but wish I'd seen your helpful chart BEFORE I stitched it:) I'm stitching over one and don't want to take it out!
Thanks for sharing:)

Maren said...

Good heavens, I didn't see the errors until you pointed them out. Knowing me, I'd try to do them correctly, because every time I looked at the sampler, I'd see the goofs. My own, definitely. But if you're doing it as a reproduction...I don't know. Depends on how glaring they are.

Grace said...

That is so interesting, I am currently stitching the Beatrix Potter Quaker Sampler and I am stitching the exact same motif, the 4th one along the top from the left hand corner on BP.( In fact I thought you were writing about BP not MW! The difference is that the BP motif is the other way up from the motif on Mary Wigham and it does not have the 3 extra stitches which are on the right hand side of Mary's motif and which you have sought to correct. I shall probably leave them off my MW so that it is the same as the BP motif.

Grace

grannyanne said...

This sampler is really causing some comment. I cannot understand why there are so many mistakes. Perhaps it is because the charts were not "correct" in the first place. When I was being taught to sew at school the teacher made us take out mistakes and do it again. I would have thought that this was probably the case for Mary Wigham as well. I am not sewing this myself because it is not to my taste. I prefer the linnear smpler. If I were to sew this I would make the corrections because I would not be sewing it as a replica. I think as other people if a replica the mistakes should be left in, if not a replica make corrections.

Cindy F. said...

Hey Jen....I just noticed on the second download on Needleprint's site, there is a page about errors:) Have you seen it yet?

Justflo said...

Decisions decisions. Must admit I wouldn't choose this particular sampler but My sewing teacher at school would not let any mistake pass, it had to be taken out and redone. I think it is your own personal choice how you do it. If you want it to be spot on- correct away. otherwise you'll always be looking at errors wishing you had changed them. I'm quite sure whatever you decide it'll look great.

lenna said...

They, who are they, anyway ~ used to say if you left a mistake in a stitching piece it was the place the devil could escape the needlework. If you leave more than one he will have a choice!
I just started this one and I am still on the first motif and I found the left hand three o's that were left out. I was just going to put them in. However. . . now I am not sure. What if I just don't see one? By the time it is done who's going to remember anyway?
These girls were so young and maybe they didn't see it or just didn't care. I always took my mistake out when I was young but have learned that it doesn't hurt the project I just compensate now. Is that bad?
One time on a large angel who was symmetrical I had put one side of her robe in for three days. Then I found I was off by one stitch. It took me 1 hour to take out the work of three days. I had to do it as she had beads in the center of her dress. Since then I count more carefully.
Love your finishes and your blog. I really like the colors of you MW. I must follow this blog!
God Bless ~
Lenna