I Think We Need a Bigger Sampler

To celebrate my 400th Follower I showed a picture of my Millennium Sampler personalised with people I felt needed to be remembered for their contribution to life in the previous Millennium.  I decided to ask everyone who they would have included on their own version.  I was bowled over from the choices!  No-one had the top answer - me, but I guess my contribution to global happiness (ie this blog) only started in the 21st Century so was not eligible hahaha.

As promised, here is the full list of nominees plus links for those of you who'd like to learn more about them. There are certainly a few I had not heard of.  The English education system is quite neglectful of famous American civil rights activists.  Frankly we're not taught much beyond "You broke away from us and went downhill from there".

King Richard III - much maligned and misunderstood King of England
Diana, Princess of Wales - First wife of Prince Charles, keen charity promoter, Memorial Fund - now closed
Queen Alexandra - married to Edward VII, keen charity promoter, Alexandra Rose Day

Queen Elizabeth I - The Virgin Queen, reigned for 45 years, brought peace to England
Queen Elizabeth II - our current Queen, has reigned for over 60 years.

Harriet Tubman - African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War
Rosa Parks - African-American civil rights activist

Martin Luther King Jr - African-American civil rights activist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - American social activist, abolitionist, and women's rights movement

Caroline Chisholm - helped young women in colonial times with housing and jobs, thus saving them from destitution

Helen Keller -  American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree 

Sir Keith Park -  New Zealand soldier, First World War flying ace and Second World War Royal Air Force commander. 
Nancy Wake - "The Grey Mouse" - an New Zealand woman who bravely worked with the French resistance during WWII
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Lutheran theologian who died fighting the Nazi regime

Albert Einstein - German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity
Ada Lovelace - English mathematician - see her day - Ada Lovelace Day

Nikola Tesla - Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - English Aristocrat and campaigner for inoculation against smallpox
Lord Ernest Rutherford - Zealand-born physicist and chemist, known as the father of nuclear physics
Isaac Newton - English physicist and mathematician 
Jane Goodall - British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace
Alexander Graham Bell - Scottish scientist, inventor, engineer, credited with inventing the first practical telephone
John Logie Baird - Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system

Florence Nightingale - English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Fred Hollows - eye doctor who volunteered in 3rd world countries to save people's eyesight
Victor Chang  - pioneer heart surgeon who was tragically murdered in 1991

Frederick Banting - a Canadian medical scientist, doctor, painter and Nobel laureate noted as the primary discoverer of insulin

JRR Tolkien -  English writer and poet, best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Barbara Walters - American broadcaster and journalist

Deanna Durbin - Canadian Singer and Actor
Margot Fonteyn - English Ballerina
Charles Dickens - Victorian English writer and social critic
Elvis Presley - American Singer and Actor
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa-  New Zealand/Māori soprano, her charitible foundation

Leonardo da Vinci -  Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. (etc etc etc)

Maria Callas - American-born Greek soprano

The Beatles - English rock band formed in Liverpool, in 1960
Edith Hamilton - German-American educator and author 
Leo Tolstoy - Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories.
Frédéric Chopin - Polish composer and virtuoso pianist
Jane Austen - English Novelist 
Coco Chanel - French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand
Paulo Coelho - Brazilian lyricist and novelist
Mark Rothko - American painter of Latvian Jewish descent.

Captain Cook - British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy
Sir Edmund Hillary - New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist
Neil Armstrong - American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon.

George Washington -  First President of the United States
Thomas Jefferson - Third President of the United States
Dame Enid Lyons - the first Australian woman to sit in Parliament
John and Elizabeth Macarthur - early squatters who began the merino wool industry in Australia which helped create the nation's wealth in the 19th century
Betsy Ross - creator of the first American flag

Gary Hall, Jr.- swimmer and diabetic
Kris Freeman - cross-country skier and diabetic, see this story

Martin Luther - 16th Century German monk
Dalai Lama - the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the 14th Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso
Mother Teresa - Roman Catholic Nun and Nobel Peace Prize winner

And finally, two men who would not have made the short list at the turn of the century, most of us would not have heard of them back then, but without them it is highly unlikely you would be reading this today.  Shows how much the world can change in a decade: 

Steve Jobs -  American entrepreneur and inventor, best known as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc
Tim Berners-Lee - British computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web.


Phew!!  I don't know about you but I'm exhausted and I did that list in two shifts!


So Finally, the part you've been waiting for; the winner of the 400 Followers Giveaway.  Drum Roll.

The winner is - 

Sir Frederick Banting

Sir Frederick Grant Banting, KBE, MC, FRS, FRSC was a Canadian medical scientist, doctor, painter and Nobel laureate noted as the primary discoverer of insulin. In 1923 Banting and John James Rickard Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Unfortunately Sir Frederick could not be with us this evening so I'd like to ask Shebafudge to step forward and receive the prize on his behalf.  Sharon had a personal reason for choosing Sir Frederick, without his discovery of insulin her daughter would not be with us today.  Congratulations to Sharon, a little something will be in the mail to you some time this year!

Finally, finally, a huge Thank You to everyone who left a comment and nominated a person/persons for inclusion on our sampler.  I had a great time finding out all about the different people and I hope you did too.  Next week, there will be a short exam on what you have learned this week.

400 Followers Giveaway

I recently acquired my 400th follower!  Wow, considering I've been blogging for just over 2 years, that's 4 people a week joining the blog!

Here's a picture to illustrate how I feel about the love and friendship we share online:

This is the latest instalment in the Thread Pickerz SAL on FB.

Stitched in De Havilland rainbow thread on 32count evenweave

I will be having a small giveaway to celebrate my lovely followers.  There will be something stitched, some cotton fabric (I have found a great shop that sells lovely fabric for backing ornies and want to share), maybe a cover kit or chart booklet from a magazine, some threads, buttons, ribbons, that sort of thing.

I've been trying to think of a good way to do the Giveaway, I do like to make you work for your prizes and it makes for fun reading too.  Then this morning I finally finished updating my Happy Dance Blog.  This has been a massive WIP in itself as I've been stitching for 20 years now.  I have added photos of every single piece I have and an entry for those I don't have photos of.  I have put exact dates where known and estimated when unsure.

One thing is clear - babies hamper your stitching!  Pre-baby I was averaging double figure finishes per year despite working 6 days a week.  For 2009 (Small Boy's birth year) I managed 2.  Since the discovery of the internet output has quadrupled!! Although to be fair, most of it is cards and small projects, freebie challenges and the like.

One of the entries I most enjoyed putting together was the Millennium Sampler.  Produced as a kit to celebrate the Year 2000 my Mum and I redesigned it between us.  I stitched a tree in the centre featuring my parents' and grandparents' surnames and mine (as it was at the time).  The outer squares I stitched as charted but around the middle there were several names of famous people who have made a great contribution to life in the last Millennium.  So why were there so few women?  Is that why it is known as His-story not Her-story or Our-story?  So Mum and I put our own list together.  We tried for a local flavour where possible, hence the inclusion of Constable and Cavell, a mixture of male and female, people from all walks of life (art, science, exploration, politics etc).  I also wanted the four House names from my Primary School to be included (Hillary, Drake, Scott and Columbus) and we wanted people that helped the poor as well as the rich.

Here's our final list with links to relevant websites -

Constable (John) - artist born in Suffolk and best known for his painting of the area
Cavell (Edith) - nurse born in Norfolk, executed during WWI for saving many lives, both Allied and German.
Hillary (Sir Edmund) - mountaineer/explorer, first person to reach the summit of Mt Everest, my "House" at Primary School
Earhart (Amelia) - aviation pioneer, first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
Elgar (Edward) - composer, best known for Pomp and Circumstance
Sharman (Helen) - first Briton in Space (Interview here)
Drake (Francis) - English sea captain in the time of Elizabeth I, one of the "Houses" at my Primary School
Fry (Elizabeth) - Quaker and prison reformer
Dickens (Charles) - Victorian author and social critic
Curie (Marie) - physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize Winner, see also the Cancer Care Charity named for her.
Chanel (Gabrielle "Coco") - fashion designer
Pankhurst (Emmeline) - leader of the Suffragette movement which won the right for women to vote
Jenner (Edward) - physician and pioneer of vaccination
Bronte (Anne, Emily and Charlotte) - 19th century authors
Scott (Captain Robert) - Royal Navy officer and explorer, known as Scott of the Antarctic, one of the "Houses" at my Primary School.

The fourth "House" at Primary School was Columbus (Christopher) and he was already featured in the main squares so I didn't add him to the middle design.

So, back to the Giveaway, the question is - 

who would you have included on your Millennium Sampler?

You only need give one name.  I don't expect a long list like mine!  I am really quite excited about reading your answers.  I know my followers come from all over the world so I'm expecting some names that are new to me, as maybe some of mine were to you.

Rules - you must be a follower and must leave a comment with your choice of name(s) by Wednesday 29th May, 2013

Finally, the more eagle-eyed of you may spot gaps in the more recent blog entries on the Happy Dance blog, that's because I don't show pieces that are gifts or prizes until the recipient had seen them first.