Since everyone made so many nice comments about Danika's Birth Sampler I thought I'd share a few more I have stitched over the years.
Birth Samplers are probably my favourite thing to stitch. It's always a happy occasion and there is such a variety of choice and styles as this selection will illustrate!
This first design is actually a Christening sampler stitched for my friend's God-Daughter. I designed this myself using motifs, alphabets and borders for a variety of books. The first is a traditional Irish Blessing which we felt was appropriate because both families are farmers and it talks about fields!
This next one is for the same friend but for her own daughter. The design is from a Brenda Keyes book.
This one is for another friend who worked with me and the first friend. I stitched it for her daughter. Notice anything about the two dates of birth? They are the same! Two really good friends fall pregnant at the same time and give birth on the same day a few hours apart!
And a third friend, a month later! I stitched this one during the pregnancy and had it ready and waiting to add baby's name and date. The design came from a cross stitch magazine.
Then a little break and a sampler for my own son. Again I stitched this one during the pregnancy and added the name and date afterwards. This came from a Library book.
This is a little Emily Peacock design from Cross Stitcher magazine. My cousin is not really a sampler kind of person, but she is a tattoo sort of person so this was perfect. RJ are baby's initials, he's named after his Dad so they call him RJ to tell them apart.
Another one for a baby I don't know! A friend of a friend had a very premature baby as you can see from the weight and length. My friend was making her a basket of hand-made goodies and asked for a cross stitch. I charted the bear and other little characters from the Nursery theme they were using, Mothercare's Please Look After Me bear.
And for Noah - Noah's Ark. Most of this came from a cross stitch book but the picture for N was a Nautilus shell. what? So I charted a little Noah from this little Noah figure. Cute isn't he?
Busy year for babies, 2011. This is a Passione Ricamo freebie stitched for my niece's first baby. Stitched on 14 count raspberry aida.
And history repeats itself, the friend that I stitched Jacob's sampler for then had another baby herself. I knew she'd love this Nimue design as much as I did. This was a real labour of love, the backstitch was very difficult to follow and don't even ask about those lianas! But I did enjoy seeing this cute deign grow.
Onto 2012 - This one came from Cross Stitcher magazine too. I moved the letters around to add the baby's name and that of his Big Sister too. I'm really pleased with the way the wonky lowercase letters I added fit in with the rest of the alphabet.
My other cousin had a baby last year, here is the JBW design I chose for them. A simple red on flax evenweave stitched one over one.
And most recently, the lovely Danika's sampler:
Finally, you might have spotted that there isn't a sampler for the Small Boy! I was convinced he was going to be a girl so started stitching the Victorian Dolls' House for her. I intended to stitch a castle for him but somehow never got around to it! Bad Mummy. Maybe I'll wait until he's old enough to choose his own design.
