Needlework Quotes and Sampler Verses, Part One

1. " ...Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew, especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts
than while so occupied."

-- Hawthorne's "Marble Faun" --

2. "We should have nothing in our houses,
which we did not either know to be useful
or believe to be beautiful."

~~ William Morris The Beauty of Life lecture, 1880 ~~

3. "The British needlewoman follows blindly where the merchant leads."

--Ann Macbeth 1920 --

4. "They must be careful, diligent and wise,
In Needleworkes that beare away the Prise."

-- William Barley, 1596 --

5. As a knot appears unexpectedly in a thread,
so disappointment blocks the smoothness of life.
If a few deft strokes can untangle the skein,
life continues evenly.
But if it cannot be corrected,
then it must be quietly woven into the design.
Thus, the finished piece can still be beautiful --
even though not as perfect as planned.

~~ ANONYMOUS ~~

6. Happy the maid whose artless mind
In works of innocence can find
Amusement and delight,
The landscape on this canvass lay
By which the blended colors may
Give charm and please the sight

-- Verse from an 1826 sampler --

7. By this Exemplar I am taught
how letters great and small are wrought.
So by the example of the wise
May I true virtue learn to prize.

-- (From an 1817 sampler) --

8. Oh heaven preserve us from a wife
with fancy work run wild.
With hands that never do aught else
for husband or for child.
Our clothes are rent,
our bills unpaid,
our house is in disorder,
and all because my lady wife
has taken to embroider.

~~ Author Unknown ~~

9. This sampler wrought with so much care
Adorned with colours so rich and fair
My little friend let it impart
A moral lesson to thy heart
With like industry may it thou gain
That peace which will my mind sustain
In every trying time of need
Then wilt thou be happy indeed.

(from an 1825 sampler)

10. Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with the golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams...

~~ WB YEATS ~~