St. Gallen

The unusual "scattered flowers darning sampler" is one of 299 samplers held by the St. Gallen Textile Museum which was displayed in the exhibition "Pattern and Sign" in 1996 and also shown in the accompanying catalogue (inventory number: TM20198).

It has no name, no date and no place and it could not be dated clearly or geographically allocated by experts - because there was no similar piece!

It contains various beautiful geometric patterns running in one direction only. The seven floral patterns in the central row are specific for this darning or weaving sampler.

I needed almost a year to count the tiny stitches with a magnifying glass and using enlarged detail photos. I even managed to look at the back of the photo in order to improve counting.

Now I am happy that I can finally present it to you.

The St. Gallen Textile Museum has nearly 30 000 objects in its impressive collection that has been built up through donation and targeted purchasing over more than 130 years.

Bhooma Aravamudan stitched it on 32 ct linen with HDF silks.

Crosses: 340 x 171
Size: 48 x 24 cm
Stitches: running stitch