Sara Velasquez, co-owner of the Sweet Shalom Tea Room, has been working on a needlework sampler in her words “for over 40 years” and finally finished it this past year.

Sara came to my Themed Teas while I was doing them. Like David and I making the trip to Ohio to enjoy tea at their tea room, Sara would make the trip here to enjoy tea with us.

It was while Sara attended my Themed Teas that she saw my love of samplers…that I too stitched, also collected antique samplers…and had done my own conservation mounting and framing of all my stitched and antique samplers.

When Sara finished stitching her sampler, she asked if I would prepare it for framing. I said yes and she then entrusted her beautiful sampler to me.

The process of preparation for conservation mounting involves using conservation materials and techniques which I have been trained to use through my graduate program at MSU, and museum studies at Winterthur Decorative Arts Museum and Colonial Williamsburg.

Since Sara had been handling her sampler for so many years, we both agreed washing it should be attempted. I felt confident it would wash well by hand using a mild soap (not detergent). I tested some of the colored threads to see if they might run once exposed to water but I did not find any problem with running dyes.

There were stains to deal with but I decided just to let the gentle washing be enough. The stains faded some with washing, didn’t entirely disappear but were improved.

After carefully rolling the washed sampler in a towel to bring out the excess moisture, I laid it flat to dry. Then with a towel padded ironing board, steam iron and pressing cloth, I gently pressed the sampler flat with it face down in the towel so the embroidery surface would not be smashed from the iron.

Next step was to stitch pre-washed muslin fabric strips along the long sides of the sampler. These would be used to stretch the sampler around the acid-free form core backing board. As I stretched the muslin around the board, I pinned the edges to the board to hold. When all was straight and aligned, I folded under the muslin edges in back and finished securing with tiny hand stitches. This method of conservation mounting allows for the even tension of stretching the sampler around the backing board and the whole process is reversible.

I took a picture of the sampler while it was still in a pinned mode and emailed it to Sara to make sure she was happy with the position of the sampler on its backing board. She was so all was good-to-go to finish. Sara will find her own framer to add the frame and glass of her choice.

I finished her sampler in time for our Sweet Shalom visit in May.

Sara’s beautiful sampler is one of the most impressive works of stitching I have seen and I am sure will be a cherished heirloom in her family for a long time to come.

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