Elizabeth in Repose by Betsy Morgan

Several years ago, an entrepreneur who was building a social enterprise to raise funds for charity, wrote a book. In the book Daniel Flynn shares his inspiring story and challenges readers to think differently.

To help put his think differently mantra into action, the book was published with a twist – it was printed sideways. You can read more about his book and story HERE, but the purpose of telling you about this today, is that our very own Betsy Morgan is also bringing you a sideways twist.

The latest release in our ever growing Handpicked range is Elizabeth in Repose by Betsy Morgan.

Everyone loves a good sampler as it’s a fabulous way to try out new stitches and techniques in a structured format that, at the end of all the experimenting, still leaves you with a beautiful, finished piece.

After decades of perfecting her stitching, Betsy has an impressive repertoire of motifs, design flourishes, tricky stitch combos and analogous colour selections at her disposal.

We could start our fan club email to Betsy by thanking her for the fabulous bands of stitching she has assembled, which include luscious strawberries, acorns and oak leaves, various flowers and charming figures interspersed between rows of colourful Bargello, a twirling blue ribbon and whitework.

Then at some point we’re going to have to ask her about the twist. The sideways twist! Where did she get the idea to create a sideways sampler instead of a vertical one?

By simply turning the traditional band sampler layout 90 degrees, suddenly our whole sampler world has a new axis to work from.  

All the elements are partitioned into separate columns or silos and create this wonderful landscape view, which when you think about it, is a very pleasing way for the eye to take in all the information.

The sampler is anchored at the beginning with a spectacular floral motif featuring a rose, yellow heartsease and acorns. At the other end we have a striking twirling ribbon stitched in slate blue, vintage teal and blue denim. 

Worked entirely with a very efficient palette of just 10 different hand-dyed Gloriana silk threads, this superb collection of delightful motifs is stitched onto cream linen using some of Betsy’s favourite stitches.

With a finished design measuring 10.5cm x 39.5cm wide (4 ⅛” x 15 ½”) this piece is still the same size you would expect a sampler to be, only with a fabulous sideways twist!

Love your work, Betsy…

PS – Just a reminder for those interested in purchasing the Ready-to-Stitch kit for this project, as it’s part of our Handpicked range it includes the printed instructions. 

All the materials you need to re-create this project have been sourced for you in our Ready-to-Stitch kit. As this project is part of our Handpicked range, the kit includes the printed instructions.