I came across Fox and Rabbit Designs recently, and while they have a variety of cross-stitch designs to choose from, what most interested me when looking through their website is the patterns that are reproductions of sampler patterns first stitched hundreds of years ago.
For example, there’s the Botany Bay sampler, shown here, which was probably originally stitched by 10-year-old Margret Begbie in the late 1700s or early 1800s in Scotland. (Botany Bay was the original name for the Australian colony used in the UK.) It features ships, buildings and other symbols of the colony, and comes with an interesting backstory, too.
A woman named Margaret Begbie was sentenced to transportation to Tasmania in 1845, so it’s possible that’s the same woman who stitched about this far-off land and ultimately ended up going there herself.
There’s also Dorothy’s sampler, a Dutch design from 1792 covered with birds and flowers. The original stitcher is unknown. Or Elizabeth Cooper’s 1866 pattern that includes an alphabet and numbers, butterflies, birds, flowers, a greyhound dog, and a religious verse.
These projects are all so cool and it’s really interesting just to look at them, but it would also be fun to stitch them to allow their history and stories to continue. Check out all the reproduction samplers here.
Fox and Rabbit designs is an Australian company that produces cross-stitch charts and hand-painted linen. They have a Patreon where you can get more patterns, or you can buy individual patterns from their website. Many of them have the classic look of old samplers (they call them antique-inspired, which sounds a little nicer than old) but there are some with a more modern design as well.
If you want to learn more about them and see what’s on offer on Patreon, check out their Instagram page.
