"I Write the Needle's Prayse"

I spent a few weeks recently on a bit of a quest, having fallen utterly, completely in love with this sampler.  It is by Darlene O'Steen of "The Needle's Prayse, both of which names, still being a neophyte in the world of reproduction samplers, were new to me, and it is called "Virtue Outshines the Stars".  Everything about it appeals to me, the softly-aged colors, the 17th-century florals, the meticulous symmetry, the verse -- wonderful, all of it.  But, alas, look at the date -- 1984 -- there are no copies of the chart to be had.  In my wanderings, though, I discovered more of O'Steen's work, and more about her. 

The name of her design company is from a line in a 17th-century sonnet by John Taylor, "I write the needle's prayse (that never fades)".  A needleworker from early on, she was fascinated especially by samplers, and found that in early examples quite a variety of stitches were used whereas by the mid-1800s or so many of them had fallen out of fashion, leaving mostly just the basic cross stitch.  She began to study early samplers, from the 17th and 18th centuries, the intricacies of queen stitch, Smyrna cross, herringbone, rice stitch, and others that have not been forgotten but became less and less common in samplers.  Naturally, she began to design new samplers, teaching samplers that incorporated these old stitches and motifs, and to give classes on them.  I remember reading somewhere, though I can't now remember where, that she stitched all of her pieces in hand, without a frame or hoop, which she said compresses the stitches -- I confess I have a grudging admiration for people who can do that and still keep the tension in their stitches even, as it isn't easy! 

I found after not very long in my searches that O'Steen had had a bout of cancer and found it necessary a few years ago to retire from teaching and designing, and that now only a few of her more-recent charts are still easily available.  Em-Li's still has a number of charts listed, and for half-price, and so I sent off a note (this was before things went south furlough-wise, and there was a generous wodge of cash tucked into a birthday card from my in-laws).  Luckily for me, the one called on the website "Lady Brittany's Sampler," which is my next-favorite after "Virtue" --

was originally published five years earlier as simply "Floral Sampler by Darlene O'Steen," in the February 1996 issue of "Just Cross Stitch" magazine, as Em-Li's was unresponsive despite multiple attempts.  I did manage to find a copy on Ebay, along with this unexpected tiny charmer --

The fact that it was signed by the designer was a bonus, but a very pleasing one, as the chart is charming.  I was also very taken with the mounting, that it seems to float on the mat underneath -- I later noticed that this is a favorite method of O'Steen's.

I also found a copy of the "Pomegranate Sampler" in the May/June 1996 issue of "Just Cross Stitch" -- it wasn't on my list, but rather quickly found its way up there close to "Lady Brittany" (!).

This one is also intriguing, the "Strawberry Sampler," which might be on my list someday.  You can see a definite family resemblance to the "Froth and Bubble" I finished last spring, except that the "Strawberry" is all backstitch, of all things.

I can't say that I love unreservedly every design of hers -- whitework, for one, does not move me much, to my loss or my discredit perhaps, but there it is.  I should love this one --

-- but through no fault of O'Steen's, for some reason I find the little manikins (now called "boxers" for want of a more period description) almost universally irritating, perhaps for their frequently simpering smiles.  The Escher-like self-shaking hands are curiously Victorian to my admittedly-inexperienced eye -- though I have to say that the bottom half of this sampler is quite perfect!  Well, it is probably a good thing that I am somewhat rigorous in my selections, as I can already see how very easy it would be to end up with more charts than I could stitch in a lifetime, a situation that others who have been doing counted stitch longer than I have are already familiar with, judging by the number of bloggers I've seen who are either selling off large portions of their stash or posting numerous photos of their shelves before and after re-organization!

O'Steen collected her years of study into a book called, with intrepid simplicity, The Proper Stitch.  It has no motif charts, no alphabets, but instead meticulous stroke-by-stroke diagrams, not unlike a calligraphy book in fact, of how to make dozens of counted-thread stitches, divided by chapters into "families" according to their basic structure -- cross stitches, straight, satin, buttonhole, and looped, with another chapter on drawn-thread techniques.  The first edition also contained a complete learning-sampler chart, while the expanded edition has no less than three.

She is quite persistent -- some might say fixated -- on reversibility, on making a particular stitch a certain way so that it is "reversible," if not looking exactly the same on both front and back then at least looking presentable (my word for it) on each side, perhaps in the way that in knitting, stockinette stitch can be used with the knit side or the purl side as the "right" one.  I might be a bit put off by her stringent perfectionism if she didn't sound such a generous person on the whole -- and I admit that I certainly have noticed in my own needlework, both petit point and cross-stitch, that the direction the thread comes in from on the back can actually make a difference in the way the stitch looks from the front.

I discovered, working petit point carpets, that despite any number of expert stitchers saying that half-cross is the way you should work them in cotton floss, mine usually came out better-looking somehow when I worked them in continental (the recommended method for stitching petit point in wool).  Why?  I don't know about the physics of it, but there is something in the way I hold the needle, I guess, that just makes continental look better for me.  If you look at these diagrams, you can see that the thread travels differently on the back as you go from one hole to the next, and so it comes to the front from a 45° angle in half-cross, but at almost half that in continental.  This makes the stitch sit differently on the threads of the fabric -- you can see how they "hug" the crossing a little more snugly in continental than they do in half-cross. The effect is even more obvious in a cross-stitch sampler, where the crosses often have empty threads next to them, with no other stitches to support them, as it were, the way they do in needlepoint.  I suppose the effect is amplified in cross-stitch yet again by the fact that you make essentially two stitches, one on top of the other, first one stroke of the X and then the other, and so the opportunity for the thread to go at a different angle is doubled -- the first stroke could come out at upper left and go back in at lower right, or out at lower right and in at upper left, depending on which direction you're going, and the second stroke opposite to either of those! and it could all make your head hurt after not very long and take all the fun out of things.  But the key I think is consistency, in making your stitches the same way as often as possible, whether you work them the "right" way or another way.  I haven't yet had the opportunity to work anything from O'Steen's book, but while I'm giving myself permission to ignore some of her strictures (waste knots, for one -- I've just never done it that way and don't see the need to start now), I certainly appreciate the depth of her study and knowledge, and am interested and eager to learn something old that is new-to-me!

(If you are tempted to buy a copy of O'Steen's book, and I suspect already that it's worth it for those interested in historical needlework stitches, I will tell you now do not pay such reprehensibly exorbitant prices as sellers on Ebay and Etsy have listed theirs, as you can find the revised and expanded edition, as of this writing at any rate, at Annie's for a mere $20.)

Just as a side note, in case anyone is interested in which three full-sampler charts are included in the book -- I hadn't seen this information anywhere before getting my own copy -- they are the "Proper Stitch Sampler" (presumably the chart from the first ed.), the "Tudor Rose Sampler," and the "Pinkes Sampler" (as in the flower, a favorite of the Elizabethans).

It was not unexpected, given the news of her illness and retirement, but still a sad confirmation to find an obituary for Darlene O'Steen, who died just a few weeks ago on October 22.  May we remember her by her works.

Comments

[dawninNL]

I never did needlework except for a tray cloth in secondary school. However, I enjoyed your essay very much and also the pictures. It was a rather nice obituary for Darleen, even if it was not meant to be one.

[Jeanne]

PS, apparently Vickie Jennett of Needlework Press purchased the rights to Darlene O'Steen's designs ca.2012 with an eye towards republishing them --

https://www.facebook.com/needleinahaystackshop/posts/if-youre-a-darlene-osteen-fan-dont-despair-for-her-designs-now-that-shes-retired/10150794273526674/

-- but unfortunately I can't find much of anything about Jennett or Needlework Press online, certainly not a website, and nothing after 2019.

[Ann McGuchan]

I have a copy of ‘Virtue outshines the Stars’ available. Let me know.