Please let me introduce Sarah Leigh as you might imagine from her name finding the actual stitcher is very daunting so much so I am not comfortable narrowing the selection down to a few stitchers. Sarah finished her sampler in 1847 and with no clues as to who the real Sarah Leigh is. I am pretty confident the sampler is from England given her name and the appearance of the church she centered her sampler around. The only real clue I had was the church she depicted in her sampler - foolish me I thought how hard can that be? I believe only after I realized there were over approximately 10k Sarah Leigh's born between 1830 and 1837 (the years I targeted for my search) I believe there were double the number of churches in existence during the same time frame. At this point after searching for well over a year now I believe I have seen photos of all the churches in England - they are all quite lovely by the way.
What drew me to this sampler is first of all it is very different than most young lady samplers we normally find. Sarah choose to center her sampler on what is more than likely the church she attended. She added beautiful baskets and colorful flowers using spring time colors. Once I read the verse all I could think of was Easter and what a sweet reminder it is for me personally of my faith, which is very important to me.
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| Sarah Leigh - 1847 "Sought me wandering" Model Stitched by - LaDonna Snellbaker Model Framed by - Total Framing, Fairfax, VA Linen - Lakeside Linen - Meadow Rue (32 ct) Silk Threads - Gloriana |
The Verse Reads:
"The Saviour sought me wand'ring far
From happiness and God;
And to redeem my guilty soul,
He shed his precious blood.
I, in return, surrender all,
And never more would part
From Him who wiped my falling tears,
And heal'd my broken heart."
