Hungarian Sampler

Recently, I came across a historical Hungarian Sampler in a blog http://hunsamplersal.blogspot.com/ . The charts for parts of the sampler were being released once a month, and there were some different color variations that you could choose from, either two colors, three colors or four colors. The blog owner is from Solymar in Hungary, a town that I visited last summer. During further correspondce with Eva, we discovered that her son attends the school that I visited, and that one of the instructors of the workshop I attended was one of her son's teachers. What a small world!

As a remembrance of my trips to Hungary, and because of all the times my grandparents spoke Hungarian so that we wouldn't know what they were talking about, I decided that I needed to stitch this sampler. Although the sample was shown in red and black, I found that reminded me too much of Romanian needlework, so after long consideration and discussions with other stitchers, some that are actually Hungarian, I decided on the blue and red combination, which is thought to be a more traditional rural Hungarian combination.

Here is part 1 all stitched up. (No, the Z is not in the wrong place, it is part of the letter S in Hungarian) I am stitching this on 32 count Antique White Lugana with Vikki Clayton Premium silks in Dragon Blook and Zeffre Cobalt, one strand over 2 threads.

This is what the sampler will look like when it is finished. All of the motifs used are traditional Hungarian symbols, and it is rather fun learning about them as I stitch.