Dropcloth Embroidery Samplers: Inspired by History

For this week’s Off The Spool Interview we chatted with Rebecca Ringquist from Dropcloth Embroidery Samplers about her love of hand embroidery! She creates stunning, antique inspired embroidery samplers that allow newbies to learn new stitches and expand their horizons in the world of hand embroidery. Learn more about where she gets her inspiration for sampler designs, & what threads she likes to use to embellish them. HINT, it’s a stunning 8wt Perlé cotton!

Falling in love with embroidery

Rebecca’s journey into the world of hand embroidery was somewhat unique! She discovered a love for the craft while taking a feminist history class where she read the book The Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker. This book explores the history of embroidery, and how it was used to enhance classic feminine virtues. “I wanted to flip it on its head, using embroidery to tell more feminist stories”. From there, Rebecca began studying textile art and dove straight into the world of hand embroidery! Eventually she started to get invitations to teach, both at the school she attended and at craft sales or conventions. Her embroidery art at the time was intricate and aimed to pull forward those feminist stories she wanted to tell! But, after attending some craft sales, Rebecca realized her embroidery art was a bit too large scale and pricy to sell at such events. So, she began to brainstorm other embroidery related products she could bring to the craft shows. This is when she had the idea to create screen printed hand embroidery samplers. Similar to the ones she still makes today. She created the first batch of designs setting out for the next market. Her samplers were a hit, blowing up online after they were featured in popular blogs. Dropcloth Embroidery Samplers was born, starting out on Etsy but quickly growing to serve a wider audience. These simple yet stunning designs are perfect for beginners or experts who are looking to practice classic hand embroidery stitches in a fun, interesting way.

Dropcloth Embroidery Samplers

Rebecca had never intended for hand embroidery to become her whole career. But is beyond happy to be spending her days designing, teaching, and stitching. All her designs are hand drawn, starting out in her trusty sketchbook. This is where her inspirations culminate into designs that can be used for samplers! She loves looking at vintage books, children’s books or nature identification books to get inspired. Many of her samplers have a vintage feel stemming from a love of thrifting, vintage stores, and antique items.

She loves to incorporate her own love of embroidery into the samplers she creates as well. For Rebecca hand embroidery is a meditative experience. “As someone who has anxiety, it’s really helpful for my anxiety and makes me really calm”. Utilizing more simple stitches makes for a less stressful, and more enjoyable process when stitching her samplers. Allowing you to relax as you stitch and feel that same sense of calm.

Once she has a hand drawn design, made up of simple but effective stitches, she gets started on stitching out the sampler. When hand embroidering Rebecca prefers to use Perlé cotton over hand embroidery floss. Typically using Eleganza™, our 8wt Perlé cotton thread. Usually, embroidery floss comes in 6 strands, which are hard to separate but not thin enough to use as is! Perlé cotton is a great weight on its own and requires no separating or adjustments before stitching. The most important thing to Rebecca when choosing threads for her embroidery project is colour. “My business is very colour forward, I love the variegated threads since they change as you stitch, WonderFil®’s selection of variegated colours are more interesting and complex”. Choosing bright, variegated colours adds to her sampler designs, making them even more fun to look at. For stitches she enjoys working with simple classics like back stitches or chain stitches. Anything similar to a brush stroke or pencil line, so she can bring her hand drawn designs to life. Her samplers are a testament to how you can make beautiful designs with just a few easy hand embroidery stitches!

Rebecca’s Tips

Rebecca said that her number one tip for new embroiderers is to not take it too seriously. “I got interested in embroidery through learning its history, which is so uptight. But there is room for everyone”. She highlighted that you don’t have to be a type A perfectly organized person to embroider, messy is okay. Many people think every project must be perfect, front and back. But you don’t have to be creating perfect orderly projects to enjoy embroidery and use it to relax or unwind. This is why Dropcloth Samplers are such a great place for new embroiderers to start. They allow you to learn and grow while letting your creativity flow, and none of us will look at the back.

Where to find Dropcloth Samplers

There are so many ways to connect with Rebecca and Dropcloth Embroidery Samplers online! Be sure to visit their Instagram where they post new designs and stitched out samplers for inspiration. Or sign up for the Dropcloth Sampler Newsletter to stay up to date! If you would like to take classes from Rebecca on hand embroidery, she has a variety available on Creative Bug. Many of which go along with sampler designs that are available on her website. She also has a brand-new class releasing on July 1st where you can take part in a 30-day drawing workshop. Get more insight into how she hand draws her designs, and learn how to draw beautiful works of your own.

Shop the threads

Eleganza™

8wt Perlé cotton thread, solid and variegated

Eleganza™ Packs

8wt Perlé cotton thread, solid and variegated