Antique Needlework Sampler on Linen with Triple Alphabet, House, Flowers carved shoe with laces One finds a fair number

One finds a fair number of handmade doggy doorstops from the 1940s and 50s (I wonder if they were something people made in shop class

it bears a strong resemblance to the work of Kristian Vedel

justifiably so

and the Old Maid herself

I believe these date from the 1960s and were made in Czechoslovakia

Antique Needlework Sampler on Linen with Triple Alphabet, House, Flowers carved shoe with laces One finds a fair numberI'd guess the young woman who created this sampler did not expect it would be around 200 or so years later, so may not have thought much about using very light color threads that would more or less disappear as it aged. The linen backing and needlework itself has held up extremely well and appears almost completely intact, but the linen has darkened and the needlework faded, so it lives now as a very sweet but quite subtle piece, which I love but