Old Nantucket

Another April finish!  This sampler is from Little House Needleworks, entitled 'Old Nantucket'.  It tells a story of the whaling industry in Nantucket and the women who waited for their men to return.  Stitched on Fabric Flair's Old Library Marble 32-count Evenweave, stitched 1 over 2 and 1 over 1 using a variety of overdyed threads.

I especially love to stitch ships and ladies.  I changed the color of this lady's dress to a daring red and used a different overdyed thread color for the house to give it the weathered look since it sits so close to the sea.  It was a hard life for everyone in the whaling industry on Nantucket Island, as the whalers had to sail further and further from home to find the dwindling supply of whales and to locate the sperm whale, which had a finer whale oil.  Voyages to find the whales could be 2 to 3 years long and the brutality of the profession resulted in about 25% of woman over 23 losing their husbands to the sea.