‘Remember me’

The Framework Knitters Museum is located in the cottages and workshops in Ruddington which were occupied by the Parker family from 1829 to 1929. In 2018, surviving family members made the generous donation of the Parker Family Bible to the museum. The Bible had been passed down through generations and contained the ‘Remember Me’ embroidered bookmark (above). It’s believed to have been made by Hannah Parker, (below) wife of John and mother to 12 children. She was born in Philadelphia and met John Parker while he was visiting America, possibly training knitters. After her arrival in 1872 Hannah spent the rest of her life in Ruddington, though apparently she never lost her American accent.

The museum invited C O M M O N T H R E A D S to recreate the ‘Remember Me ‘ bookmark as closely as possible so it could be used for handling and learning purposes. This was undertaken by one of our group, who felt honoured to stitch this very special homage to Hannah. The resulting embroidery is now on display in the Chapel Gallery Mezzanine.

Family Tree samplers project

Inspired by the bookmark, we were invited to create a ‘family tree’ for both the Parker and Waldrums families who were resident in the FKM cottages in 1890. The idea was to create handmade interpretation using the same sewing techniques as the 19th century artefacts on display, echoing the creative tradition of the workers and sitting sympatheticially in the recreated rooms. We devised a display of samplers stitched into embroidery hoops which became part of the interpretation for the newly re-furbished Framework Knitters Museum, which reopened in 2021.

Each sampler was sewn in counted cross stitch by individual C O M M O N T H R E A D S participants working at home during the pandemic. A selection of threads was posted out to the sewers, along with a pattern chart for each name based on a traditional cross stitch alphabet. The motif designs were charted by C O M M O N T H R E A D S, based on designs from the historical stockings in the museum’s collection. Each cross stitcher selected from these motifs to create their own decorative patterns. The fabric used for the Parker samplers is an even weave cotton, and aida 14 count for the Waldrums.

The Parker Family Tree samplers are on display in the main bedroom of the Parkers Cottage and the Waldrums Family Tree samplers are displayed in the Workers Cottage kitchen. The black velvet bows on samplers indicate children who were deceased by 1890, the year the room is recreated to represent. The names and dates are taken from the Parker family bible, part of the museum collection, seen below.