The Old Man and the Bea

  Sarah Stewart - 1730 I met Mickey Oman at a "daytreat" sponsored by Hodgepodge, my LNS, in Strasburg PA. She casually approached me with a gorgeous project roll she had made, and inquired whether The Old Man and the Bea would be interested in charting an antique sampler that she had been gifted by her father nearly thirty years ago. Unrolling the project roll, she removed the sampler, which was narrowly hemmed around the four sides, and handed it to me. Stunning.  It was stitched on a tiny count fabric, which we later determined was 52 count, with a single strand of silk. I scanned the long piece for a name, and quickly located "Sarah Stewart." At nine years old, Sarah had some serious focus and really good eyesight to stitch such tiny stitches with such perfection! Mickey explained that her father had found the sampler on a vendor table at a gun show in the south - Kentucky or Tennessee, she thought - back in the 90s, and thought she might appreciate a gift. She