Rebecca Ballinger's Sampler

Two block upper-case alphabets, no "J," alternate colors. One block lower-case alphabet of alternate colors. Numbers 1 through 9. One crown. Satin-stitched sawtooth crossband; one crossband worked in Irish stitch, also basket and two large diamonds in lower half. Two weeping willow trees, each with bird in its top, and three boxes, one containing verse and two containing maker's name and date and group of initials. Box on right side contains initials "WB," "CB," "JS," and "ES." Box on left side contains initials "WB," "LB," "WP," "EP," "NU," "CU," "WB," "EB," 'SB," "MB," "LP," and "LU" as well as "Rebecca Ballinger 1830." Strawberry border. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, Algerian eye, satin, rice, Irish, queen, crosslet, long-armed cross, gobelin. THREAD COUNT: warp 24, weft 34/in.

"In thy fair book of life divine
My, god, incribe [sic] my name
There, let it fill some humble place
Beneath the slaughter'd Lamb"

Rebecca was born on March 22, 1814, to William and Lydia Smith Ballinger in Pipe Creek, Maryland. The family moved to Ohio in 1819, and Rebecca stitched her sampler under the tutelage of Ann Thorn in Jefferson County. The initials on her sampler are of her grandparents, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, and two nieces who died in infancy. The initials in black are family members who had died by the time she stitched her sampler. Rebecca married Thomas H. Terrell as his second wife on April 22, 1863.