Rowyn's Comments on the Original Sampler:  "This is a 192-year-old sampler.  Unfortunately, nothing is yet known about Margaret Jagger (such as her age or location) but it is still a pretty sampler.  The colours were what attracted me to this piece (even though they are very faded and differ markedly from the unfaded colours on the back).  Due to the age of the sampler there are some areas where stitches are missing.  The fabric is also very thin in places.  The likely causes for this sort of damage are sunlight, damp and heat.  I don't think it distracts from the piece though, you have to study it reasonably closely to notice.  One thing I did learn about Margaret Jagger herself when charting the sampler out was that Margaret wasn't the perfect stitcher.  She made mistakes and worked around the problem, rather than reverse stitching.  I also suspect she stitched in poor light, sometimes only stitching a full cross over one thread of linen rather than two."