Coming to America — The Women of the Mayflower

A long, narrow band-style sampler — modeled on 17th-century sampler shapes without trying to imitate them — designed by Brenda Gervais (With Thy Needle & Thread) to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower landing (1620–2020). The bands work top-to-bottom: the Mayflower itself with its sails up and a Union Jack flying, Cape Cod lettered down a band, a center panel with the date 1620 and the names of the eighteen married women who made the crossing — Mary Allerton, Dorothy Bradford, Mary Brewster, Katherine Carver, Sarah Eaton, J. Chilton, Mrs. Fuller, Mary Beth Hopkins, Mrs. W. Mullins, Alice Rigdale, Rose Standish, Ann Tilley, Mrs. T. Tinker, Joan Tilley, Susan/Susanna White, Elizabeth Winslow, and the rest — and a closing band with Plymouth and the line “we are living in the tomorrow for which they wrought · 2020.”

Brenda drew on Ethel J.R.C. Noyes’ 1917 book The Women of the Mayflower and Women of Plymouth Colony and reread it while stitching, so each name on the chart corresponds to a real woman whose story she’d just sat with. The original release came as a limited-edition kit with a stitching challenge timed to the 66 days at sea — kickoff September 6, 2020, intended end November 9, 2020.

Stitched on 40ct Vintage Country Mocha — the warm, tea-stained linen does most of the aged-document work for free. Threads are a mix: DMC, Weeks Dyeworks, The Gentle Art (Shaker), and Classic Colorworks, so the muted hand-dyed palette varies subtly stitch to stitch instead of sitting flat. Finished December 13, 2020.