“The Sampler of My Life”: and the winners are...

Let's say it immediately: for our two great "jurors" - Afke Wullink Semplonius, the president of the Dutch Sampler Society, and Maria Concetta Ronchetti, incomparable Broderie Suisse designer and expert of ancient embroidery - it wasn't that easy, to decide... With all the works you sent us!


However, in the end, our two "sparkling needlework ladies" perfectly agreed about the awards and decided to give them to the stitchers, who clearly showed to have targeted the real essence of this contest: i.e. those who managed to communicate at best their life through their samplers, to tell us what gives their lives the deepest meaning No matter if this "essence of life" is one's own family, job or business, one's own hobbies and passions, living environment or friends or whatever... They all share something fundamental: they are the actual symbol of those values, which we often hear of as "gone lost" in out times... But that you have highlighted so well and clearly in all your samplers, with no exception! And our jurors and we want to thank you for this, too, from the bottom of our hearts



So, that's the main reason leading Afke and Maria Concetta to the sampler of the first winner: Alice Chiereghin, who portrayed all the features of the Delta of Italy's longest river, the Po, the area where she's always been living and that she's always loved so much, detail after detail - from its typical animals, to its plants, from the abandoned, large farmhouses peeping out from the traditional fog of this region, to the fishermen still working there - all designed and charted by her, who yesterday received - almost moved to tears and definitely thrilled - her deserved prize: a 300-euro voucher for her shopping on Casa Cenina!


The silver medal went to Roberta Casucci, who stitched a more "traditional" sampler, including two amazing alphabets and many little, classical characters, well representing both her life and that of the chart's designer: a coincidence that couldn't definitely be missed by our jury and that Roberta also turned into cross stitches, showing a wonderful taste for colors and on how to match them together! She was given a 200-euro voucher for her shopping in our website!


The emotion was as clear on the smiling, nice face of our third winner, Francesca Chiti, who's also the youngest one and - in a sampler as lively and minute as she is actually herself - proved herself able to concentrate all her personality and her life among needles, threads and various fabrics, as well as a whole lot of creativity! Francesca is a brilliant "craftgirl" and craft the most different things - from bags to earrings - passing from cross stitch to quilting: and these are the personal passions animating her life! No doubt about it: she'll already know very well how to spend her 100-euro voucher award!



A special prize went rightly to our friend Elisa Delfino, the stitcher winning the surprise prize dedicated to the most original piece of needlework! This is one of the brand new, useful and very "chic" bags from DMC And considering the amazingly original sampler sent by Elisa, a very funny combination of "mixed techniques" (from cross stitch, to silk ribbon and embroidery with tulle and silver floss!), there was definitely no alternative! She was inspired by Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland", which she adores, and just think that the little teeth of her stitched "Cheshire Cat" (can you remember the huge, smiling cat of the film?!?!?!??) have been made personally by her with the white compound used for her patients... For Elisa is a dentist!!! Of course, she molded them as little buttons and stitched them both on her samplers

We're going to talk again and more in detail of all the samplers and the reasons behind Afke and Maria Concetta's decision, but, in the meantime, we all want to thank the winners and anyone of you joining this contest, sending you our most heartfelt and sincere congratulations and hug: you are part of that "essence of life" of the all of us, here at Casa Cenina!

Hear from us soon and cheers!