A different arrangement for a sampler! The first of the wheel-and-spoke samplers. It's a good format for showcasing the diversity of plant life-- and oh, was there a lot to choose from for this one!
The concept was that the inner circle was a seedling, the beginning of life for a plant; the next ring showcased both the basic parts of plants (roots, seeds, flowers, etc) and a bit of their diversity; and the outermost ring celebrated just how many different forms plants can take.
Plants Featured:
Outer ring (clockwise from top): Venus flytraps, blackberries, shelf mushrooms (Polyporus Squamosus, which grows on my favorite trail), barrel cactus, lilypads, hydrangeas, ferns, a tree (species unspecified), an orchid, moss, aloes, a pitcher plant, seaweed, and milkweed.
Inner ring (clockwise from the bee): a daisy, dandelion, some roots, cucumber, wood grain, pine needles and cone, and some leaves (unspecified).
Center: a bean sprout, often the first plant a child gets to grow.
The Plant Sampler has the (dubious?) honor of being the only sampler not to be hand-stitched by me. Instead, I made it on my home embroidery machine; it would work one section (about an eighth of the pattern) at a time, doing each color in turn, with me changing the thread out and trimming the ends as prompted. After each section was stitched, I'd take the sampler out of the machine's hoop, painstakingly realign it for the next section, and start the next color. It was an interesting experiment-- and, I think, a successful one!-- but I found once it was done that I greatly preferred both the look and the process of stitching by hand.
Still, I think the sampler is lovely, and I reused the format to showcase a different branch of life on Earth in the Bird Sampler two years later.
Also, check out this sick gif I made back in the day:
