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Mary’s sampler was done in plain cross stitch with red cotton thread on high-count fabric.  Most of these samplers were worked only in cross stitch which filled up most of the girl’s fabric.  These samplers might not showcase the most challenging needlework techniques, unless you agree that doing cross stitch on fabric where the common thread count was 70+ threads per inch presented enough of a challenge.  The format of many earlier (1860 – 1870) Bristol samplers was similar to how Mary stitched hers: alphabets at the top with motifs at the bottom.  Her sampler is a pattern source for documenting many Bristol motif patterns because she stitched so many of them.

The one thing Mary did not stitch was her last name on her sampler.  The number “395” was her bed number at the time she stitched her sampler.  The George Müller Charitable Trust still has the records for the children they cared for, but none of those records include their bed numbers.  The children were moved within the houses as they got older, so they did not keep the same bed or number.  Mary left us no other clues.  Sometimes girls stitched the initials of their friends or relatives after the alphabet rows.  Mary left us her intricate motif filled sampler which was her resume with a needle.