I am going to need to practise the stitches (such as the ones listed in Jane D Zimmerman's book - see my review of her book - detached buttonhole done a million different ways), ceylon stitch, semi-detached needlelace, and many other stitches. (actually, all of that is in Zimmerman)

I will also need to practise some motifs - such as the Elizabethan Needlework Accessories Needlelace roses. And putting down gold purl and any other goldwork materials I decide to use.

This means that I will be creating a sampler (or perhaps to avoid confusion, I'll call it a practise, or scrap piece) for my Historical Sampler, where I can do this practise work.

It will look something like this (a spot sampler, as opposed to a band sampler) :-

(Fitzwilliam Museum, Accession Number T.3-1928 (Applied Arts)

with lines/blocks of practise stitches as well as the motifs shown in the Fitzwilliam piece. It is intended for use in the Elizabethan use of samplers - as a reference piece to be kept in the sewing basket, rather than the more formal 'planned' samplers intended for display that emerged in the Victorian period.

I'm really not too worried what it ends up looking like - I just need a place - linen ready hooped up - where I can practise something before embroidering it on my 'real' piece - the Historical Sampler.