These designs are in celebration of my home town of Almonte situated in situated in picturesque Lanark County, only half an hour's drive from the Nation's Capital. Almonte features historic stone homes and buildings, waterfalls, interesting gift and craft shops and museums. The town prides itself on the friendliness of its inhabitants, hence the logo "Almonte the Friendly Town."
The site of Almonte was discovered in the nineteenth century by Scottish settlers. They harnessed the power of the waterfall on the bend on the Mississippi River to create a prosperous woolen industry. Almonte became world famous for fine quality woolen mills and was called the "Manchester of the North". Today the original Rosamund Textile Mills are converted to comfortable condominium apartments and the annex has become the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum.
These two samplers celebrate both the past and the present in our town. The wooly little lambs represent the history of Almonte as a wool town. In the wool flotilla sampler, they are bobbing along in the Mississippi river before the terrifying leap over the falls to the finish line. This is an annual fund raising event.
The highland games sampler depicts sheep playing in a bagpipe gang. The annual Almonte Highland games take place at the fairgrounds by the river and feature pipe bands, highland games, heavyweight athletics, an evening Ceilidh and much more. These two patterns would be fun to use on pockets on a cloth bag.