In 2004, the Museum commissioned the Dutch designer Hella Jongerius to create a series of ten textiles, collectively titled Sampler Blanket, in conjunction with the exhibition Hella Jongerius Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection, shown in the Nancy and Edwin Marks Collections Gallery March 4 to September 4, 2005.
Each work in the series is inspired by designs found on historic samplers in the Museum's Textile Department. Embroidered samplers are one of the richest areas of the collection; the department has over 1,000 examples from all over the world. Jongerius visited the collection three times in 2003/2004, and viewed hundreds of samplers.
Jongerius was interested in the learning process inherent in the making of these objects, the historic use and re-use of established motifs, as well as the highly personal symbols and information contained within samplers. For her blankets, the unique motifs are hand-cut from recycled materials and joined to the foundation fabric using needle-punch technology, in which mechanized needle boards holding hundreds of barbed needles push up and down through the layers to entangle the fibers together. As a result, as second "shadow" version of the imagery appears on the back. These are then embellished with machine embroidery.
Inspired by traditional handwork but using industrial processes and recycled materials, Sampler Blanket explores the transition between domestic and industrial production, and the influence of the hand even within technological innovation.