BIO: Lianne van Leyen

LIANNE van LEYEN is a domestic interpreter and historic cook at Upper Canada Village where she specializes in historic cooking.  She prepares and serves meals and desserts using period correct recipes and methods made in an open hearth or using a step wood cookstove. She teaches children and young adults historic cooking, interprets and demonstrates Canada’s history on the eve of Confederation for visitors from around the world. 

LIANNE’s career has spanned fine arts, child protection, banking, and higher education management. She lives with her husband Grant in a one-room Ontario schoolhouse built in 1897 and owns a church built next door in the 1920s. The couple are also caretakers of three antique British vehicles. She spent years learning to paint and draw and teaching herself many different crafts, including cross stitch.

LIANNE van LEYEN is an artist and a storyteller. 

LIANNE holds incomplete, timeworn, damaged &unusual samplers as precious and deserving of love & attention. She is thecaretaker of a growing collection of antique schoolgirl samplers and thedesigner behind 1897 Schoolhouse Samplers. Her diverse collection of samplers, currently numbering more than 350 pieces, includes dated examples from 1726 to1978, made in the UK, U.S.A., Europe and Canada.  

LIANNE van LEYEN shares her sampler collection and thehistory of needlework with local, national and international needlework and /or sampler guilds and public museums through in–person and virtualpresentations, via her website 1897schoolhousesamplers.ca and through hersocial media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  She leads retreats and workshops, has had herwork published in PieceWork magazine and contributed to podcasts.  Lianne works to increase exposure and interest inhistorical textiles & needlearts within and outside the stitchingcommunity.

LIANNE sought to give new purpose to her samplercollection by creating original and reproduction cross-stitch patterns startingin 2018.  Through her company, 1897Schoolhouse Samplers, she shares the stories of overlooked antiques and makes hercross stitch patterns available to modern stitchers for retail purchase fromlocal and virtual needlework shops located around the world and to wholesalecustomers via Hoffman Distributing Company. 

Lianne van Leyen

1897 Schoolhouse Samplers

Ragamuffin schoolgirl samplers

Web: www.1897schoolhousesamplers.ca

FB: facebook.com/1897SchoolhouseSamplers

IG: instagram.com/1897SchoolhouseSamplers