Update on the heart sampler

I've been working on the Heart sampler.

Sue , thank-you for the pages of hearts you scanned and sent me, a number of them now feature on my sampler. The little gingham heart and the heart outlined with flowers in the image above as well as the two plaid hearts in the images below are some which Sue sent me. I hadn't thought of leaving some stitches uncrossed in order to create the effect of the warp interlacing with the weft in the plaid and gingham hearts.

I've also discovered that a number of heart motifs feature birds. Its got me wondering about a number of things.

In which period were they created? Who created them, men or women.

Where did these type of hearts featuring birds originate?

What objects were ornamented with these hearts? and why birds?

I've heard of the use of the Sarus Cranes as a symbol of fidelity and loyalty because they pair for life but the birds I've seen don't resemble cranes so which bird is depicted?
What about the heart used primarily in text messages? It's in the heading of the post.(using the little symbol here is creating havoc with the html code which I don't have a clue how to fix and blogger is giving me a hard time today uploading pics etc ) Now back to the little heart symbol. I think whoever created it is so clever and I need to feature it on my sampler, after all its the evolution of the heart symbol.

That's the sampler to date. I'm on the look out for smaller hearts to populate the empty spaces, I'd like it to be chock full of hearts.

On a separate note - I've become an affilate of Amazon and Flipkart. You will see the banners on the side bar. Should you wish to shop online I would appreciate it if you could click on the Amazon or Flipkart banners/buttons and make your purchases.Amazon and Flipkart will pay me a small percentage of the value of your transaction without increasing the cost for you by even a cent. Thank you and happy shopping.