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Sophie Helene
Search Press
20 April 2011/ ISBN 184448680X
How-To Books/Needlecrafts
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Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
Cross stitch is a relaxing and rewarding needlecraft that might
wax and wane in popularity but never truly goes away. Simple to
learn yet as versatile and boundless as your own imagination, here
is a whole book of beautiful flower patterns to stitch.
The picture on the cover shows a dozen of the pages as a taster,
which sets the book off onto a good footing. How many other titles
are so easily sampled without even having to open the book? Originally
published in France in 1999, this is one book not showing its age
in the slightest. Open the book and you are presented with page
after page of full color charts for flowers large and small, borders,
square blocks, alphabets and flower heads. There are large, elaborate
charts suitable for whole pictures, tiny sprays for cards or scented
sachets, plants in pots, stylized and lifelike edgings and more.
Choose from garden and wayside favorites such as water lily, lavender,
pansies, daisies, cacti, scabious, cowslips, sunflowers and many
more. This really is a pick and mix assortment, with something for
just about every project however large or small and appealing to
a range of abilities. What you won’t find in here are Christmas
flowers however, but there are plenty for other seasons particularly
summer. At the reverse are instructions on how to work cross stitch
including tips on framing, what fabric to buy and even a double
page shade sheet of DMC floss colors. Finally there are several
copiable pages of blank charts for your own floral masterpieces;
all in all a book well worth buying and keeping.
Also available is the companion volume Cross
Stitch Herbs, Fruit and Flowers. This is filled with charts
for culinary and medicinal plants, all whole page studies this time
reminiscent of an old herbal. As with the floral book there are
a few color plates throughout showing what can be made, and the
highly useful part at the back on how to stitch only minus the DMS
chart this time.
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