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The Art of Alison Holt
Alison Holt
Search Press
19 September 2011 / ISBN: 9781844483457
How-To Books/Machine embroidery
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Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
Alison Holt has had three previous books published by Search Press,
all showing how to do her trademark machine embroidery. This is
a new volume containing material from all of them and is ideal for
anybody who wants to learn this addictive and enjoyable method of
producing beautiful pictures.
This book is suitable for beginners and don’t worry if you
are no good at painting or hand embroidery and don’t worry
if you don’t possess a top-of-the-range sewing machine. Any
old machine will do, and painting a simple background is not difficult.
You don’t need any expensive equipment to do this, just an
embroidery hoop, something that makes a mark for your backgrounds,
machine threads and off you go. There are pages devoted to topics
such as how best to work from photographs, making a good design,
looking for inspiration and all that, illustrated with examples
not only of finished works but also materials used and works in
progress. This is essentially a hands-on primer, with plenty about
painting in a background and of course getting to grips with this
very freestyle form of using a sewing machine. There are lots of
techniques to try and samples to stitch to get the hang of depicting
nature and getting the most out of your machine. There are several
examples of pictures to work through, well-illustrated and captioned
with many pages of stages for a foolproof result. The finished work
themselves are glorious, and show subjects such as spring woods
bright with bluebells, summer gardens bursting with flowers, leafy
autumn scenes and snowy paths. Lovely to look at and surprisingly
easy to master, this is a great introduction to this hobby. .
NB: Do not attempt to alter the tension on your bobbin case unless
you have a spare one or do not use your machine for anything but
this. You will require a technician to put it back to being suitable
for ordinary sewing.
Reviews
of other titles by this author
Beginner's
Guide to Machine Embroidered Landscapes
Machine
Embroidered Woodlands
Machine
Embroidered Flowers, Woodlands and Landscapes
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