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Liven up your quilting and other textile projects with some
appliqué. Learn how to do several different types and
decorate your work further with hand and machine embroidery.
Create lively backgrounds with several paint techniques and
have fun using many traditional and modern materials to achieve
some stunning effects.
This is a beautiful book filled with wonderful photographs
of Ms Campbell’s award winning work. Turn to the back
to see fifteen amazing quilts that look too awesomely professional
to be doable, but then turn to the front and get stuck into
the projects. Broken down into manageable chapters it is soon
easy to see that it is not so difficult, although this is
not a book for beginner textile artists but those with more
sewing experience. The subtitle on the cover says “The
appliqué artist’s workbook” and this is
a good description. Although there are none of the trademark
Search Press projects with their many captioned step by step
photographs it is not hard to make use of the examples. Learn
how to use iron-on interfacings and set up your machine for
both appliqué and embroidery. Work through various
exercises and see how the beautiful quilts were created, then
have a go yourself with the traceable patterns. It is surprisingly
straightforward – and a lot of fun – when broken
down into short projects, and all the latest products are
put through their paces. Find out how to use Angelina fibers,
foils, paintsticks, fabric pencils, rubber stamps, make tassels,
use real flowers and more. There is quite a lot of reading
in this book and sometimes a few more pictures might help,
but on the whole the photographs are very well chosen. For
example a fabric is shown with images printed on it with some
being cut out and the next photograph shows the cutout neatly
appliquéd with other simple shapes. I particularly
love how the author shows that even the most advanced seeming
piece is made up of quite simple shapes. This is definitely
one for the keeper shelf, and highly recommended.
Although a total beginner might be daunted by the sheer number
of stitches, they could learn all the basics (and more) from
this useful book. As well as the stitches there are sections
on all the essential topics from what you need to start through
to choosing fabrics, working from charts, using a hoop and
finishing off. Turn to the back for a short section looking
at various types of embroidery, both freestyle and canvas.
Each short description contains photographs and diagrams to
whet the appetite, plus lists of stitches associated with
the style and a brief history. The bulk of the book is given
to the stitches themselves, which are divided into two sections
(fabric and canvas) and helpfully showcased at the front in
a stitch selector. The stitches are grouped in families eg
line, chain, blanket, smocking, loops, pulled etc which makes
searching for a stitch suitable for a particular effect or
style easier. Each stitch is shown photographed, and then
how to work it is shown in one or more colored diagrams. These
are very clear because they are drawn with the thread a contrasting
color to the background, which also contrasts with the white
page. They are also large enough to be easily seen, and backed
up with written instructions. At the base of the page the
stitch’s uses are given, plus any notes. There is an
index at the back, and a page showing more embroidery books
by Search Press so you can take your knowledge further. There
are no patterns or projects but this is not that type of book;
instead this is one you will never finish working through
which is suitable for every level of embroiderer. Highly recommended.
If you cannot find a good range of textile art and quilting
materials locally try www.searchpress.com for a list of suppliers.
Reviews of other titles by this author
Japanese
Flowers in Appliqué
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