This
is the ideal book for anybody who thinks that embroidery is
too “quiet” for them. Perhaps it conjures up images
of florals and practical items such as tea towels? As it says
on the cover with this book you can learn how to “transform
fabric with improvisational embroidery” and have a lot
of fun in the process.
As soon as I saw the bright, folk art inspired image of a
bird on the cover it made me want to start stitching. As the
author says in her introduction, you can really bring fabric
to life with embroidery, and the projects in here all demonstrate
this. Most books on freestyle embroidery use 6-strand floss
on cotton or linen, but this one uses perle thread on silk,
wool and felt. The author also uses many variegated skeins,
which adds a lot of the liveliness and also omits having to
buy a very large number of shades of each color. The book
starts with a brief overview as well as a section on what
you need and how to use it. This includes how to use perle
thread, methods of transferring designs to silk, wool and
felt, and buying the right needles and fabric. Each stitch
is then shown in several good-sized captioned photographs;
these are easy to follow and I like the contrast between thread
and fabric. Stitches are listed alphabetically and comprise
all the basic freestyle stitches plus a few useful extras.
The rest of the book contains the six projects which are wonderfully
bright depictions of an apple, bird, heart filled with flowers,
stylized plants, hand of fortune and a landscape with a house
and lake. Each project covers several pages and contains a
fair number of captioned photographs, list of what you need
complete with a photograph of the threads, plus instructions
on finishing. The projects are pictures rather than functional
items to be enjoyed as they are. US embroiderers can buy the
variegated threads, hand dyed fabrics and even kits of the
projects in the author’s online store; those in other
countries will need to look elsewhere. This aside, I found
this to be a beautiful and inspiring book, ideal for anybody
of any level who wants to see where freestyle embroidery can
take them.
If you cannot find a good range of embroidery materials locally
try www.searchpress.com for a list of suppliers.
www.sewandso.co.uk/ have one of the largest ranges of embroidery
supplies (including plenty of perle threads) and they ship
to over 75 countries.
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