Foolproof Flower Embroidery: 80 Stitches & 400 Combinations in a Variety of Fibers; Add Texture, Color & Sparkle to Your Organic Garden

This is an absolutely wonderful embroidery book. I have many (many), and Foolproof Flower Embroidery by Jennifer Clouston is like no other. It does not have designs to copy, you can find those in other embroidery books or with an online search. What this book does have is tremendously detailed look at embroidered flowers, their stitches and threads and how they actually look when created. It shows examples of different parts and types of flowers and shows them made up using different stitches and, unlike other books, shows them made up using different embroidery fibers, featuring: stranded cotton, different sizes of pearl cotton, crewel wool, crochet cotton, tapestry wool, and some featuring metallic thread, velvet thread, and even some with silk ribbon. She also has examples of using beads in embroidery. I can barely imagine the work that went into this incredible book. Beautiful examples, beautiful photography. It also includes information about supplies needed, a section of instructions for stitches, and a section about creating interesting backgrounds for your work, if you wish. If you are into embroidery, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

I have a passion for reading as well as a passion for the needle arts and so I have great delight when I am given a gift certificate to use here on Amazon. My kids know what I like. It took me a month to decide what book I wanted to buy with my Mother's Day gift certificate. I am so glad I made the choice that I did with this book. I know to the uninitiated eye looking at my bulging bookshelves I didn't need any more embroidery books and I could have stopped many, many embroidery books ago. For me, if one book adds to my knowledge, it has earned a place in my book collection. However, if a book adds significantly to my knowledge it deserves a place front and center. This book adds significantly to my knowledge base. I wish that I had it 40-50 years ago. Unfortunately it was only published this year (2021).One of the best parts of this book is how the information was presented to the reader. The subtitle of the book was "80 stitches and 400 combinations in a variety of fibers" It should have read as "400 combinations in a variety of fibers and 80 stitches". The book begins with a large full color photographic pictures of each section of a part of a flower or part of a flower bouquet. The author started with flower stems and worked her way up to what she called twigs and reportedly her favorite part to stitch. It was like a huge buffet of possibilities of what stitches to use for the stems of a flower. She showed samples of many different stitches to use for stems more than the 'normal' stem stitch. She showed the different stems in different stitches as well as different types of threads from stranded embroidery floss to perle cotton, silk ribbons, etc. No one thread was presented as superior to another. You use what you like and what you think will look good for this particular project. If you aren't sure what will look good, make a practice piece to see how it looks with the different stitches, threads and colors. Not quite sure, try another practice piece. This is not something that she advocated, but it is just a logical thing to do.From stems you go on to leaves and then flowers and petals, then flower centers, calyxes and buds, and then her personal favorite is the twigs. Not everyone would look at these as twigs, but that is what she named them. They are the parts that help fill out a bouquet, much like baby's breath fills out a real flower bouquet. All these different stitches and parts were shown in full color and in a variety of threads. So many ideas to try! So many kinds of stitch sets to make into your own design.Then the book switches abruptly to how to make the stitches themselves. The how to section used illustrations to show how to make the stitch so that no thread or color or anything would get in the way of your thought process of how to make the stitch. After you have seen how 80 stitches were made, there was a short gallery section to see some samples of the embroidered flowers on different products. I love the way that the book emphasized originality of what you might want to make ahead of showing you, for instance,15 projects with instructions on how to make the project with the exact details on how to make each and every stitch. Instead you can design and make your own projects. I tend to think outside the box, so I love books that informs me on ways to do things and then lets me figure out my own way to get to my finished piece.As most books like these do, there was a section on tools to use and the different type products and threads. I was a bit surprised that her preference for some needles, etc. were brands that I had never heard of. Then I read the biography at the end of the book. She is from South Africa, so of course, she has different brands of products. If you have access to the products that she uses, then go for it. If you have done enough embroidery already, that you have a good brand of needles and threads already as part of your stash, then stick with those. You don't have to toss all your tools to match up with what she is using. However, I do suggest that you use the best tools that you can afford for any type of sewing, you will most likely have better results with what you are doing. I have found this to be true with both needle threaders all the way to sewing machines.I hope you will find this book to be as useful as I do.

A beautiful book with inspiration on every page.

Beautiful book, well illustrated and great directions.

It is always interesting to see how others create embroidery and crewel work. It gives me the desire to try various stitches and techniques.

I have been doing embroidery for more than 50 years and have a good library of fiber art/embroidery books. I was looking for a small (portable), concise book that emphasized stitches, not projects, and this is it. Directions and photos are clear and concise. Samples demonstrate the stitch, not the project but provide inspiration for creating my own designs. The designs that are included are flexible and usable for many styles. To top it off, the price is affordable for tight budget. Thank you Jennifer Clouston!

I really love the pictures of all of the different stitches. This gives detailed instructions for each stitch (FANTASTIC for beginners and intermediate alike)! Pictures with references are provided for stems, flowers, leaves and twigs. There are also some examples of work you can do with these. I consider myself intermediate and in the first few minutes of reading the book I had already learned some new stitches. I can’t wait to get started on my next project and expand my “go to” stitches to create something beautiful.

It’s been a while since I did any kind of embroidery. This book is wonderful to help me “relearn “ and learn new things. Jennifer went to great lengths to be sure the instructions were clear and the photography is lovely. Definitely a book I would recommend to a new person or to an advanced.