The Embroidery Book: Visual Resource of Color & Design - 149 Stitches - Step-by-Step Guide Paperback – December 1, 2016

A fabulous visual as well as a tutorial of needlework art.

Update 12/3/2016: There is an extraordinarily detailed "Look Inside" feature. It takes some extra time to load on the page, so you might not see it at first. It's fabulous and not to be missed. Thank you to the commenter who inadvertently pointed this out.Most embroidery books include projects and gallery photos. But Christen Brown raises the bar with The Embroidery Book Visual Resource of Color and Design. She presents an astounding number of astonishing possibilities in this rather diminutive compendium. The book is only 9.5"×7.5", but each of its nearly 160 pages is packed with beautiful layouts that leave little room for white space.Mixed media? Got it. Found elements? Got 'em. Color? Texture? Off the hook! Literally and figuratively.Although inspiration is in abundance, putting a project all together might take some effort on the crafter's part. It's not that the book is disorganized. It's just a little jumbled. For instance, sometimes it's difficult to tell what's a real project and what's a gallery shot. And the project instructions are extremely brief. They list stitches and "key elements", but little else.It will be most beneficial, perhaps even essential, that you be a visual thinker and crafter to recreate some of Brown's items. Step-by-stepper start-to-finishers (NOT that there's anything wrong with that) might get a bit flummoxed by the brief, innovative, and non-linear presentation. Not to mention flipping to the back of the book frequently, where Brown outlines each stitch in a remarkably organized fashion.Nice. Really, really nice.

Christen Brown is an excellent teacher in person and that same excellence comes through in this book as well. If you are beginning to hand embroider or interested in making a crazy quilt this book will be your best friend. It is a good refresher for experienced hand embroiderers, too. Each section has a complete list of materials you'll need. The stitch instructions and diagrams are very clear with beautiful pictures of completed pieces so you can easily identify the stitches and the materials used in the examples. There are resources at the back of the book for places to find supplies. The resources are generally the manufacturers' websites. However, they will have a "location search" on their websites so you can enter your location to find the stores that carry their products. I would suggest that you "Google" the product names to find online shops as well. I order all of my supplies online because there is not a shop that stocks the supplies near where I live. I recommend this book.

Book is full of inspiration and techniques for creating slow stitching.

This book is full of beautiful eye candy and a lot of great information on color, design, stitching, etc. It's not a project book, and I knew that when I ordered it. I was looking for something on design, which this book is.However, I completely agree with another reviewer who commented that the photos of the many visually complex projects are too small. The author explains her method of creating and using charts for colors, fabrics, and stitches on page 24, and I understood it, but then to try to follow the scheme with the charts and small photos of the projects is impossible. Really, maybe only one or two examples of charts paired with their projects are needed, but the projects need good close-up photography with the various elements labeled to correspond with the charts.That was something else I found puzzling. The projects that are photographed somewhat large enough and that have labels on the various elements don't appear until page 85, and there are 40 pages of charts and projects before that. <?> And I guess I'll go ahead and say here that I couldn't make heads or tails of page 36. The text doesn't seem to match the pictures, or the page design makes it confusing, or something. There were several other places where I was confused by the text and photos, but, as I'm an intermediate stitcher, I'll put that to my inexperience and assume others can understand it.As I said, it may not be that necessary to be able to pair the charts with the projects, but charts or no, many of the photos need to be larger to be able to appreciate the author's beautiful work and refer to it along with her approach, tips, and instructions. Again, a lot of really good stuff here, and more experienced stitchers may not be the least bothered by what I've mentioned, but I think I might return this book.

This book is great help while embroidering. Gives great ideas for embellishments on quilts, everything. And how to the stitch the right way

Love this book! Great ideas! Wonderful pictures!! My jeans will really shine with the new embroidery ideas! I can't wait to get out my needles and start sewing! Thank you so much!! Your are a very talented author!!! This book is FANTASTIC!!! I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to expand their embroidery repatior ! I give it the highest marks! Thanks again! Enjoyed your sewing ideas! The book is wonderful! And the vendor sent it promptly thanks again!

This book was exactly what I was looking for. Even though I have been playing with embroidery for years, this was the ONE. It has all the basic things plus how to chart color pallets (something I personally was lacking). Explains different types of threads and materials. Wonderful ideas for products that are not just basic hoop embroidery. Even though I have just skimmed through it on my Kindle, I’m so excited I’m ready to put my coffee cup down and head to the craft room. BTY, I’m not a big reviewer so if I can say this much, take notice!