History, pp. 5-29; "National [European] embroidery styles," pp. 30-43.

Find endless inspiration with this photo guide to embroidery stitches. Discover the 120 hand-embroidery stitches that every embroiderer should have in their stitching arsenal, with clear, step-by-step photos you can come back to time and again! Contemporary needlework teacher Sharon Boggon’s forward-thinking ideas will help you view hand embroidery through a vibrant new lens. Beginners and seasoned embroiderers will gain the confidence to create new patterns by playing with the stitches—manipulating the height and width, making asymmetrical loops, stacking up designs, or filling multiple rows with the same stitch. With so many creative variations and the author’s gorgeous samplers, you’ll be inspired to incorporate new techniques in your own crazy quilts and modern projects. Essential guide to surface embroidery! 120 contemporary stitches, including left-hand stitches, with step-by-step photos See how tiny tweaks to each stitch can take your needlework to unexpected places Play up the possibilities with modern fill patterns, asymmetry, luscious texture, and crazy quilting

Provides information on design transfer, applique, basic and advanced embroidery techniques, automatic stitches, machine accessories, special fabrics, and lettering, and includes a dozen project ideas

Crewel--the art of embroidery with wool--is a perennial favorite with embroiderers. Here's a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment, with designs that range from the traditional to the truly innovative. All the basics are there for the beginner, including 68 stitches and 11 projects. Then, for adventuresome stitchers, there is inspiration: 55 pieces from today's most talented and best-known embroiderers.

It's a question asked by many budding textile artists: how can I be more creative? You've got a few ideas and know some techniques, but you're not sure how to get started or make your work hang together. This book shows you how. It explains the creative process from the very beginning: where to find inspiration and how to harness those ideas; how to gather source material; how to pull together what you have. The authors then take you on a journey to develop a design. Learn how to put elements together to make a cohesive whole and develop a theme, learning established design rules along the way. Part Three, Moving into Stitch, gives you a range of techniques and easy experiments with which to turn your design into stitched-textile work. From choosing what fabrics to use, to layering, creating texture and adding embellishment, it covers the key techniques to try. This is a terrific book for those starting out in textiles who really do want to be as creative as they can possibly be.

Embroider Your Stress Away Escape the chaos of everyday life by embroidering yourself a romantic and tranquil getaway. Allow Charles Henry and Elin Petronella to whisk you away to the calming villas of the French countryside. Discover the hidden gems of Paris, stroll down the colorful tiled streets of Lisbon or float along the canals of Venice. Let go of your worries stitch by stitch through these 20 delightful European scenescapes inspired by Charles and Elin’s favorite places throughout Europe. Beginners can confidently complete any design in this book using five common and simple embroidery stitches. As leaders in the modern hand embroidery movement, Charles and Elin invite you to let go of perfectionism and instead slow down, unwind and enjoy the meditative process of creating something gorgeous one stitch, and breath, at a time. For a printable download of the pattern design templates, please email Charles at [email protected].

This classic book of embroidery stitch instructions shows more than 200 different stitches, many of them endangered ethnic types which have not been in print before. Many countries including France, Spain, India, Mexico, and the Orient are represented. Step-by-step diagrams and photographs of finished articles will inspire even a beginner.