Book Review: 'The Embroidery Stitch Bible', Betty Barnden, (London: Quarto, 2003)

I mentioned a whole load of different stitches in my last post, and I just wanted to quickly share where I learnt quite a lot of them. This is one of the best collections of stitches I have come across, boasting over 200 different ones for fabric, pulled thread work, drawn thread work, smocking, embellishment, insertion stitches, canvas stitches... its examples are truly endless. 

A 'stitch selector' at the beginning of the book groups stitches by type (line, detached, raised, etc) and provides small images of them all to make for easy inspiration and comparison. Then upon turning to the recommended page, there are clear and understandable directions to form the stitch. I had never got on very well with stitch books before, as I tend to be more of a visual learner about such things and need to see them performed in person/ simply go through a lot of trial and error. This was not the case at all with this book, I found it brilliant and it gave me the confidence to experiment more and more. A major project to add to my ever-growing list now that Uni is over would be to try out some canvas work as soon as possible, I've never done any before but have been meaning to ever since seeing the amazing possibilities in here.  

I would recommend this book to those that already embroider and would like to widen their range of stitches/ simply see a lot of possibilities and different ideas, and also for beginners. The book's introduction and 'Working Practice' sections both provide great information concerning sewing technique, how to choose the correct fabrics, properly prepare fabric for embroidery, and prepare a piece of embroidery for mounting and display - for the beginner it is an all-in-one really, and a reliable source of information. One thing I think would make it even better for beginners, however, would be a difficulty rating for each of the stitches. There are so many that it could become a little overwhelming, and inevitably many of the most attractive tend to be the most difficult... a rating system could encourage more step-by-step, manageable experimentation! Other than than, a great book that has definitely widened my own experimentation and confidence. 

Book Review: 'Samplers of the Victoria and Albert Museum', Clare Browne and Jennifer Wearden (eds), (London: V&A Publishing, 2010)

This book was the thing that first introduced me to the broad range and history of needlework samplers, and was the source of much information in my previous post, so I must definitely credit it here! I don't have an awful lot to write about it right now because I basically just think it is great. Beautiful images fill the pages, which are very large and in brilliantly true-to-life colour - unlike many black and white, smaller reproductions I have since seen in other books. The size of the pages and images also allows you to see every detail which is invaluable for close study, either for academic purposes or to gain design ideas for your own work, in terms of both pattern and colour, and stitches used. Great close-ups of details from the samplers alongside their full-size images, and a chapter on stitches and techniques at the end of the book, enhance its practical function. A chapter at the beginning also provides valuable historical and contextual information (although if it is just the information rather than images you are after, most of this chapter is actually reproduced on the V&A website for free, just search 'samplers').

The book covers the range of samplers held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, spanning from the 14th to late 19th century, and internationally across not only a range of British examples, but also those from Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East. Even for someone thus far totally uninterested in samplers I would recommend this book simply as something beautiful to look at, the quality and size of the images makes them unignorably fascinating. My only drawback would be that at £19.99 it is quite expensive, fortunately I received mine as a Christmas gift... but I have since bought one as a gift for someone else! Certainly a must for anyone interested in textile, pattern, design, embroidery, art history...