How to Embroider Almost Everything: A Sourcebook of 500+ Modern Motifs + Easy Stitch Tutorials - Learn to Draw with Thread! (Almost Everything)

by Wendi Gratz

How to Embroider Almost Everything is an inspiring, fun, and sophisticated collection of 500+ stitch motifs from embroidery designer Wendi Gratz that offers a fresh new take on embroidery.

• Get a detailed checklist of everything you’ll need to embark on your stitch journey: threads, needles, fabric, and more.
• Find step-by-step tutorials for essential stitches and other techniques for creating the motifs, plus answers to common questions and invaluable tips and tricks.
• Explore an amazing 500+ modern motifs for almost everything, including people and pets, trees and flowers, everyday objects, food, home, and more. Either re-create the motifs exactly as shown using the accompanying templates and stitch guides, or give them your own creative spin by changing details and colors to suit your own style.

How to Embroider Almost Everything helps you take your first steps to embroidering to your heart’s content and creating beautiful drawings with needle and thread!

Each book in the Almost Everything series offers readers a fun, comprehensive, and charmingly illustrated visual directory of ideas to inspire skill building in their creative endeavors.

• ISBN13: 9781631597893
• Publish Date: 22 October 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Quarry Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

How to Embroider Almost Everything is a huge collection of surface embroidery designs with tutorials. Released 22nd Oct 2019 by Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 128 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

There is a good introduction which covers tools and materials, choosing and stabilizing fabrics, how to use the templates and color codes in the book, selection of floss, embroidery tutorials and stitch diagrams, etc. There probably isn't a lot which will be new to more advanced stitchers, but it's a good solid basis for newbies.

The templates and patterns themselves are arranged thematically with a full color gallery page followed by a template with floss colors (DMC numbers are used) and thread counts (usually 3 for outlining) given for each of the 500+ designs. The patterns are varied, whimsical (see book cover), and appealing. These would be great embellishments for gifts, soft furnishings, pictures, and a zillion other uses. The book includes some borders, frames, and lettering as well, so personalized gifts are a possibility. The thematic subject groupings included in the book cover: plants, animals, people, locations (beach, etc), household items, at play (toys, fantasy, imagination), celebrations (birthday, baby, love), weather and outdoors, and the aforementioned letters, borders, frames.

Well made and comprehensive. I -really- love that surface embroidery is making a big comeback. It's been mostly cross stitch and needlepoint for decades. Surface embroidery provides a real outlet for originality, expression, and creativity, utilizing simple tools and without a massive outlay of time.

Five stars; well done!

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.