A Year of Embroidery by Yumiko Higuchi

A Year of Embroidery (Make Good: Japanese Craft Style)

by Yumiko Higuchi

Celebrate the seasons through contemporary embroidery motifs for a year of stitching.

Give each month more beauty by stitching embroidery motifs with unique seasonal designs.  Follow the course of a year—from snow flowers and skiing bears in January to lily of the valley in May, a collection of seed pods in October, trumpeting angels in December, and much more—to enliven your embroidery with a seasonal flair. Through thirty-eight patterns, designer Yumiko Higuchi offers organic yet modern designs with colorful and detailed imagery and a sweet and lively feel. Stitch projects to display as art or transform your work into small projects you can use.

With beautiful photographs, clear step-by-step instructions, and detailed diagrams, A Year of Embroidery offers dynamic and unique designs that will inspire embroiderers of all skill levels.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

5 of 5 stars

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Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

A Year of Embroidery is a new pictorial embroidery primer by Yumiko Higuchi. Released 4th Sept, 2018 by Roost books, it's a concise 88 pages, full color, and available in paperback format.

It's nice to see surface embroidery coming back into its own. It seemed for years that almost all of the new tutorial books were aimed at counted cross stitch or quilting. This book is laid out in a calendar format with different project sections gathered into months/seasons. There are 3 projects per 'month' with some months having an alternative colorway of one of the projects.

The projects themselves are mostly line drawings with filling stitches. Some are quite structural and border on stumpwork. They're all appealing and would be ideal for decor or clothing applications. The book is peppered with photographs for inspiration for finishing the projects.

There is a very short technique chapter between the monthly project sections and the line drawings of the patterns. This chapter also includes a few tips (how to carry thread, finishing techniques, etc) which can be utilized to make the projects easier and better.

The photography is very clear. With the diagrams, the projects should be comfortable for a keen beginner.

The line drawings of the patterns also include recommended stitch fillers.

Lovely and useful addition to the embroiderer's library. I am going to incorporate some of the line drawn motifs in the freehand areas of my next counted thread sampler.

Five stars

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

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  • 15 September, 2018: Reviewed