Thursday, October 9, 2014

Colorful Stitchery Book Review

Colorful Stitchery by Kristin Nicolas was originally published in 2005 by Storey Publishing and a reissue edition was just published last month by Roost Books. The projects are the same but the book has been redesigned.

This was my first encounter with Kristin Nicolas's work and I was really impressed with the wide range of techniques covered in the book. It begins with information about different types of fabric and threads, transferring patterns, different stitches, and even a basic color theory section.

The entire first section is devoted to pillows, each using a different stitch. There are patterns for the pillow designs as well as instructions on how to sew them yourself. I really love the sampler pillow, each row is a different stitch. It is a fun twist on a traditional sampler that also leaves you with a functional pillow when you're done!

One thing that Kristin encourages is to explore stitching on different fabrics - felt, plaid, velvet, corduroy. I know that I always reach for either linen or muslin when I am doing embroidery, so it definitely made me consider other fabrics I wouldn't have considered otherwise.

There are also sections on kitchen and bedroom projects and then one called "Thinking Outside the Box." This section literally has projects that are embroidered boxes but also has projects stitching on materials like cards and shoes.

This book is a great inspirational resource, there are a lot of great ideas and Kristin really encourages the reader to branch out and explore color and texture. I know it has me itching to try out crewel!


What are you stitching? Please share in the &Stitches Flickr group. We'd love to see it!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks so much for reviewing my book! You guys are awesome.
    Kristin

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