Simply Samplers: Easy Techniques for Hand Embroidery (NeedleKnowledge) Paperback – August 15, 2014

I have one million stitch books and I need another one like a hole in the head. But a new one is published and *BOOM* I gotta have it. I love the cover of this paperback book. Very colorful and stitches that are easy to make out. I opened the book and the first thing I noticed was I never heard the difference between an "away" knot and a "waste" knot: they have the same purpose--to start your first thread--but have opposite application. The away knot is parking the thread out of the way so you do not catch it on your first stitches. Once you've made a short row, you snip the knot, thread your needle and weaving it into the stitches on the wrong side of the fabric. Whereas with the waste knot, you carefully stitch over that thread to anchor it and then just snip the excess. You learn something new every day.The cover project is the Counted Thread Band Sampler one of the most complex designs. It calls for an 18 sq inch of 28-count Lugana and 6 different colors of DMC floss and 5 different skeins of DMC Color Variations floss for that variegated look. I made a band sampler with very similar stitches and a number with overdyed flosses and can attest it's interesting to see the patterns of color that result from certain stitches. The stitch guides are on very large grids, very easy to make out. If you can't figure it out from the chart by the project, you can see the even more explicit stitches in the back of the book. There are 27 different stitches including cross, Algerian eye, counted satin stitch, herringbone and fly stitch. Only six of the stitches seem to be shown exclusively for counted fabric and all can be for surface embroidery.One project that caught my eye is the unusual One-Off Sampler. This is a cross stitch alphabet with each cross isolated from the next by one thread. So the X's are very distinct. I've never seen that before and it's sort of a cool effect. There's also a versatile Nine Squares Sampler Pillow with matching ornaments and coasters. Then, it's nice to see a Hanukkah Sampler along side one with an alphabet of different colored Christmas ornament balls. A couple projects expand your repertoire and have you embellish the stitching with colored pencils. And there's talk of beads and charms and a good section on finishing.The glossary is interesting. I didn't realize there's a difference between overdyed floss and variegated...or between plainweave and evenweave fabric. And it's called "crocking" when colors from the floss bleed from washing or handling. In the back there is a conversion chart for DMC, Anchor and Sullivan's floss and, a nice way to finish, a Visual Index of all the projects that you can see on two open pages and showing the page numbers.The only chart I sort of question is for the Counted-Thread Square Sampler which utilized 7 stitches. It's labeled for intermediate and I think that's on the high end toward advanced because of how close the stitches are shown on the graph. This could have been expanded a bit.And, again, any book that just shows free hand drawing of designs on dense cloth for non-counted surface embroidery...without an iron-on transfer, I've always found them daunting even though I've stitched some.The projects are cheerful and most are small and less complicated enough for raw beginners to get started, especially if they can just ask a stitcher a question or two if needed. I'm more advanced than this book and want to start designing my own patterns. And I love the large complicated needlework pictures. But this is quite a serviceable book and just pretty to browse. I recommend it...and I may actually do that cover.

The book describes counted stitch and cross stitch and how they both work. The ideas for each are lovely but too advanced even for intermediate. The embroidery instructions explained were fine , the designs were mostly beginner and fun but they weren't as delicate and pretty as both the cross stitch and counted thread.

I think it was focused more on counted cross stitching. The directions were more in pictures. The embroidery patterns weren’t that pretty.

This is a fun little book. It has stitches for both aida cloth and plainweave. Most of these are basic to medium difficulty, so don't look here for 3D or stumpwork. Still, it has cool ideas as well as stitches I didn't know, and you may not either. Many of the stitches demonstrated here on aida can be done on plainweave by simply drawing 2 straight guidelines so they stay even. Check out YouTube embroidery tutorials to see how. Lots do it that way.Recommended9/10 Unicorns

Muy recomendado para los que empiezan a hacer cosas bellas. Para lindos regalos y lo mejor para embellecer tu hogar.

Great deal!

Thanks!

Very pleased with purchase.

Nice book if you want a sampler for Cross Stitch however it says it is for embroidery. Very disappointed and I will be sending it back.

idee carine per chi è alle prime armi col ricamotutto in inglese ma è comprensibilissimo anche per chi non parla la lingua dati gli schemi chiari

Started to learn embroidery last month (may 2018) and this book gives me everything from the tools needed; basic techniques; 16 projects with templates & colour charts; stitches used in the projects to how to finish off the projects. I love it

Adorei!!! Lindos trabalhos e ótimas fotos e explicações .links apresentáveis são muito úteis . Boa tabela de conversão. Recomendo a leitura.

This book is a mixture of different types of embroidery. It's quite basic, which was fine for the freestyle embroidery as I'm still learning that, but the cross stitch was a bit simple for me. I think it would be great for beginners.