Colorful Stitchery: 65 Embroidery Projects to Personalize Your Home

by Kristin Nicholas

Embroidery has never looked this good or been so colorful--65 projects to stitch your way to a more colorful home.

     With inspiration and encouragement from designer and colorist Kristin Nicholas, would-be and experienced stitchers alike will find dozens of embroidery projects that add exuberance to every room in the house. Nicholas's collection opens with pillow covers in dancing colors on unexpected patterns and fabrics, such as stripes and plaids, velvets and corduroys. For kitchens, she offers a joyfully polka-dotted tea cozy or jewel-bright, purchased napkins and tablecloth creatively stitched with floral motifs. Personalized wedding gifts include a luxurious, monogrammed cashmere throw and his-and-hers hot water bottle covers; or for the perfect baby gift, a cozy matching blanket and teddy bear set.
     Many projects feature fabrics from flea markets and thrift shops, with complete how-to on hand-felting and hand-dyeing sweaters and blankets for the very softest, most colorful look. With her ribbon-stitched craft boxes (perfect for scrapbookers), embroidered stationery, and even a pair of espadrilles, the author explores an exciting world of embroidering on unexpected surfaces and materials.

Genres: Nonfiction, Crafts, Sewing, Reference

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

KRISTIN NICHOLAS is a knitwear and stitchery designer who lives in western Massachusetts on a working sheep farm with her husband and daughter and 400 sheep, three border collies, two great pyrenees guard dogs, ten cats, thirty chickens, one guard donkey, and one guard llama.

Kristin learned to knit and sew when she was nine years old. Following her passion for creating, she received a BS from University of Delaware and MS from Colorado State University in Textiles and Clothing. She has worked in the American needlework industry for over 25 years as a creative director and a stitchery and knitwear designer. She is the author of 8 books including Color By Kristin, Kristin Knits, Colorful Stitchery, Kids Embroidery, Knitting for Baby, and more. Her specialty is working with color and she is known as a color expert within the needlework industry. She has her own line of yarn named “Julia”, after her daughter, which is distributed throughout North America by Nashua Handknits (a Division of Westminster Fibers). She has been also been featured as a knitting expert on PBS's Knit and Crochet Now for the three seasons.

Kristin's home and work have been featured in Country Home, Country Living, Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, Knitters Magazine, and many other national publications.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/kristi...

Reviews

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I completely fell in love with this book and then I realized that it was by Kristin Nicholas. Of course I loved it. Her patterns are beautiful, colorful, and creative--just like everything she does. I liked this one so much, I bought it.

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book 13 years after first publication and although it hasn't really dated there is something about the projects within that aren't quite modern - I can't quite figure it out - maybe it's the author's color palette... I know of the author through her knitting work and I'd seen this book for years. It's an okay book that is certain to spark inspiration but, for me, just okay. Good introduction on materials and techniques. Attractive photography. Lots of pillows. Lots.

[Amberwench · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patterns, colors, and stitches perfectly suited to bold wool and vibrant silk ribbon hand embroidery alike. Clear stitch tutorials and variations on a theme for inspiration. Good resource book.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another colorful, appealing, and thorough book from Nicholas.

[Inder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have I mentioned that I love this book? If I had to recommend one book of embroidery (beyond a simple guide to stitches), it would be this one. It's very accessible, very inspiring, and the projects are very outside-the-box. You may not love every project in this book (there are some real throwaways), but there is a surprising amount of substantive technique here that you can learn and then run with.

Why you might love this book too:

1) Kristin Nicholas emphasizes using wool crewel yarn instead of embroidery floss. Now, I use regular embroidery floss a lot, but wool creates a much deeper, richer, potentially more funky effect (it's also more traditional and durable). Sourcing good crewel yarn can be a trick, however. Needlepoint yarn doesn't quite do the trick - try eBay.

2) She also emphasizes crewel embroidery technique, which has great texture and depth and is surprisingly easy to execute.

3) She uses all kinds of fabric for her projects - solids, prints, stripes, and plaids, cotton, linen, wool, and corduroy. She is fearless in her texture and color combinations.

In short, if you want a book that will help get you out of your embroidery rut and turn you into an embroidery designer (rather than copier), this is a good starting point. You may also want to refer to the classic - Wilson's Crewel Embroidery.

This will be the starting point for my next project, an embroidered tote-bag for my stepmom.

[Tori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. There are so many reasons why and I will make an attempt to write them all here. First off the author makes this entire book and experience comfortable and is very personable. Not once did I feel like I was going to attempt something slightly challenging alone. I love how she included stories and ideas that were stemmed by her childhood and experiences through trial and error. This style of creativity reminds me of my Grandma as well and all of her creations. Above all else this book made me smile and want to pull as much info from my Grandma while I am still able to do so.

I like how she encourages you to practice if you are new to embroidery and shows simple techniques.

Some of the other things I enjoyed were that there were easier projects and some more advanced. Each project had wonderful directions, pictures and fresh ideas.

I loved the back stories on the ideas including some of the history on where certain techniques came from.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning embroidery, sewing and stitching. This would be perfect for someone who loves to customize their home and belongings.

I won/received this book free through Goodreads First Reads and am so happy I did. Special thanks to the author for creating such a great book.

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great information in the front such as a table of burn tests to figure out what fiber a found fabric is made of, dying tips, and finding inspiration. There are a few pages on working with color including some color therapy and tips that include such things as whether or not to and how to use a hoop, and common pillow insert sizes. The stitch directions are good and illustrated by at least two drawings.

There are a lot of projects from super easy to quite complicated. Some of them are really similar, though. Fully half the projects are pillows with repetitive patterns like lines or circles.

Overall the projects are bland and not particularly interesting or modern. But the introduction information is very good.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just could not find a project I was inspired to make in this book. The majority of them are pillows. I am not a big pillow.

This book did have 2 gems though:

On page 39, three Gerbera daisies are placed on 6 different colored fabrics and show how background colors affect the color of the main object.

On page 67, she has some inspiration quotes you might like to embroider on a pillow. I do not like that idea but I liked these quotes:

"The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes." Frank Lloyd Wright

I never feel age...If you have cratiave work, you don't have age or time." Louise Nevelson

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple needlecraft projects to brighten your home. The author loves color--lots of color! Too much color for my comfort level, but the ideas are simple and can be personalized. The focus is on pillows and how they are an easy way to add cold and personality to your home. The embroidery isn't difficult and instructions for the stitches are included. She loves to use wool thread and it's nice to see crewel making a comeback, it was my favorite hobby as a teen in the 70s. There were a couple of ideas here I might try-- a stitch in the ditch corduroy pillow, and one with an inspirational quote. Fun to flip through for inspiration.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved a lot of the projects in this book. I agree that there were a lot of pillows but no one said you can't use the embroidery design used on one of the pillow projects to decorate other types of projects. The only complaint I had was I wish the stitch directions were a little more clear.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book today and immediately fell in love. I have already been getting together items to do a project and plan on doing several for Christmas to give to others. It gives instructions for all stitches and construction with pictures. I will enjoy it while snowed in this winter. Very lovely presentation.

[BattyKat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so stinking excited about this book!!

I won a copy from the Giveaways, and my birthday month just got a lot more colorful!

I want to make so many pillows, and table cloths, and napkins.... I might just drive my spouse batty with all my project ideas.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear instructions, even for beginners. Designs are bold, yet not obnoxious.

[Lisa]

I've only skimmed this book so far, but it looks like an amazing, incredible resource. I can't wait to get my needles into some cloth. ;)

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accessible approach to embroidery from a passionate master of the craft. Enjoyed her approach to color, pattern the modern relevance of stitch & embroidery.

[lk]

makes embroidery actually seem easy ... just a few stitches to learn and poof! you can embroider anything

[Lexi DeConti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a good reads giveaway!!

[Anne]

I've pretty much switched from embroidery to knitting but there were 2-3 projects which looked interesting. If one is really into embroidery then I think it'd be a fun resource.

[Michele Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many cute and colorful ideas to try.

[Joan54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book from MEL library and enjoyed it very much.