Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery: Visual Guide to 120 Essential Stitches for Stunning Designs

by Sharon Boggon

Find endless inspiration with this photo guide to embroidery stitches.Discover the 120 hand-embroidery stitches that every embroiderer should have in their stitching arsenal, with clear, step-by-step photos you can come back to time and again! Contemporary needlework teacher Sharon Boggon’s forward-thinking ideas will help you view hand embroidery through a vibrant new lens. Beginners and seasoned embroiderers will gain the confidence to create new patterns by playing with the stitches—manipulating the height and width, making asymmetrical loops, stacking up designs, or filling multiple rows with the same stitch. With so many creative variations and the author’s gorgeous samplers, you’ll be inspired to incorporate new techniques in your own crazy quilts and modern projects.Essential guide to surface embroidery! 120 contemporary stitches, including left-hand stitches, with step-by-step photosSee how tiny tweaks to each stitch can take your needlework to unexpected placesPlay up the possibilities with modern fill patterns, asymmetry, luscious texture, and crazy quilting

Genres: Crafts, Reference, Nonfiction, Sewing

601 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 25, 2020

Reviews

[Doreen Prentiss Gabriellini · Rating 4 out of 5]

For all the embroidery enthusiasts out there this is a must have book for your library. Sharon Boggon is renowned embroidery who has taken the traditional embroidery and catered to the more modern embroiderist. The are 120 stitches and wonderful ways to use them. This book is so full of inspiration and creativity. Well done!

[Evie Oliva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew this book would come in handy. I'm not in any way an expert in embroidery. I took sewing classes as a tiny kid until I finished junior high and now I've finally decided to brush up on my skills and get back to sewing, just like my teacher always said I'd do.

The experience I have in any kind of needlework deals mainly with a ton of cross-stitching, knitting and crocheting. I've also dabbled in bead weaving with looms and without them. My grandmother tried to teach me embroidery when I was 9, and while her flowers looked exquisite, mine were too jagged and spotty to look like anything other than the jagged lines of a toddler with a coloring book.

This book however, gave me a guide to the basics of embroidery stitches and how to apply them in various combinations to make something unique. I used several of them to embroider a peter pan collar for a dress I'm making on my sewing machine (see? I was making a point with that meandering intro to this review).

Now I'm a little obsessed with the idea of taking various items from my wardrobe and putting a little kick of color with some embroidery on them, just for the fun of it. I'm drawing designs and figuring out which stitches would best bring my ideas to life in dmc floss. Don't get me wrong, I stuck my finger who knows how many times but I find myself admiring the stitches I made on my collar over and over again. I'm thinking of taking bigger chances with my ideas for future stitching. I'm staring at dmc floss colors on websites and thinking which combinations speak to me in pictures I can recreate in tiny embroidery.

Send help.

[Tracy Blanchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endless inspiration. Required reference!

[Karen Cotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stitches ga!ore

Lovely ideas for embroidery stitches,sometimes having the left hand stitches on the opposite side were distracting. The photos of worked examples could be bigger.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good reference book, lots of ideas, with clear pictures of creating the different stitches, as well as pictures of the stitches in a ampler showing the stitches in context with other stitches.

[Lori Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! I'm a beginning stitcher and I bought the book for the essentials but truly appreciated the creative theory. Well done and very accessible.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive resource of stitches. However, it didn't seem particularly contemporary to me.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed an e-version of this book from my library. In book form, it would be a valuable resource for creating interesting embroidery designs.

[Aileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great visual guide for 120 stitches. The author also has examples of the stitches which helps with considering where you might use the specific stitch.

[Debra]

Great ideas