Stitch in Bloom is a gorgeous new embroidery book, celebrating the art of couching, an embellishment technique used to adorn fabrics.

Artist and mixed-media textile designer, Lora Avedian demonstrates the versatility of this stitch using different materials to produce a range of finishes before showcasing 15 stunning projects to try yourself.

Featuring ways you can enhance pre-owned garments and accessories, to creating statement pieces for the home, and with each design giving a nod to nature, this book will emphasise the beauty of this style of embroidery, the joy of stitching by hand and making with intention.

This revised and updated title is drawn from Katie Essam's successful Layered and Stitched Pictures in The Textile Artist series. Incorporating a new bonus project, this book showcases Katie's free machine embroidery techniques. Her fresh, modern style uses a unique combinations of traditional techniques, and in this book she shows how to create stunning textile art inspired by the beauty in everyday objects. With eight projects and lots of finished artworks to spark creativity, this book teaches the reader how to draw inspiration from the animals, birds, gardens, beach huts and scenes that surround us all; and use that inspiration as fuel to create gorgeous stitched pictures.

Frolic through fields of flowers as you take your embroidery skills to the next level! Lovely Little Embroideries is an inspirational guide to creating 22 stunning, small, and easy embroidery hoops, accessories, ornaments, and more, all featuring every stitcher's favorite subject - flower bouquets! Opening with overviews on basic supplies, transfer methods, and how to finish the back of a hoop, also included is an illustrated stitch guide for both basic stitches to more advanced ones. With step-by-step instructions and photography for stitching floral embroidery hoops, pendant necklaces, holiday ornaments, lavender sachets, and more, this must-have craft book offers fresh and modern embroidery patterns to fine-tune your skills that every passionate stitcher will love! Embroidery artist Beth Stackhouse is the owner of Forest Chorus Studio where she offers embroidery pattern tutorials, fiber art, and embroidered jewelry. Her work has been featured on MarthaStewart.com, MAKERS Magazine, KOEL Magazine, Feeling Stitchy, and other well-known publications within the needlework and crafting industry.

A guide to figurative stitching in textile art, with techniques and tips. Figurative stitch is soaring in popularity. In this guide, textile artist Rosie James shares ideas and techniques on using the sewing machine's needle and thread almost as a pencil. The book covers: How to set up your machine; How to tackle drawing (with exercises that will help even those who are afraid to put pen to paper); Transferring drawing to cloth, working with transparency, different surfaces and adding fabrics and colour; Photography, with details on using photographs in textiles; Putting it all together with layering images, playing with scale, repetition and composition. Tips and advise throughout will show textile artists how to expand their repertoire and how to use figurative stitch to really showcase their creativity. Illustrated throughout with stitch drawings by Rosie James and other leading artists, this is a welcome paperback edition that will inspire both professionals and those new to stitching.

Brimming with over 300 botanical motifs, this wonderful resource will provide inspiration and instructions for embroidery artists and flower ladies everywhere. This collection features designs including flowers, ferns, succulents, leaves, bees and garden scenes. The books includes basic embroidery instruction for stitches and transferring designs onto fabric. Original designs and clear instructions make this book a must have for any embroidery enthusiast's library.

90 original iron-on transfer designs from the archives of the Embroiderers' Guild! An important though largely forgotten part of the Embroiderers' Guild legacy is the huge collection of hot-iron transfers dating back to the early 20th century that were created by members of the Guild. They fell out of favour in the 1960s and the Guild stopped producing them. Many transfers were stored away and haven't been seen since those times; others were simply thrown away. Recently rediscovered and made available for the first time in over half a century, this unique collection includes 90 original designs ranging from the early to mid-twentieth century. This treasure trove of design inspiration is presented in two separate books enclosed in a hardback folder. The Reusable Iron-on Transfers book includes 90 designs that you can cut out and store in the pocket inside the folder after use. This is accompanied by a handy Stitching Guide that includes 26 beautifully worked examples to inspire your colour, thread and stitch choices, as well as information on tools and materials, using an embroidery hoop, and 18 embroidery stitch diagrams.

I felt that Mary was there, pulling at my sleeve, willing me to appreciate the artistry, wanting me to understand the dazzle of the material world that shaped her. At her execution Mary, Queen of Scots wore red. Widely known as the colour of strength and passion, it was in fact worn by Mary as the Catholic symbol of martyrdom. In sixteenth-century Europe women's voices were suppressed and silenced. Even for a queen like Mary, her prime duty was to bear sons. In an age when textiles expressed power, Mary exploited them to emphasise her female agency. From her lavishly embroidered gowns as the prospective wife of the French Dauphin to the fashion dolls she used to encourage a Marian style at the Scottish court and the subversive messages she embroidered in captivity for her supporters, Mary used textiles to advance her political agenda, affirm her royal lineage and tell her own story. In this eloquent cultural biography, Clare Hunter exquisitely blends history, politics and memoir to tell the story of a queen in her own voice.

A new, larger format edition of the classic reference work on silk shading by the Royal School of Needlework (RSN). The Essential Stitch Guides provide a set of definitive works on traditional embroidery techniques. Graduate Apprentice Sarah Homfray throws light onto the beautiful craft of silk shading, also known as painting with a needle, long and short stitch embroidery or thread painting. This book reveals the history of the craft then moves on to the materials and equipment required. Next, Sarah covers design and using colour, simplifying and demystifying this often neglected area of embroidery. The main part of the book then covers all of the essential stitches and techniques through clear, step-by-step diagrams, coupled with beautiful, close-up photographs showing how they can be used in a finished piece. Key traditional techniques are included: the fundamental stab, split and long and short stitches; along with couching, padding, adding beads and sequins, and knots. The book ends with beautiful and exquisitely-worked examples and covers working with different fabrics, threads and incorporating painted backgrounds. The RSN teaches hand embroidery to the highest standard and is respected all over the world. It not only upholds the traditions of English embroidery that go back many hundreds of years, but is constantly taking embroidery forward in new and innovative ways. This series of Essential Stitch Guides has been produced in close collaboration with the RSN with the aim of providing a set of definitive works on traditional embroidery techniques.

Inspired by the banners and signs at recent marches around the world, Really Cross Stitch takes all that anger, outrage and protest and puts it inside a pretty, decorative border. Along with some snarky commentary and general annoyance.

Featuring more than 40 truly original cross stitch designs, the book also contains instructions on techniques for new stitchers.

Stitching for public protest is not new. First-wave feminists in the US and in Britain used needlework in their demonstrations and public protest lectures during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Needlework and other handcrafts, however, declined throughout the twentieth century, with second-wave feminists arguing against 'the oppression of the needle'. In the 21st century however there has been a steep resurgence and many are turning to crafting, especially needlework, as an activist strategy. In Knitting for Good, feminist Betsy Greer makes this point strongly when she proclaims, 'I think every act of making is an act of revolution.'

In Freestyle Embroidery on Wool you will learn how to kickstart your creativity and become confident at making your own colourful and expressive designs using applique and embroidery on felted wool fabric. Using her own detailed and imaginative embroidery as examples Karin Derland teaches you how to go about creating your own designs using applique and embroidery on wool felt. Karin shares plenty of instruction and helpful tips on making colour choices, how to apply ribbons, mirrors and other accessories, making and using cardboard templates for applique shapes and how to combine different types of threads and stitches for best effect. Sketches, diagrams and detailed photographs of different types of embroidered pillows, cushions, cases and other items will give you a head start on creating and applying your own designs. The book also offers plenty of inspirational images through Karin's colourful embroidery that draws on both the Swedish and Indian traditions. These can be used as an inspirational library of ideas when creating your own work. How simple or complex a piece becomes is up to you and your own level of experience and personal choice. Although the emphasis is on developing your own expressive embroidery, some step-by-step projects are included to help build confidence before launching out on your own. This is wool applique embroidery at its best - free, beautiful and generous. A note on materials: The author recommends using klade and vadmal, which are both types of Swedish 100% wool fabric of varying weight. They are made from woven fabric that has an even surface and processed so there is no visible weave. A good equivalent in the UK is a felted wool fabric such as Melton wool. Hobby felt containing polyester is not suitable.

A dazzlingly inventive tale of troubled legacies, desire and unsung power, inspired by The Scarlet Letter. Glasgow, 1829: Isobel, a young seamstress, and her husband Edward set sail for New England, in flight from his mounting debts and addictions. But, arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, Edward soon takes off again, and Isobel finds herself penniless and alone. Then she meets Nathaniel, a fledgling writer, and the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows during the Salem witch trials - while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. Nathaniel and Isobel grow ever closer. Together, they are dark storyteller and muse; enchanter and enchanted. But which is which?

Jayne Netley Mayhew has created an exquisite new collection of floral designs in cross stitch, taken from her own original paintings. Jayne's new series of cross stitch pictures is a superb blend of detailed individual flower studies and stunning groupings that hold appeal for everyone. Projects range in size and complexity, from a delicate border of violets added to a pillowcase and a traditional Victorian-style bouquet made into a footstool cover, to a simple vase of cottage flowers framed as a picture and a waistcoat embroidered with twining clematis. All the project making-up instructions are included in easy-to-follow steps, and a user-friendly stitch library and techniques section ensure a finished result as perfectly beautiful as the flowers themselves.

Sustainability meets DIY in this instructive guide to garment embroidery from designer and fiber artist Alexandra StratkotterCombining comprehensive instruction with photography and illustrations, The Embroidered Closet guides novice and experienced stitchers through the process of adorning and upcycling garments. Now more than ever, we are all pitching in to help the planet: This book offers a fun and satisfying avenue to do just that by refreshing the wardrobe you have and making your clothes seem new again. The Embroidered Closet presents the inexpensive craft of embroidery and uses it to show readers just how fun embellishing your own clothing can be. Expect to learn not just about tools, techniques, stitches, and project designs, but also how to pick fabrics that work best for you and your wardrobe, how to source and thrift your clothing, and how to mend and prevent wear and tear. Stratkotter will inspire you to expand your options and test out your own embroidered creations. Whether you're interested in personalizing your clothing, upgrading wardrobe staples, or seeking to enhance your skill set, Stratkotter's stylish and classic designs offer something for everyone.

Clothing repair through visible mending is a movement that now has hundreds and thousands of followers, and Erin Eggenburg is one of the leading proponents. Through her beautiful stitch designs, Erin shows you how to hand stitch or darn your clothes and other fabric items to mend them, rather than discard them. The patterns are organized by skill level, from beginner to expert, and each project includes a photo of the completed, stitched pattern, as well as step-by-step diagrams showing how to recreate the design. Comprising over 50 hand-stitched mending patterns, you can give worn clothes a new lease of life by using these beautiful designs to repair your clothes and other fabric items.

Create unique projects with all types of embellishments - like lace, linens and hankies, trims and ribbons, buttons, and treasured pieces - with ideas, techniques, and a 100+ stitch library to inspire.

You've knitted your Pussyhat, now what do you do? This quirky new craft book will provide you with all the creative inspiration you need to carry on making a powerful feminist statement in a subversively homespun way. Missy Covington shows how simple and satisfying it is to use easy-sew, craft-store felt as the medium for your message. You'll discover how to make a wide variety of projects that are as edgy as they are whimsical, including a gallery of feminist icons in badge form, entertaining busy book pages to smash the patriarchy as you play, and stylised depictions of the female reproductive system as Christmas tree decorations. The glueing, stitching and embroidery techniques Missy employs are easy to master, and whatever the project, there is all the step-by-step practical guidance you need to ensure impressive results.

Now you can create even more of the world's most beautiful embroidered blankets! This colourful and vibrant collection brings you eight all-new and original projects, featuring adorable blankets with teddies and baby elephants, a magnificent beaded blackberry wreath and a resplendent bouquet of pastel blossoms. And as a special treat, the all-time-favourite `Fruits of the Hedgerow', originally published in Inspirations issue 8, reappears as a bonus pattern in this stunning new edition to Inspirations Books that is not to be missed!

Craft your own comfort with these uplifting cross stitch quotes. Cross Stitch for the Soul is a collection of beautifully designed motivational and inspirational quotes rendered in easy cross-stitching techniques that will raise the spirits, both during the making process and beyond, as gifts for loved ones or as treasured pictures on the wall. Cross stitch is a wonderfully calming and mindful occupation, a chance to slow down, embrace the process and create something beautiful. The 20 designs in this collection feature quotes that will resonate with anyone in need of a little boost. Designed by leading cross stitch designer Emma Congdon, aka Stitchrovia, whose modern styling appeals to crafters of all ages and abilities, these inspiring quotes will provide comfort, motivation and an all-round positive spin on life, reminding us that we are brave, strong and have the power to make our own futures - one stitch at a time!

This is a completely new and revised edition of the best-selling "Cross Stitcher's Bible", from one of the world's favourite cross stitch designers, Jane Greenoff. This essential guide to cross stitch and other counted thread embroidery techniques includes an extensive illustrated stitch library. Inspiring new projects present exciting stitching challenges, ranging in size from cards to cushions. Versatile motifs and sampler picture designs are all clearly charted and can easily be adapted for other projects. This is the must-have, easy-to-follow companion for all cross stitchers to bring them up-to-date with the latest trends, techniques and materials.