New Project

Started a new project, this time a needlebook. I have wanted one for a long time and finally thought up one I like. I went to my local cross stitch store and found Weeks Dye Works overdyed thread and bought some. This color is called Tobacco Road. When I went to print  out the lettering I searched through my fonts and found one named Tobacco Road. Those two just had to go together I guess..It is a WIP and I'm having fun with it. I'll be posting photos of the work so far soon..

Also I got a copy of the book Stitch-opedia by Helen Winthorpe Kendrick in the mail Monday. I checked and it hasn't been released on Amazon  yet, I purchased mine through my online book club. I was so excited to get it and when it came and I went through it I was disappointed.

The focus of the book is embroidery in all its forms, stumpwork, hardinger, blackwork, etc. However as an embroidery book I had hoped it would have a stronger how to section and a deeper well of stitches to learn. The introduction section in the first part of the book was I felt sadly lacking, the thread information amounts to a paragragh or two, a tiny blurb on needles, and the illustrations while plentiful weren't all that helpful to show how to accomplish the stitches. I frequent the Hand Embroidery Network blog and their stitch examples far out do this book in clear, concise and easy to understand instruction. Finally the sample projects in the back of the book were uninspired and in some cases not very attractive. The book itself is filled with beautiful photographs of embroidery art from around the world, it would have been nice to see at least some of the sample projects at that level and more attractive in motif. The book title includes "The only embroidery reference you'll ever need" unfortunately I'm still on the hunt..I'll give it a C-...