Saturday 15 August 2009

Weekend Reading

I'm going to be good to myself this weekend. A bit of the old domestic chores this morning, kids bedrooms sorted (after the chaos, otherwise known as 'school holidays'!), a bit of the old laundry duties, perhaps some de-cluttering here and there, and then . . .

. . . I'm going to put my feet up and browse through this lovely collection of embroidery books I purchased with an Amazon token I received for my birthday (sorry Bro - yet more craft books!!).

I've been thinking quite a lot about embroidery/'surface decoration' recently and it definitely must have been on my mind when I purchased not one, but three books on the subject! The first one at the top is by Aimee Ray and is absolutely fantastic - it's called Doodle-Stitching and has some fantastic ideas, beautifully illustrated and I'm absolutely delighted with it!

The middle one is called Woolly Embroidery and is a translated Japanese craft book - not quite such good value for money but almost worth it for the fabulous embroidery on the front cover. It's all about embroidering with wool - "crewel work, stump work, canvas work and more". When I figure out what they all are, I'll get back to you!

The last one is called 'the new crewel' by Katherine Shaugnessy - a beautifully illustrated book focusing entirely on 'crewel' embroidery which is all new to me, but it looks pretty good!

Woe betide the person (or child) who dares to challenge my plans for the weekend - sorry, did that sound a little threatening, hehe!! (that was an evil laugh by the way).

Hope you're going to be good to yourself this weekend - go on, you deserve it!

Bye for now :)

10 comments:

Nathalie said...

I would have never thought there'd be so many books on embroidery ;)

Jennifer Rose said...

i love looking at Japanese craft books, even if I can't understand what is written the pictures are usually gorgeous :)

muahahahahah-evil laugh (but it hurts the throat :p)

slept past 8 so I think that counts as being good to myself lol

Janet Metzger, Artist said...

Hello Alison...your new books are beautiful and I have a feeling we will see their influence in the not too distant future ;-) . Enjoy your weekend!
your friend,
Janet

Marion said...

It's great to see hand embroidery making a comeback. I taught it at Art School for some years, but was disappointed when the fashion moved towards free machine embroidery. It became hugely popular but I think there was a certain sameiness about it.
But I'm loving the hand done things I'm seeing on the internet these days. Very retro.
It will look fab on tweed by the way!

Woollywotnots said...

Oh I love your embroidery books. It is something I'd like to learn more about. 'Doodle Stitching' is a book recommendation for September on Woollywotnots book club. I hope you'll come over and share all your books. It will be great to hear about them. :-) The link is www.woollywotnots.com

florcita said...

Those look interesting! I am waiting until I see my granma again to see If I can finnally learn a bit about embroidery...surface design requires it.
When you are done with the books, give us a review!

june at noon said...

I'm so jealous! I've been wanting The New Crewel for a year now, putting it on my Christmas and birthday lists to no avail. When I check the local bookstore to buy it myself, it's never there. Guess I'm going to have to go online.... Enjoy it for me, will you? ;)

Tweed Thoughts said...

Hi All - I've been having fun with my embroidery books over the weekend. Details of my progress coming soon :)

Having looked at them all, each one has something different to offer - I think I've scored!! :D

Karin van Dam said...

That sounds like a wonderful weekend. I hope you enjoyed it and came up with some wonderful new creative ideas!

theothermousie said...

Oooh sounds like a good weekend! I have Doodle Stitching too & I've tried a few things out of it - highly recommend it!

Happy reading

Take care

Sarah xx