Swalm

 

I bought this book a couple of years back and found it worth the money I spent on it.

What I liked best about this book is - Christine Bishop has used different design details for each element- in effect, you get to work all the possible combinations.  Instructions are very clear and satisfactory.

The outlines are worked in chain stitch followed by a row of coral stitches - then embellished with buttonhole stitch variations.

The smaller design elements are worked in padded satin - the large ones with a combination of draw and pulled thread designs.

The edging is needle made lace -though it looks like crochet.



Needle made lace is more intricate and time consuming than crochet. But the finished product is always worth the effort.

Encyclopedia of Needlework - By Th De Dillmont

This wonderful book covers all aspects of needlework. It has about 800 pages, 1107 very clear engravings and 13 coloured plates.  There are different editions and naturally, the contents vary from edition to edition.

There are atleast 4 different editions that I personally know of. Here's the table of contents in the book I have.

1. Plain Sewing - The sewing and embroidering machine 
2. Machine sewing and embroidering
3. Mending
4. Embroidery upon white materials
5. Linen Embroidery
6. Embroidery upon silk and Velvet
7. Gold Embroidery
8. Applique work
9. Tapestry
10. Knitting
11. Crochet
12. Tatting
13. Macrame
14. Netting
15. Openwork on Linen
16. Embroidered laces
17. Needle-made laces
18. Pillow laces
19. Needlework trimmings
20. Miscellaneous directions
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

The book takes you through the basics of all the different crafts. This is something like a stitch dictionary with plenty of projects for all levels of craft lovers. 

What I like best about this book is, it endeavors to teach the basics and the engravings or images are so clear that it is impossible not to learn from them. It's truly a treasure house created over a 100 years ago. All the designer has to do is, use this as a crutch and give free rein to the imagination.

This is not the edition I own. This book have fewer pages. This book was published in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Monograms in Filet Crochet and Tatting

This book contains charts and instructions for working letters and monograms in Filet Crochet. Housed in the Antique Pattern Library, this is one of the numerous crochet books, for free download, the library and its has put up over the past several years.

Here are some pictures from the book. There are about 17 pages in total.

These pages give a general idea of how to chart letters both for filet and for cross stitch. There are a few charts for tiny birds and animals that you can combine with the letters for a more customized look.

I like the C and the E in the chart above.  There are general working instructions and an abbreviations and definitions chart.

Maybe I am wrong, but I think this is the first book I've come across that has cross meshes for the letters of the Alphabet. 

Some monograms in tatting - cursive capital letters Will look beautiful when combined with embroidered flowers with a lot of beads add either to the tatting or the embroidery. Must try.

A book definitely worth downloading.

Filet Crochet Design Book for Free Download

For more Filet Crochet monogram designs, pop over to my post on  Assissi Embroidery and download load the book from the link there.

This post is about a book on Netting designs (I wonder if anyone does netting anymore), that can be adapted for Filet crochet and Assissi. Take a look at some of the designs for yourself. My favourite is the one on the cover. Here it is. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

 Very elaborate, with plenty of details. Goes without saying, that the design will eat up a lot of yarn, and a huge chunk of time and money. But it will definitely be worth the effort. I've learnt over the years the hard way, not to scrimp on the quality of yarn, when working on elaborate projects. So no more buying supposedly good quality yarns, sold at very cheap prices.

This book has about 26 pages and over 60 designs. If you want it, you can download it from here.

Ethnic Embroidery of India Part I

Author - Usha Shrikant

Cost - US$40 (Rs.1500)

It has about 143 pages of information about designs and techniques used in the different embroidery styles of Bengal, the Banjara tribe, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kashmir, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

So, did I get value for money? I'd say no.

It's a hard bound book with excellent quality paper. It would make a decorative coffee table book. But for use by serious students of embroidery, as a source of authentic and extensive information,  on the distinct styles of Indian Embroidery, the book is a big disappointment.

 Rs 1500 for 143 pages??? So why did I order it? For one thing, I did not know that the book only contained so few pages. For another, I hoped the book would be packed with techniques, you won't find anywhere else.

What I expected was a discussion of the various design elements of each distinct style. I'll take Kantha of Bengal, as a case in point. This style, has several distinct motifs, typical to it. But I all found in the book is, information on the various typical utilitarian articles, people made using this embroidery style, pictures of some work samples, a couple of pictures with an inadequate demo of how to work a leaf and a round (anyone who has anything to do with embroidery would have figured it out, just by looking at it) and four pages with about 19 kantha motifs you can find in any embroidery design books, that Indian craft outlets sell, for a maximum of Rs.120.

There is no information here that you won't find elsewhere cheaper or even for free.

Panagram

Panagrams?

Panagrams are sentences that use all the letters in the alphabet atleast once. They are also called holoalphabetic sentences.

I suppose everyone who ever attended typewriting classes would be familiar with the famous sentence

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
- the author of this famous sentence is Nevin Nollop.

Ella Minnow Pea is a novel based on this on this panagram promises to be book of
the P.G Wodehouse cadre.

Notice that the title "Ella Minnow Pea" sounds like LMNOP!

You can look up panagram here

For wordplay freaks, Amazing English has more fun on offer

The Embroiderer's Garden

Just returned from teaching Kutchwork to a batch of 7 students. It was a 4 day course. 5 out of the 7 mastered the technique. They want me to extend the duration to atleast one more day to clear all their doubts. So, I'll be busy tomorrow also.
After that who knows, they may sign up for my other courses.

I bought a couple of books on my trip to Chennai last week.

The Embroiderer's garden by Thomasina Beck is one.
I bought it because after reading so many craft blogs I noticed that most avid embroiderers are also avid gardeners. The title naturally made me curious and after browsing through it, I simply had to have the book. As the title implies, there are all sorts of wonderful gardens done in applique, counted thread, blackwork, brazilian stlye. There are no instructions. Plenty of ideas for compositions and some very striking examples but no instructions. Nevertheless it is a good book.

The second book is The Anchor Book of hardanger Embroidery. It contains dom 40 stitches and motifs.