About the Book
Discover a colourful, contemporary approach to traditional whitework with best-selling embroidery expert Trish Burr.
Fresh and uplifting, Trish Burr’s use of colour brings a joyful lease of life to her stunning whitework designs.
Complete with a comprehensive guide to getting started, and arranged in order of difficulty, this inspiring book contains 10 complete, brand-new projects, each with clear step-by-step instructions, an iron-on transfer, a full-size template and sumptuous photography.
An expert teacher, and best-selling author, Trish has carefully constructed the book to appeal to beginners looking for a simple, no-nonsense approach to the technique, as well as more advanced embroiderers looking for inspiration.
With subjects ranging from striking florals to birds, bees and butterflies, this book will inspire and delight with its variety of subjects. Contained within are:
Re-usable iron-on transfers for all 10 designs, as well as full-size traceable templates;
A comprehensive illustrated stitch library of all the stitches used throughout;
A handy guide to selecting materials, preparing your fabric and using colour;
Easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions with plenty of inspiring photography.
Table of Contents:
Introduction 6
Materials and equipment 14
Preparation 21
Stitch instructions 28
Projects
Simple projects 44
Started project: Festive 46
Summer Rose 52
Winter Rose 58
Joyful 64
Intermediate projects 70
Folk Art Birds 72
Bee Happy 80
Pomegranate & Rose 88
Daisy Bug 94
Advanced projects 102
Celeste 104
Toadstools 112
The templates 120
Using iron-on transfers 128
About the Author :
Trish Burr is a self-taught and renowned embroiderer. Through research and practice she has developed her own individual technique of surface embroidery. She is the author of many best-selling books including The Kew Book of Embroidered Flowers and Trish Burr's Embroidery Transfers, with total worldwide sales of over 75,000 copies. Trish lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. For more information on Trish and her work visit www.trishbembroidery.com
Review :
Explore a modern take on traditional whitework with embroidery expert Trish Burr. This book offers 10 brand-new projects arranged by skill-level, complete with clear instructions, iron-on transfers, full-size templates and beautiful photography. Trish provides a no-nonsense approach and the projects feature themes like florals, birds and butterflies and include a comprehensive stitch library, tips on selecting materials, and guidance on fabric preparation.
This paperback guide, uses the traditional method of Whitework in a comtemporary way.
The usual method of Whitework is of course, seen in white, usually with a coloured background so the thread and pattern stitched takes key view. But this can seem boring, a look best left for the historical or familial samplers of a bye-gone age. Burr here pledges to bring this method up to date.
As someone who always struggled with traditional, I clearly remember the lesson with my Royal School of Needlework trained teacher, where she actually got me to try out this for myself. I think she knew that I would never have tried it with the white only allowance, so she tried to make it tempting to me and my style. I was allowed to try it using a visual picture - I chose a cupcake, so my little sample became very cupcake in colour. I still have that little piece now, over fifteen years later. Looking back, if she had kept to the “Whitework” laws, I would never have bothered to try it. This may echo your own thoughts. We can appreciate things which seem old fashioned but never actually want to try them.
All the good to Burr, who has not become staid in her ways. She has written a few titles so far and in the introduction, she relates to readers and mentions that she has tried to move with the times - I imagine that some readers will be shocked at her move forwards, thus she endeavours to explain her way of working.
The book itself has projects which are often aimed at beginners, so allowing for a new audience. Yet she also provides ones for those who are experienced at Whitework but want to add this coloured version to their repertoire.
The content pictorially looks at nature; think bees, butterflies…. As to the teaching, we can tell Burr has experience. The diagrams are understandable and the pictures really show what is meant to be done. There are ten reusable transfers, so you do not need to be skilled at drawing.
In this lovely guide, Burr brings splashes of color to whitework embroidery, a style that typically features white thread on white fabric. The beginner-friendly introduction details how to make various stitches, set up an embroidery hoop, and pick the most suitable fabric. Among the easiest projects are a white and red folk art flower created from straight satin stitches and French knots, and a beige and pink summer rose composed of split and padded satin stitches. Intermediate designs introduce animals to the floral tableaus, including birds, a bee, and a beetle. Rounding out the volume are two advanced pieces depicting a toadstool garden and an intricate blue and gold butterfly. Burr includes transfers for each project and suggests that for the best results, readers should tape them face-down on fabric before holding a hot iron over them. The charming floral designs include enough white accents to ensure the focus on whitework doesn’t get lost amid the color, and Burr offers an enlightening peek into her creative process by explaining that she saves striking images to Pinterest, draws inspiration from them while sketching in a graphic design software program, and then decides what stitches and colors to use where. Embroiderers will be glad they picked this up.
Well-known Australian embroiderer Burr (Kew Book of Nature Samplers; Colour Confidence in Embroidery) shares her take on traditional French whitework, updated with some Australian color. This book is thorough, covering all the materials, preparation, and finishing required for each project. There is a logical progression of information, and it is well laid out, with many clear photographs illustrating the steps. This is a project book, with 10 patterns for readers to follow. There are iron-on transfers as well as traceable templates, so readers can choose their preferred method. Burr includes four simple patterns, four intermediate, and two advanced. She suggests breaking up larger motifs to use design elements in new ways. The instruction is detailed and includes an illustrated stitch guide. Whitework uses a few different kinds of embroidery threads and stitches that may be new to some readers, but each stitch gets a complete overview. Burr is known for her stylized, nature-based designs, and this book shines with patterned florals, bugs, and a trendy mushroom for readers to create. VERDICT: A great entry-level instructional guide for embroiderers looking to learn new techniques that are not difficult but create a beautiful result.
Whitework is a huge category of embroidery. It generally refers to any embroidery that's done in white thread on a white ground fabric with the texture of the stitches as the main focus. But in this case, Trish has taken a particular style, French white work and added a colourful spin. Everything in this book is comprised of eight stitches which are taught with diagrams and example photos, and then referenced in the designs. The designs contain some white and even though colour is the main focus of the book, the texture still comes through really beautifully. There's a lot more information at the start of the book than I was expecting as well. Finishing, blocking, colour theory and Trish's process for creating an embroidery design are all included. My favourite technique in the book is padded satin stitch. It uses built layers of stitching as padding rather than felt, which is what I'm more used to and again, coming back to that textural focus, it's a really useful way to add dimension. Overall, I'm quite pleased with this as a reference book and it's an excellent example of putting an interesting spin on a very traditional technique.
