100 Cross Stitch Patterns to Mix and Match

The first part of this book presents an overview of the basics of embroidery, including a look at the tools that are most useful such as needles, frames and scissors, and the materials that you might want to work with. There's an introduction to the basic stitch families, as well as a roundup of the possibilities of embroidery, and how to match fabrics and threads to what you want to create. The rest of the book consists of 116 mix-and-match patterns, organised by type: borders and flowers, alphabets and motifs patterns. These can be endlessly combined to create exactly the effect you want, simply by turning the cut pages. Whether you want to work large or small, create homewares, embellish clothes, or produce works of art, there are combinations of patterns here to meet your precise needs. Every pattern is shown in detail, with clear illustrations and concise, user-friendly descriptions. Innovative and practical, this is the perfect introduction to embroidery for beginners, and a useful quick-reference facility for more experienced crafters.

Table of Contents:
Clear and simple stitch diagrams, with informative captions to make even complicated stitch sequences easy to work Round-up of the equipment stitchers will find most useful, together with an evaluation of materials suitable for every need Mix-and-match format allows endless combinations of stitches to meet crafters' precise embroidery ambitions

About the Author :
Jane Greenoff, managing director of the Cross Stitch Guild, is one of the most successful and popular cross stitch designers in the world, and the author of 15 books. Jane lives with her family in a converted barn in Fairford, Gloucestershire.

Review :
Here's an embroidery primer with a difference. The book includes 116 useable embroidery patterns - and we all know how useful cross stitch designs can be to adapt for Fair Isle punchcard and electronic patterns. Whether you want to work traditional or contemporary styles and designs, you'll find all the stitches, advice and inspiration you need to achieve the best decorative and textural effects.-Machine Knitting Monthly If you like to mix words or sampler-style alphabets with your motifs then this is the book for you. It looks ordinary enough on the outside (in an attractive way of course) but inside the pages are split in half with motifs at the top and letters on the bottom. Flip the pages around and get many combinations for your projects. I like innovative ideas and this is a good one. The motifs are grouped into themed sections ranging from flowers to buildings, Christmas to borders and the alphabets feature things like holly leaves, little boats, strawberries and flowers as well as classic fonts in styles like italics, traditional cross stitch, orphanage and more. These are the sort of wee designs that look great mixed together on samplers and other larger projects or used singly on cards. There are a large number of attractive buildings featured such as cottages, old mill, Windsor Castle, winter cottage, village scene etc which is another feature which is somewhat different to most books of cross stitch patterns. There is an index, a list of suppliers for UK residents and short section on how to get the best out of the book as well as plenty of instructions for the beginner cross stitcher. You can find out about basics such as starting and finishing off, fabrics, tools and threads as well as how best to work the stitches and various useful tips. This is one of those books that beginners can use to learn with and anybody else can mine for useful patterns. One for the keeper shelf, in fact.-Myshelf.com Our very own Jane Greenoff, founder of the Cross Stitch Guild, has produced another stitching innovation with this new book. What's unique about the book is that the ring-bound pages are split horizontally across the middle, so that you can easily flip through matching the borders and motifs on the top half of the pages with the alphabets on the bottom half. There's an extensive range of both elements to choose from and they are perfect for designing your own traditional samplers. The charts are in colour with photographs of finished samples of all the designs. It's a terrific reference work for sampler designing.-Cross Stitch Collection