Book Review and Giveaway from the Author Herself!!

I made this pillow for my mom as a (late) Mother’s Day present, and the project is from Aimee Ray’s new book, Doodle Stitching: Embroidery and Beyond, which is already a #1 best seller on Amazon!

The original project was for framed artwork, but for some reason the idea of a pillow called me on this one. I worked on this the entire time I was in Portland for Quilt Market: on the plane, when I woke up in the morning, and at night before I went to bed. I also had to stitch a couple nights when I got home. Because the pattern also calls for a lot of overcast stitching and satin stitching, it took some extra time. It probably doesn’t look like I spent too too much time on it, but I definitely did. 🙂 And hopefully it was worth it!

I didn’t find anything incredibly difficult about the pattern. I decided to substitute white buttons with handwritten names for the family tree, instead of fabric circles stitched with names, as directed in the pattern. I would give you a good reason for why, but pretty much it was just laziness. 😉 My favorite part of the pillow is the pink flower on the left-hand edge…it has satin stitching on the pink petals, the orange circle in the middle is an overcast stitch, and the yellow in the center is a couching stitch.

I just so love the variety of stitches in this project, I feel like they give the embroidered piece a ton of interest.

I used Kona white for my embroidery background, and to that I fused a piece of Pellon SF-101 Shape Flex, in order to give it some stability while I was stitching. I decided to back my pillow with a bit of Heather Bailey that I’ve never decided what to do with.

So you’ve seen my project, now I’d like to tell you a little bit more about what I thought of this book!

This book contains 22 projects, which will extend your knowledge past your basic embroidery stitches. There are 5 chapters in the book, and each teaches stitches or techniques that might be new to you, if you’ve only done simple embroidery in the past: Cross Stitch, Applique and Color (hand coloring your base fabrics), Redwork and Crewel, Sashiko and Shisha, and Cutwork and Stumpwork. If you are new to embroidery to start with, the book also has a section in the back with photographs and illustrations of how to make the basic embroidery stitches (backstitch, stem stitch, etc.). I liked that these stitches were still shown, because I’ve only made a few embroidery projects ever, and so I needed the refresher course.

All of these technique chapters were brand new to me, so I had a lot to learn, but nothing was too difficult that it wouldn’t be within reach of someone new to embroidery. I did not feel overwhelmed at all when I looked at any of the projects.

Above is a photo of the Crewel Family Tree project that I made, so you can see how the author originally intended it. Before I began, I had to make a trip to the copy store to enlarge my template (as I put it on an 18″ pillow, you can see that it was quite large). As far as I could tell, all of the templates needed enlarging, and it looked like a lot of them couldn’t be done on the home printer (unless your printer can deal with paper larger than 8″ x 10″). It only cost me 18 cents to have my template enlarged at Office Max, so I was okay with that. Each project shows a photograph of the finished item, detailed written instructions, an illustrated color template with all of the stitches shown, and the black and white template for printing.

These navy blue placemats, done in Sashiko, were another of my favorite projects from the book. To quote from the book, “Sashiko is an ancient form of embroidery from Japan. Traditionally it was used as a functional form of stitching to repair tears or worn spots on fabric. Now it is often used for decoration…usually geometric – stitched entirely in white thread on indigo fabric.” These placemats were made using a running stitch.

This purple pillow was my daughter’s favorite; she always flipped open to this page while I was working on my project. The Fancy Feathers Throw Pillow is made using Cutwork, which is where windows are cut into the fabric and the stitches are all along that cut out area. As you can see, the main fabric is purple and fabric underneath the cutwork is a pale green. This pattern calls for a lot of satin stitches and overcast stitches, which I think are my favorite out of all the embroidery I’ve tried. I definitely have this pillow on my list of must-makes.

In conclusion, this book (along with Aimee Ray’s previous 2 books) are definitely must haves! I can’t say enough good things about it. The photographs are beautiful, all of the projects are within reach, and they are all something fun you can do while watching tv at night (alas, whereas sewing, I have a hard time paying attention to what I am watching, lol). Go get it!! It’s less than $8. A right bargain.

And guess what?!? I am giving away the ACTUAL Fancy Feathers Throw Pillow from the book. Yes, Aimee Ray made this one herself, and this was the actual project that was photographed from the book. Isn’t that neat?! For the giveaway, one lucky winner will receive a copy of “Doodle Stitching: Embroidery and Beyond” in addition to the Fancy Feathers Throw Pillow.

Want a chance to win?? Click on the link below to take you to the entry page. The giveaway will be open until Friday, May 31st at 7pm CT. Good luck!!

This giveaway is now closed. The winner is #103 stitchingandbacon.