When used effectively, line and mark-making convey texture, tone, form, movement, and mood. With Drawn to Stitch by your side, learn creative uses of line in embroidery and textile art.Artist and teacher Gwen Hedley shares a series of exercises designed to explore line’s potential as well as develop your creativity. Drawn to Stitch also covers line and mark-making tools, materials, and processes, including printing and mixed-media techniques. Gwen explores stitch, explaining how to interpret different line qualities from crisp and sharp to soft and diffused and from raised and overlaid to recessed and inlaid.Full of inspiring ideas, Drawn to Stitch is illustrated with stunning examples of stitched-textile work from leading artists.

    Includes 52 Scrapbooking challenges that help you think outside of your creative box and expand your individual style.

    With instructions for 21 embroidery stitches and 6 projects, all in Laura's signature colorful, whimsical style, you'll transform a flat, plain surface into a joyful, design-packed art piece. Stitch on wool, felt, or silk, and enjoy the simple pleasure of slow stitching. Includes a gallery of display ideas.

    Mercurial, versatile, inexpensive, and wildly colorful, alcohol inks are one of the newest mediums to hit the art community. Pigments of Your Imagination is your essential guide for working with alcohol inks, from choosing which inks to use for each project to learning how to maximize your artistic potential with a wide variety of fascinating techniques. Using an assortment of materials and tools, learn how to work on a variety of surfaces, including paper, glass, metal, fabric, and plastic. Find inspiration for your own masterpieces in the step-by-step demos and guest artist gallery. From the beginning craftsperson to the professional artist, Pigments of Your Imagination offers a broad insight into the expansive world of alcohol inks. Explore the limits of your artistic ingenuity with alcohol inks. Jump start your creativity!

      This collection includes 30 embroidery designs with project ideas to show you how to use the designs to create beautiful and practical home decor items and accessories. The techniques for the stitches and project instructions are shown using Nancy’s stitch diagrams so extremely easy to follow whether you are an experienced stitcher or a newbie.   The projects are divided between felt and fabric sections and include: pin cushion, lampshade, tote bag, cushion, table runner, coaster and pinafore.   Nancy’s distinctive folk art style perfectly captures this trend and will appeal to stitchers of all ages and abilities.   “I was blown away by the beautiful photography, the lovely, easy-to-follow projects dripping with inspiration, and the conversational tone of the writing . . . The instructions to make up the projects are clear and easy to follow.” —Kate & Rose

    

    The pleasures to be had from slowing down can be many, with connections to sustainability, simplicity, reflection, and tuning into traditional and other multicultural textile traditions.Slow Stitch is a much-needed guide to adopting a less-is-more approach, valuing quality over quantity, and bringing a meaningful and thoughtful approach to textile practice.Claire Wellesley-Smith introduces a range of ways in which you can slow your textile work down, including:Using simple techniques inspired by traditional practice (including hand-stitch rhythms)Reusing and re-inventing materials (reuse even old textile projects)Limiting your equipmentMending revisited (practical and decorative techniques)Project ideas and resources that help towards making a more sustainable textile practiceRichly illustrated throughout, and showcasing work from the best textile artists who work in this way, this is a truly inspirational book for those looking to reconnect with their craft and to find a new way of working.

    Shows how to create abstract paintings within the rules of realism through a list of tools and materials, lessons on applying traditional elements to abstract art, and projects with instructions and color illustrations.

    It enables you to have complete control over style, design, and color of your garments. And once you learn the basic practice, you can knit almost anything you can think of. What stands in most people’s way is getting started. How do you learn to knit socks? Where do you find knitting patterns? This book answers all of those questions and more. What will this book teach you? • Getting started knitting socks • How to find the right knitting tools and correct needles for knitting your socks • How to pick the best knitting yarn • 10 Most popular sock knitting patterns • How to size your socks • How to knit socks from the Top-down • How to knit sock from the Toe-up • Sock Cast-on techniques, such as, Long Tail cast on, Eastern/ Turkish cast on • The Double Point and Circular Needle methods • Tips on how to knit long lasting, beautiful socks • And so much more!.. Even if you have never picked up a pair of knitting needles before, you can easily start knitting your way towards a pair of perfect socks with this book. It even includes a Glossary of Knitting Terms as an added BONUS, so as you expand your projects to other designs and find other patterns, you will never be in the dark. This book also includes 1 basic top-down sock pattern and 7 additional popular sock patterns for you to work on. While this book is intended to get you started in the world of knitting, it can easily serve as a refresher for even the most experienced knitter! Whether you want to get started or want to get back to basics and hone your skills, "Knitting Socks for Beginners" is the book for you. From Tube socks to Fair Isle socks, you have all the information and knitting patterns you need. Socks are not necessarily the easiest thing to knit, but the techniques used to make a pair of socks introduces you to everything else you need to know about knitting. This book will guide you through every stage of the knitting process and help you create a pair of perfectly knitted socks, in just three days! There is no better book for learning the basics of knitting. This acts as the perfect springboard for more complex knitting projects, with all of the techniques, tips, and terms spelled out to keep you on the right track. If you are looking for a great book about sock knitting, look no further. Get your copy of "Knitting Socks for Beginners" today! Check Out What Others Are Saying... "This is a brilliant book for beginners. I've never tried knitting before but now can't wait to get started. The author goes through every step of the knitting process in fine detail. The book is very well written and has excellent photographs and diagrams. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to try sock knitting for the first time." - Lesley H "I've been thinking of knitting for quite a awhile now. I'm glad I stumbled on this book. I'm a total newbie so this book is perfect for me. "Knitting socks for beginners" gives step by step instructions to get started at knitting socks. Has tons of info- tools, needle size,yarn types. Great help for the beginner.

    Find your "authentic" design voice and get carving today!

     Select from 12 strikingly simple quilts and recharge your creative batteries Discover skill-building projects that move from squares and strips to designs featuring stitch-and-flip corners, half-square triangles, pinwheels, a Rail Fence layout, and more Enjoy patterns that are just right for quilt retreats and make-in-a weekend gifts

    Angela Walters creates the complementary finish and surface texture for each design, resulting in the perfect marriage of color and style for each of the featured 17 quilt projects.Pairing one shape with one color family in each chapter, you'll step through quilts of varying sizes, at the same time enjoying a front row seat to the creative collaboration between these mavens of style.In addition to the 17 signature Tula Pink quilt designs and 42 quilt design motifs from Angela Walters, you will also be treated to useful tips on choosing fabrics and mixing up prints and approaching the quilt process.Featuring bold illustrations and gorgeous photographs, Quilt with Tula & Angela is the comprehensive approach to intuitive color choices you've been waiting for.

    Presented in an easy-to-use format arranged by topic and cross-referenced, so you can dip in and out as needed for advice, this book offers hundreds of answers, fixes, insider tips, and secrets to help you along the way. Divided into sections that cover a multitude of topics such as: choosing the right hook for you, putting gauge measurements to work, fool-proof ways of turning, quick fixes for uneven edges, shaping with increases and decreases, how to make neat corners, marking essentials, dealing with yarn ends, choosing the right seam and even how to look after crochet garments, 200 Crochet Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets contains a wealth of technical knowledge and handy tips. Aimed at all crocheters, from the beginner to the more experienced, this book is a valuable addition to any craft library.

    But when Natalie Chanin and her Alabama Chanin and The School of Making teams began to look at needlework closely, they realized all stitches are based on geometric grid systems—and by using grids as guides, they could make learning stitches, even seemingly elaborate ones, as easy as child’s play.   In The Geometry of Hand-Sewing Chanin presents their breakthrough method, featuring illustrated instructions (for both right- and left-handed stitchers) for more than 100 stitches—from the most basic straight and chain to the more fanciful feather and herringbone; photos of both right and wrong sides; and guidelines for modifying stitches to increase one’s repertoire further. To simplify learning, the book also includes two plastic stitching cards die-cut with the grids on which every stitch in the book is based. These reusable cards can be stitched through for practicing ( just as children use lacing cards to learn to tie shoes) or used as stencils for transferring grids to fabric.

    In The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, Sherri Lynn Wood presents a flexible approach to quilting that breaks free of old paradigms. Instead of traditional instructions, she presents 10 frameworks (or scores) that create a guiding, but not limiting, structure. To help quilters gain confidence, Wood also offers detailed lessons for stitching techniques key to improvisation, design and spontaneity exercises, and lessons on color. Every quilt made from one of Wood’s scores will have common threads, but each one will look different because it reflects the maker’s unique interpretation. Featured throughout the book are Wood’s own quilts and a gallery of contributor works chosen from among the hundreds submitted when she invited volunteers to test her scores during the making of this groundbreaking work.