Laura Wasilowski has an unmistakable style, and if you love it as much as I do, you're going to want to see her new book Joyful Stitching. She is known for her happy colors, deceptively simple shapes, and tantalizing thread embroidery. Using beautiful wools, silks, and felts, Laura takes you through the process of designing and stitching up delightful free-form embroidery pieces.
Laura's book starts with the materials and tools that you'll need. If you've done any amount of needlework, you most likely already have everything you need, though you might want a few new colors. Laura works on solids, so save those printed fabrics for another day. The next chapter gives you options for transferring designs to your fabrics if you don't want to completely free-style it. And next comes 21 different stitches that are the most useful in her work, from the simplest running stitch to the more challenging bullion stitch. Good instructions mean that you'll be able to do them all, even if you're a beginner. Patterns are included!
Joyful Stitching also includes 6 start to finish projects in Laura's signature style, followed by additional ideas for making the artform your own: using different background fabrics, creating shapes, line, and texture, stitching variations on the basic stitches, creating your own patterns and motifs, and finding new sources of inspiration. The final section of the book discusses display options and ideas so that your work doesn't have to end up in a pile like mine is!!
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