Jacket review

Stitch: One of our bestsellers - if you don't already have this book, get it now! Gilda shows how to create original designs full of colour and texture. Sections on developing designs from your own photographs, source material from gardens and landscapes, colouring backgrounds and threads, and the use of both hand and machine stitching are clearly demonstrated. The simple techniques are combined and built up to create effective three-dimensional landscape and flower embroideries. Journal for Weavers Spinners & Dyers: This is a book to inspire dyers to get down to embroidery. While Gilda has a particular style - very much her own - she has set down ideas and instructions in a clear uncluttered manner so that you can adapt them to your own ideas. Whilst I was somewhat surprised, botanically speaking, that the same shaped piece of cloth - a circle - could become a poppy, buttercup, hollyhock or more or less any other flower, it was interesting to discover just what could be done with that shape and four basic hand embroidery stitches. Gilda does not expect readers to have a very posh sewing machine either and outlines how to get useful designs without a zig-zag stitch. She dyes both her background cloth, fabric for flowers and the yarns for embroidery, mainly using silk dyes in small quantities. However a group could of course use any suitable dyes and larger quantities. The book is a good starter and, I felt, very helpful and inspiring. Heather Dean, Rampton Spinners Sewing World: This inspiring book will have even the most reticent artist reaching for the fabric paints and embroidery threads. Gilda Baron's wonderful floral landscapes are bursting with colour and texture using a combination of fabric paints and dyes, with hand and machine embroidery. Gilda's techniques are generally very simple but she combines them in a very effective way, building up layers of colour and stitch into a rich landscape. Projects containing step-by-step instructions show how to create backgrounds using silk dyes, add detail with fabric pens, use machine embroidery to create grasses and background flowers, and magically bring the picture to life with textured foreground flowers consisting of French knots and fabric circles. The colours are carefully blended and Gilda shows how to dye threads and use shading to add depth. Mounting and finishing instructions are also included to display the embroideries as framed pictures or as cards. These beautiful flowers look so realistic they almost seem to grow out of the picture! Waterstones Newsletter: This book is awesome. It is both inspirational and aspirational at the same time as being a very practical guide. The book includes helpful information with regard to dyeing threads and fabric that can be utilised even if freestyle embroidery isn't your thing. However, the concise instructions alongside clear step-by-step photos will lure you into trying it, even if you've never thought about doing so before! It's easy enough for a beginner to follow (but in no way condescending or simplistic), but also provides wonderful starting off points for the more experienced embroiderer. A beautiful book that demonstrates exactly what a craft/needlecraft