Long and Short Stitch Embroidery: A Collection of Flowers (Milner Craft Series)

It's been 20 years since I picked up the embroidery needle, so while not a beginner, I found the "thread painting" style intimidating. Trish Burr's "Long and Short Stitch Embroidery" looked very complex at first -- in fact I found it has brilliantly clear instructions.Her key chapter is "Techniques". This shows how to mark up your cloth with guidelines, how to start and finish sewing (no knots!) and how to prepare your embroidery for mounting. "Tips for Improving your Long and Short Stitch" is only a few pages, but they're briiliant. This has hints on what stitches you should sew first, how you should avoid abrupt changes of angle, the use of wedge stitches to even the edges of the figure you're sewing, and directions on how to slightly vary the length of the long stitch in subsequent stitches (so that the colours blend properly). Just reading this section has improved my embroidery! Just the instructions on long and short stitchery make the book worth the price. Not only does it have explanations and diagrams about what you should be doing right, it also has diagrams showing you what exactly you may do WRONG.While it's a bit depressing to see my stitchwork exactly depicted in the diagrams where the wrong method is shown, it does mean I can go about changing them. Trish Burr may show you many ways to mess up this style of embroidery -- but she never does so without giving a diagram and instructions on how to do it right.I haven't yet ventured into the Projects section, which has (as it promises) a collection of flowers. I will do, however. It begins with the simpler thread paintings of folk art flower designs, through complexity, to an absolutely beautiful Rust Red Bearded Iris, and some stunning Field Poppies.One of the things that I most like about this book is that, no matter how inept you currently are, the book convinces you that you can learn to do this. And if you're a more experienced embroiderer, I'll bet that you'll still find many of Trish Burr's tips incredibly useful.

Extremely clear instructions with plenty of images for every step.I found the projects follow an attainable difficulty curve, and have colour photos of what the completed work should look like as well as instructions of what stitches to use in which areas of the embroidery, and recommended thread colours.My only quibble is a typo on page 68, where the numbers for 4 of the threads are incorrect, but since the same shades are used in other projects it was easy to find the right ones.

Beautiful book, bought because I came across a YouTube vid on the subject of needle painting, an embroidery technique. Trish Burr, the author, mentioned the book in the video so I went looking for it. To be honest, I didn't hold out much hope of finding it because Ms Burr lives and works in South Africa, but there it was on Amazon! Very happy with this comprehensive instruction book, beautiful illustrations, patterns and clear instructions. Well worth the cost and arrived the next day, which happens to be my birthday so a present to myself.

I highly recommend!

Excellent book to guide you in learning a new craft

A really useful and atractive book on a subject (silk shading or needle painting) I have recently become a fan of. The technical explanation of the trachnique is comprehensive and easy to follow. There are lots of patterns to use, from begiiners to much bigger designs.The book arrived in a week in good condition. Shame there is no photograph in the product description.Altogether a very satisfactory transaction.

This book is exactly what it says - a collection of flowers in long and short stitch. It is beautifully laid out, with clear instructions for the technique and what is required for each flower. It offers guidance which could be followed by a beginner but is also invaluable to someone who already has experience but wants to develop their skill. Once learned the skill can be applied to any flower or leaf. Invaluable for the embroiderer.

I am teaching myself embroidery - this is quite sophisticated embroidery and a challenge. Good pictures and lots of instructions. The flowers depicted are a reasonable range of garden flowers and "florist" type foreign flowers. Definitely "English" type of embroidery as from the Royal School of Needlework.