How to Embroider Texture and Pattern

Starred review from June 19, 2023
Fiber artist Galbraith’s striking debut shows how to create embroidered landscape scenes. She recommends readers use quilting cotton or linen and illustrates how to transfer a design onto fabric by holding the two up against a window for tracing. The projects make creative use of a variety of stitches. For example, a mountain vista inspired by views from the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway uses the thick, raised buttonhole stitch to create the bushy foliage of conifers, while seed stitches, in which short lengths of thread come together at random angles, give the snow-covered mountains a rugged look. In the Joshua Tree scene, neat rows of rust-colored back stitches are juxtaposed with brown reverse chain stitches to depict sand variations in the desert landscape. The projects are organized from beginner to advanced, with easier designs including a coastal Oregon scene in which rows of waves lap against knotted sand and rocks, but it’s the advanced designs that put this a notch above other embroidery books; for example, carefully stitched gradients and layers of fabric give a forest scene a convincing sense of depth. Additionally, the techniques detailed in the extensive “stitch glossary” will expand sewists’ skills. Gorgeous projects and thorough instructions make this a superior embroidery guide.