The hand-stitched surface, a book review

Hi everyone, 

I hope you had a great weekend.

Today, I'm sharing a little project I've been working on. 

I was asked to review a book, and thought why not. It includes hand embroidery, and love hand embroidery. 

The book is The hand-stitched surface by Lynn Krawczyk.

You can find this book here or in Canada here.

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher. This review is my own opinion. I do not have affiliate links on this post. I'm not receiving any other compensation for this review. 

 

This book included 15 projects to embroider by hand on paper or fabric.

The photos in the book are beautiful. The instructions are clearly written and easy to understand for someone who is a beginner or advanced. This book is geared more towards the beginner though. The whole concept of this book is to do small embroidery projects by hand to relax and have some meditative quiet moments with needle and thread. Also, to have little portable projects to travel with you when you expect to sit in a car, or in a waiting room and you want a relaxing activity to do. 

In order to do a better review, I decided to try one of the projects in the book. The projects in this book are not my usual style. These projects are more artsy. But, I thought it would be a good way to expand my craft and to just have fun. I do love hand embroidery. 

I decided to make the Boho collage coaster. 

 

These looked really funky and fun. So I followed the instructions and started my own. I worked on mine for a few days and this is what I ended up with.

 

Mine is not quite as bright as the ones in the book. 

 

I used many ideas for the designs from the book and added some of my own as well. What I really like about this book, is that it shows you simple stitches, then gives examples on how to expand on them. 

As you can see in the image above, the book shows you the basics on how to do the stitch, then gives you ideas on how to make it better. I really loved that part. This allows you to really individualize your projects. 

I also decided to make another project of my own design, using the stitches provided in the book. 

 

I made a crazy quilt block needle keeper and added embroidery. I used the same colour of thread for all the embroidery on this project. 

Here are a few more projects included in the book.

 

These are beautiful stitched buttons.

 

This paper craft is very interesting and I think would make a great card as well.

 

This stamped and stitched book ribbon is super cute. I love how they styled it in this photo. It would make a cute decore in your craft room. 

I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting to try a project that's not my normal go to project. But, it was fun for me. I really like the embroidered buttons and I think I may make a few of those too. It is a beautiful book, with projects that are more boho style. It's beginner friendly. Some people may think it's too basic if they have a lot of embroidery experience. I think the projects in the book are a good base for you to branch out and make things in your personal style using the ideas provided. If you are a paper crafter, this will help you to add that thread in you stash to enhance your projects. Another thing that I like is that she encourages you not to be perfect, but to be more random with size and colour. I think that makes the project more interesting. 

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed my review, and the projects I made from the book.

Linking with:

Main Crush Monday

Monday Making

A pincushion and needle case

Hi everyone, 

I hope you are well. I wanted to share the swap items I sent to Bea of Beaquilter . She is the one who organized this swap. Thanks so much Bea!  

Here's the pincushion I made for her.

 

I added some hand stitching to this one. I really like the effect it makes. It's filled with crushed walnut shells. 

I also made her a needle case and handmade card.

 

I enjoyed making these! 

I hope you like them too!

A plus quilt for baby.... in progress

Hi everyone,

I designed a little baby quilt to use some of the RSC2017 plus blocks I've been making. 

This baby quilt I'm donating to a young woman who is expecting her first child. This girl is 17 years old and was kicked out of her home when her parents found out she was pregnant. None of her family would take her in. One of my coworkers has a daughter in the same class, and offered to take her in. She's been with my coworkers family for six months now and is doing really well. When I heard this story it saddened me so much. I'm glad she is in a safe place now, with a good family to take care of her. I wanted to do my part and make a quilt for her baby. I had a teen pregnancy too. I ended up getting married at 18 years old. I had met the most amazing man, and I'm still married to him today, 21 years later. But it was hard, and a lot of people judged me harshly. I remember all those things that happened. I was fortunate to have family support. Even though they were not impressed with me, they still stood by me. 

 

I could not imagine being abandoned by my family. It would be devastating for this girl, at a time when she must feel like her life is falling apart. Making a quilt for her is my gift to help her in these challenging times. Many of my coworkers have donated items like cribs, clothing, strollers, and diapers. I'm always so impressed with the generosity of the people I work with. 

I would have gotten this quilt top done today, but my iron died. Ughhhhh! I'll have to go buy a new one tomorrow. 

RSC 2017, week #19 - green

Hi everyone,

I did make some progress on my green blocks.

Here's what I got done this week.

I made 13 green, 3 1/2 inch spool blocks. My goal is to have 30 made.

I also made 6, 6 1/2 inch plus blocks. I using these on more than one project. So, more of these are going to be made too.

I'm having fun with these blocks. I hope you had time to sew on your green blocks too.

I'm linking to So Scrappy!