The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving

This is my first book on jewelry making techniques using beads.

Techniques introduced here are beaded beads (beads made of beads), chevron chain, crocheted ropes (bead crochet), herringbone stitch, peyote stitch and spiral rope.

The elegant jewelry projects are from contemporary bead jewelry designers and photos of their works are also featured.

I really like this book because it is easy to understand. I hope to learn all the techniques soon and try my hand in making the projects.

This book is a collection of needlepoint designs from Ehrman company.

I liked this book because of the level of complexity of the projects.

Designers included are Kaffee Fassett, Candace Bahouth and Elian McCready.

This book is one of the earliest books I bought when I was very interested in needlepoint.

I always wanted to learn this technique. This french magazine is the perfect way for me to start.

Although completely written in French, supplementary photographs of the basic technique make me feel confident I can do this type of quilting.

There are many projects I want to finish.

Il Punto Antico is mostly about pulledwork technique in florentine designs. The book discusses the stitches used in antique italian pulledwork and also features black and white photos of embroideries for inspiration.

You can read more about Maria Margheri Manetti and the stitches in this website.

You can read more about Il Punto Antico in in Jeanine´s blog, Italian Needlework. Jeanine Robertson also wrote articles on the technique.

Visit the Associazione Il Punto Antico´s website to view more of their publication.

Another great book from Yoko Saito. This book shows the basic techniques in Patchwork needlework.

Even not understanding Japanese, the photographs are so well executed that I am confident I would take into patchwork soon using this book.

You can purchase the books, kits and more products in her online store, Patchwork Quilt Party.

Basket made from Cloth

From Yoko Saito´s website : Yoko Saito established the Quilt Shop and workshop “Quilt Party” that was to become her base of operations. She soon garnered a reputation for her painstakingly precise needlework and her hallmark style of gentle, “taupe colors.” In recent years, aside from her regular appearances on TV and in magazines in Japan, she has begun to expand her operations overseas, holding Quilt exhibitions and workshops in countries such as France, Italy and Taiwan. In 2008 she commemorated 30 years of creative activities with the Yoko Saito Quilt Exhibition at Matsuya department store in Ginza, Tokyo. She has also published numerous books.

I like this book because it has shown me that it is possible to make complex design with appliqué and patchwork, including braiding and weaving strips of cloths.

The smart way of using the prints on cloths to inspire a design is also an interesting technique I have realized with this book.

There are lots of projects in this book. I just featured some that I would like to finish myself. Most of the projects are hand bags and baskets, made of cloth.

Ribbon Embroidery and Stumpwork Di Van Niekerk

This book gives the instructions to finishing the design on the cover, which is called Flower Sampler  in her website.

Flower Sampler

Read more about this book in her website. ^_^

The Secret Garden in Cross Stitch

I like cross stitched designs and I like Thea Gouverneur. I have finished a large kit  from her years ago (Birdhouse).

Because I also like flowers, I bought this book. I would still stitch several projects from this book. Like this rose sampler.

Rose Sampler

And this set of flowers of spring:

Set of flowers of spring narcissus, tulips daffodils

It offers the instructions to all 24 Roses inspired by Redoutés watercolor botanical paintings of roses.

More roses…

And more roses.

This is a great book on advanced Bobbin lace making. It is no project book nor are there any patterns here, instead it is a master´s book on techniques.

She describes different techniques in handling problems in bobbin lace, because in lace making, we always talk about “problems” which are to be solved, ex. how to end a pointed end discreetly.

Just on these pages, you can see she is on the 34th technique in completing or ending a lace.