Learn how to create beautiful machine-embroidered pictures of gardens, flowers, landscapes and woodlands using various combinations of just two simple machine stitches. All the techniques are broken down into clear, step-by-step instructions, with numerous helpful photographs and a great range of inspirational pieces. Alison 'paints' her threads on to hand-coloured backgrounds, blending her stitches and achieving stunning results. The raised effects of the embroidery produce a beautiful three-dimensional look and her clever use of perspective is effective and easily achieved. This book covers everything, including the materials required; how to compose a picture from photographs that have inspired you; achieving perspective; light and shade; painting backgrounds; and all the basic stitch techniques you need to know. Detailed instructions explain how to create realistic flowers, trees, foliage and much more, and there are eight stunning step-by-step projects so that you can put into practice your newly acquired skills .This is a must-have instructional and inspirational book for anyone interested in free-motion embroidery.

About the Author

Alison Holt studied Fine Art, Textiles and Embroidery at Goldsmiths College, London where she experimented with many textile techniques before choosing machine embroidery as a medium. She started to explore her love of gardens and the countryside through embroidery, finding it the perfect vehicle to express the various textures and forms she finds so fascinating. She now teaches machine embroidery, silk painting and surface decoration and runs courses at her studio. She also works to commission, and exhibits her embroideries in Britain and America. Her work is sold to private collectors all over the world.

Reviews

Alison Holt has had three previous books published by Search Press, all showing how to do her trademark machine embroidery. This is a new volume containing material from all of them and is ideal for anybody who wants to learn this addictive and enjoyable method of producing beautiful pictures. This book is suitable for beginners and don't worry if you are no good at painting or hand embroidery and don't worry if you don't possess a top-of-the-range sewing machine. Any old machine will do, and painting a simple background is not difficult. You don't need any expensive equipment to do this, just an embroidery hoop, something that makes a mark for your backgrounds, machine threads and off you go. There are pages devoted to topics such as how best to work from photographs, making a good design, looking for inspiration and all that, illustrated with examples not only of finished works but also materials used and works in progress. This is essentially a hands-on primer, with plenty about painting in a background and of course getting to grips with this very freestyle form of using a sewing machine. There are lots of techniques to try and samples to stitch to get the hang of depicting nature and getting the most out of your machine. There are several examples of pictures to work through, well illustrated and captioned with many pages of stages for a foolproof result. The finished worked themselves are glorious, and show subjects such as spring woods bright with bluebells, summer gardens bursting with flowers, leafy autumn scenes and snowy paths. Lovely to look at and surprisingly easy to master, this is a great introduction to this hobby.-Myshelf.com This beautiful book provides a showcase for Alison Holt's exquisite machine embroideries and teaches you how to 'paint' with threads to create stunning machine embroidered gardens, flowers, landscapes and woodlands using various combinations of just two simple stitches. It sounds too simple, but all the techniques are broken down into clear, step-by-step instructions, with numerous helpful photographs and a great range of inspirational pieces. Eight inspiring step-by-step projects allow you to put your skills into practice, making this a must-have instructional book for anyone interested in free-motion embroidery.-Fabrications