Thursday, March 22, 2012

Book Review - Home Sweet Home

  I love projects!  I love to plan them, to pick out the materials and threads and find the frames.  If I had as much enthusiasm for stitching the things as I do for buying them, I would have no empty wall space!

  A few weeks ago I purchased a new project book from Country Bumpkin.  It's called Home Sweet Home
and is a delightful sewing box in the shape of a country cottage.  Worked in various threads and stitches on linen and lined with a pretty print, the box's roof opens to reveal a treasury of handworked tools including an emery, a needlebook and a tape measure cover among others.  (The second link will take you to the catalog page which has a link to a video slideshow of the box and most of the tools.)
   The author, Carolyn Pearce, has done a good job with the instructions for both the box and the embroidery.  As is usual with Country Bumpkin publications, the photographs are wonderful.  Small illustrations of related motifs such as strawberry plants, insects and animals are scattered among the pages as well, which makes the book a pretty one to page through even if one is not an embroiderer.

   What's that I hear you asking?  What about the Gentleman's Nightcap?  Well, I've been involved in painting rooms and just haven't got up to the sewing room lately.  The tiny  motifs of the cap are difficult to stitch with the rather thick Gilt Sylke Twist, and this has made me a bit wary.  I shall, however, get back to it soon.  Now that we're getting a bit more sunny weather I'll be able to stitch without having to fiddle with lighting and I'm hoping that makes things go a bit easier.