Beginner's Guide to Machine Embroidered Flowers
Published on 14. July 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
80 pages
978-1-84448-058-6 (ISBN)
Description
Combining her love of gardens and landscapes with her skills as an artist and a machine embroiderer, Alison Holt shows you how to create exquisite flower pictures using your sewing machine. Alison's interpretations of what she sees in nature are so detailed that many people at first mistake her embroideries for paintings or even photographs. Alison's technique is to use her sewing machine like a paintbrush to apply threads in a myriad of different colours on to a canvas of hand-painted silk. She uses two basic stitches - straight stitch and zigzag stitch - to make fine and broad 'brushstrokes', blending both to achieve stunning results.
This comprehensive and colourful book covers everything from composing a picture and setting up the machine to choosing threads and silk paints and creating different effects in stitch. Each of the three step-by-step projects allow you to put all you have learnt into practice to make a stunningly effective embroidered picture, and will inspire you to transform what you see around you into your own, unique designs.
This comprehensive and colourful book covers everything from composing a picture and setting up the machine to choosing threads and silk paints and creating different effects in stitch. Each of the three step-by-step projects allow you to put all you have learnt into practice to make a stunningly effective embroidered picture, and will inspire you to transform what you see around you into your own, unique designs.
Reviews / Votes
Nov 09When I saw the works of Alison Holt for the first time, I thought these are beautiful landscape photographs. But as I looked more closely, I could hardly believe it that these were actually embroidered pictures. The light and shade are fantastic, the natural colours and the perspective. In her embroideries not only the colors succeed in representing forms and structures, but she also tries to catch the moment where she meets the light. She is a painter on the sewing machine for me. * Patchwork Professional * July 2006
Alison Holt uses painting with stitches to create wonderful textile pictures of plants and gardens. A keen gardener, she uses the inspiration of natural forms for the basis of her designs.The machine stitching which she uses to such good effect, develops textures and depth in her pictures which could not be obtained by painting alone. She uses silk painted backgrounds with free machined plant and flower forms in a unique and individual format. There are full colour illustrations of the techniques, with advice about composition, colour, texture and presenting finished embroideries. The examples shown are beautifully worked and would inspire beginners or experienced stitchers to look again at their gardens. * Merseyside Embroiderers Guild * Sept 06
Another of Alison Holt's popular series on machine embroidery for gardens. This one uses only two stitches, straight and zigzag, to cover a variety of effects. The backgrounds are hand-painted silk and instructions are given for all the flowers in the book, in step-by-step format. The backgrounds themselves are really lovely in loose form, even before stitching takes place. * Workshop On The Web * Oct 06
Alison's stunning machine embroidered flowers look so lifelike it almost seems possible to pick them off the page. This is a brilliant book for those who enjoy free-motion embroidery as it guides the reader through the process of realistically interpreting natural subjects with stitches. It includes all the basics, and there's a particularly good section showing which stitch techniques work best for various types of flowers and foliage. The book includes many examples of Alison's exquisitely worked designs, followed by three masterclass projects where readers can follow her methods as a starting point for creating their own unique embroideries. * SEWING WORLD * Oct/Nov 06
This book is a guide to drawing flowers and foliage with a sewing machine. The vivid and colourful floral landscapes are given further depth by the use of hand-painted silk backgrounds. With clear instructions this book is suitable for all levels. * Stitch * Issue 45
Alison's fabulous book is packed with wonderful projects to get you machine embroidering. Even if you are a complete novice, with this beautifully illustrated book to hand you'll be creating beautiful machine embroidered flowers and gardens - quicker than you could ever grow them! The detailed step-by-step illustrations make this book extremely easy to follow and you'll soon be creating your very own masterpieces. * Fabrications * Issue 2, Winter 07
This beautifully illustrated and highly accessible book will show you how to use your sewing machine like a paintbrush to create gorgeous pictures of flowers. All aspects of machine embroidery are covered, including initial inspiration and design, basic techniques, colour and composition, making this book suitable for everyone, including complete beginners. * Flair * No. 45, Feb/Mar 07
Using the sewing machine as a tool, Alison Holt has produced an array of beautiful embroidered flowers and gardens that come alive. You can almost pick the flowers from the page, they are so beautifully constructed.
The easy to follow step-by-step illustrations of silk painting and machine stitching, worked with only basic straight stitch and zigzag stitch, are so clear even those inexperienced in free-machine embroidery should be able to reproduce her beautiful designs, before moving on to produce their own designs from photographs or sketches. * Stitch * Newsletter 65, Summer 2007
An excellent follow-on book to Machine Embroidered Landscapes, full of lovely illustrations of complete works with clear diagrams and instructions for the techniques to help beginners and advanced machinists alike. Forget your computerised sewing machines, this is a hands-on method with two simple stitches and a basic sewing machine.
May Williams, Launceston * West Country Embroiderers *
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Tunbridge Wells
United Kingdom
Illustrations
250 Illustrations, color
Dimensions
Height: 262 mm
Width: 205 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84448-058-6 (9781844480586)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
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. Alison lives in Oswestry, UK.