Mystical Stitches includes an interesting combination of the mystical with the craft of embroidery. I made my first French knot at age 8, and while I do believe handicrafts can be a good meditation, I’ve never equated unraveling tangled embroidery floss with peaceful relaxation. Within this slim volume, Johnson provides fairly uncomplicated designs for embellishing one’s clothing and accessories to reflect their spiritual journey. So if you are looking for a coral snake pattern to decorate your t-shirt, you will find it here amongst an interesting collection of botanical varieties, zodiac signs, geometric patterns, & animal symbols to name a few. Extensive clear drawings of embroidery stitches make this collection accessible to beginners.

I really enjoying all the information in this book! It really has inspired me to dive into this craft and making my own clothing more special. for me. The photos are amazing, they really show you to detail of the stitches and make it really easy to replicate the patterns.

Not really for me unfortunately but I can see how someone would enjoy this in learning how to create meaningful work! There's a lot of information both on how to create that work for beginners as well as extra info for those in the know. The technical sewing info is also great however that is slightly more on the entry level.

The patterns in this book are truly beautiful, but definitely not one for beginners.

I love the spiritual exploration and explanations behind the patterns throughout the book, but unfortunately not one for me. Rather than an embroidery book I feel its a self help book that channels through the stitching.

Beautiful book just not for me. Thank you for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

If you’re looking for ideas on how one might make their spirituality and embroidery meet, then this is the book for you. Here you will find out how Christi Johnson expresses her spirituality through embroidery and how she hopes to inspire you to do the same if that’s what you wish. It applies to any beliefs, and she includes 200 symbols along with their meanings so that readers can figure out how to create their own talisman.

While this is not a traditional pattern book, as it includes many pictures of the symbols she’s made so that people can create them, they do not include the patterns themselves. At least, there weren’t patterns in the digital ARC I received. It’s possible that the patterns are included in the final edition that goes to print. In addition to providing tips on how to embroider as well as how-to graphs on various stitches, there are also tips on how to connect with your spirituality or personal power along with stretches to do in between stitching.

I think this is book for 2 types of embroiderers: 1) people who are already into mysticism and who want to combine this with their embroidery hobby and 2) people who are already into embroidery and are looking to try freehand designs. Note that both of those groups are people who have already done some embroidery. This book isn't really designed for beginners. It does include a chapter at the beginning describing basic stitches and how to do them, but it's fairly cursory and I think most novices will need to go to other resources for learning the basic stitches.

The High Points: There's some really great tips in here on how to embroider clothing and what areas of clothing are best suited for embellishment. It also includes some guidance on color theory and composition for design. All of which is great for someone who is moving past the design transfer phase and is looking to start coming up with their own designs.

The Bad: I really wish this book was organized differently. Johnson starts with some New Age mysticism / meditation stuff, but the book starts in earnest with the stitching tutorials (which are honestly too limited for true beginners) and then immediately moves into a long chapter of 'symbols'. These are pages of grouped icons that each have an embroidered example and a paragraph explaining their symbolic meaning(s). For example, one of the symbols under the Animalia heading is a swan, and there's an embroidered swan and a paragraph talking about the various things swans symbolize. There is nothing about the stitches used in the example or how to go about it yourself. That won't come for much later. Then we get the chapter on design theories. After that we get a chapter with larger designs that have (loose) instructions on how to stitch them. (No patterns.) We get another chapter on mysticism. Then we finally get a guide where each of the symbols from the earlier chapter has a stitch guide.

It would have been much easier to have the flow go from teaching the stitches, to here's some designs with instructions, to here some smaller items to use in your designs <i>along with guides to stitching them</i>, here's design theory to how to use these smaller items to create your own larger designs, and now we'll circle back to mysticism and how to incorporate embroidery into your practice.

Ultimately I think this is a pretty good book for an intermediate embroiderer with a New Age aesthetic/lifestyle but if you're a beginner, you might be better off picking up something else first.

I promise, i read the description of this book, but it still wasn't at all what i expected. This book includes some beautiful patterns and clear instructions. At the same time, i didn't expect the"spiritual practice" element of this book to be as emphasized as it was and, while i like the idea of using embroidery for meditation or spiritual practice, this particular use of it was not my style and made the book feel rather self-help-esque

What a wonderful book! Detailed guide to stitching to get you started, with a guide to starting with spirituality too. Lots of motifs and suggestions for combining them into a stitch that reflects you. Then patterns for some ready made designs.

I really enjoyed these designs. Too specific for our small collection, but personally worth considering.

I have been going through numerous embroidery books to learn new stitches and techniques.

I am so glad I got to review this book- it wasn't anything like I expected. It was more about intentions, symbolism and slowing down and enjoying the art of embroidery.

I can't wait to try some of the projects from this book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of the book to review.

I was surprised when I read this book. Despite what the description said, I still expected the usual project picture/instruction format. This book was a breath of fresh air and a completely new take on embroidery art that really encourages the reader to find their own creativity. The symbols are clearly described and taught, and some examples are even provided, but the intention is that the reader will find their own way to combine them while meditating and manifesting their own goals. Instructions on meditation, stretching, and altar creating in order to infuse intentions and interact with your own energies are also provided. The author does mention science behind these acts, but I sometimes felt that this was slipped in as an aside. Most readers of this book are going to be looking for a more intention-based approach anyway, so I see that as being an added interesting tidbit rather than a detriment.

My favorite part was the deeper description of each symbol. While I'm sure that even more information can be found out there with research, this book gave me so much knowledge on symbols that I took for granted, as well as informed any designs I might create in the future.

I absolutely loved this book: it's like a journey of discovery of symbols and magic through embroidery.  It approaches magical stitching in its entire dimension: intentions, The illustrations are just mind blowing. This unique book opens news gates when everything looks so alike. Loved loved it !

Beautiful book. I'd say it's 2/3 stitching techniques/ideas/photos and 1/3 spiritual/meditative/informative about symbols used in pagan and mystical beliefs. It's really perfect for me because it shows sooo many photos of finished stitching on clothes and wearable items which is what I'd be doing. It does cover beginning stitches, which is useful for me. It is very well illustrated with both photos and drawings. I really enjoyed looking through it and it's going to be one of my favorites. The only thing that would have made it better is a selection of different artists' stitching projects. This appears to be all the work of the author. Don't get me wrong; her work is beautiful, but it would have been nice to see others' work as well.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How gorgeous is this book? Artist Christi Johnson will inspire you with 200 of her original designs to embroider. Infused with magickal meanings Johnson also details clear instruction on stitches and how to get started. This makes it perfect for the novice too. Lots of ideas are shared about what to embroider making this perfect for those needing some inspiration for ritual clothing, day to day sigil embroidered fashion, talismans and items for altars.

*eArc provided by the publisher and NetGalley

Mystical Stitches is a tutorial and style guide for embroidery by Christi Johnson. Due out 22 June 2021 from Storey, it's 208 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

It seems that surface embroidery is enjoying something of a renaissance lately; I've reviewed several new and upcoming releases this year on the subject. This one, in addition to being a very good basic tutorial instruction guide on the stitches and designs, also has the added attraction of explaining the symbolism and meanings behind the included designs, most of which have some mystical or philosophical significance.

The author has included not only the expected astrological symbols, but also a wealth of other pagan, Egyptian, nature/wiccan, geometric forms and shapes, numbers, planets, and others, certainly enough to keep readers busy and exploring for ages. In addition to the instructions and stitch diagrams, she also writes well and engagingly about intention and ritual, use of color, and materials.

The book does include a number of step by step tutorials for surface embroidery embellished clothing, ritual cloths, amulets, and others. All of the projects can be adapted for other uses. Stitch diagram recommendations are specific enough to follow and general enough to be easily changed to suit the reader's needs. Materials listed in the tutorials are easy to source and inexpensive. In fact many of the clothing tutorials will be a super opportunity to re-purpose and upcycle found materials.

The book has an abbreviated bibliography and links list as well as a cross-referenced index. This would be a good choice for readers who are interested in more esoteric embellishments for clothing and ritual cloths. This would be a four-star read evaluated only on the merits of the embroidery instruction, but the author's voice adds a great deal of value. She's calm, reasonable, engaging, knowledgeable, and there's a very kind and encouraging vibe throughout the book. Very well done.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book. A guide to creating specific mystical patterns? Perhaps, and there are stitch patterns in there for that purpose. What I wasn't expecting, and was quite pleasantly surprised by, was the focus on creating and art as a meditative purpose, the process over the finished product, and the encouragement to slow down.
Once you get to the stitch patterns and guides, they are clear and well drawn out. I am a crafter, so I knew many of these stitches and techniques, but this book collates them in a comfortable, informal way (as opposed to the more formal, structured, embroidery books on my shelf). The pattern guides at the end are helpful for beginner embroiderers, as they offer suggestions as to which stitch to use in various parts of the pattern/shape to achieve the illustrated effect.
A delightful little craft book, celebrating slow art.

Many thanks to Netgalley for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There are so many fresh ideas in this book. There are not only the embroidery ideas, but the ritual/altar ideas I can’t wait to try out. I love blending my creativity with my spirituality and this book is an excellent resource. I definitely plan on buying a physical copy when it releases. ​

A beautiful collection of embroidery designs representing meaningful symbols from around our world and the stitches needed to recreate them for yourself. Simple enough for a beginner to start with but rich enough to suit even an experienced hobbyist.

I’ve preordered a physical copy, so I just thumbed through the ebook. But I obviously liked what I saw, or I wouldn’t have wanted my own copy. Was a nice intro to using embroidery for the magical and mystical. Would love a follow-up that takes an even deeper dive into Christi’s approach.

I love the social justice and liberation bent that is present in a book that you'd normally think is just a craft book. The writing is extremely thoughtful and has the potential for quite a bit of reflection. The photos are gorgeous as well. I'll definitely be recommending this to patrons interested in embroidery, those who are interested in spirituality, and in liberation.