Stunning embroidery stitches shown on really lovely projects. I particularly love that some of the stitches are shown in multiple color options, it really helps a novice see how much color choices affect the final piece.

What a short and stunning book I loved the pictures. An inspirational book for any embroidery lover. This book would be an excellent gift and I truly enjoyed it!

Great photography and really nicely made instructions. Some were easier than the others but it could also be because i'm a beginner. :( Still, thankful to have received this book.

The photographs were lovely. The steps were overall well done, some could have used a little more detail. A nice embroidery book.

Lovely photos and clear instructions! If you are looking to improve your embroidery skills or for inspiration look no further. Makabe has pulled together a lovely guide for botanical embroidery that is not complicated or overdone. Make sure to enjoy the minimalist style of single color embroidery options and whimsy for your enjoyment!

Beautiful Botanical Embroidery is inspired by nature. There are over 30 stunning motifs patterns to make. There are some gorgeous photos.

"Beautiful Botanical Embroidery" is a lovely book to browse and be inspired by. Great photography. There is a good amount of general introduction and reference to embroidery skills, along with patterns for specific projects. Good encouragement to explore ideas and designs, as well.

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Thank you for Netgalley and the Publisher for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very lovely book meant for people who want to dive into the world of diy emboridery. It is not meant for complete beginners, in my opinion, but has clear enough step-by-step insructions that someone with a knack to these things can go by rightaway.
lots of beautiful ideas and good tips how to change up each one of them with different colors.
It was a bit bothersome with the e-arc that the reference image and the instructions were in completely different parts of the book.

4/5 stars

I am in love with this embroidery book! Alice Makabe did an amazing job in creating some of the most beautiful botanical embroidery I have ever seen. Not only did she provide clear step-by-step guide on how to create her embroidery, she also showed how just by changing the colours of the threads can give the same motif a totally different mood/style. I also love how versatile these motifs and can be incorporated into different projects.

Beautiful Botanical Embroidery is a book full of projects that anyone would love. Some home projects and gift projects. The ideas are plentiful. If you looking to make unique, one of a kind gifts for yourself or others, this is a good book to look at.
#beautifulbotanicalembroidery
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Beautiful book with some lovely designs that I’m sure I will enjoy making up if I ever get the time.

A lovely book to be inspired by. The designs are all placed together and divided by colour at the beginning of the book, which makes for an attractive introduction. The instructions are then in the latter half. I had an electronic version of the book, and this separation was a bit trickier to cope with in the electronic version since you can't flip to and fro so easily. Often when stitching (even with clear instructions) you want to look at the picture for reference. This would be easier in the physical book. (And this is the reason I dropped a star off the review.)
It's good that there are many different ways to use the designs, since you can end up with too many pictures if you stitch a lot! The instructions were good but I think are best suited to a more experienced embroiderer.
The actual designs are delightful and to my eye seem to be sometimes inspired by the Scandinavian style of embroidery, as well as Japanese. As well as colour there is variation in size and complexity, and it is easy in most of the designs to extract a portion for stitching. A good book to dip into for browsing or to get ideas.

I must start off by informing the readers of this review that I am a true beginner when it comes to embroidery. With that said, I enjoyed this book. The photography is beautiful, the pattern designs / projects are fresh and modern, and the instructions are one of the best for a beginner. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I didn't enjoy the fact that I had to keep jumping back-n-forth from the project instructions to the finished sample photo. The book starts off with several beautiful images of finished embroidery projects, followed by basic instructions, and then moves into each of the individual projects / patterns. I would have liked for the sample photo to be at the beginning of each project, followed immediately by the instructions / patterns. However, several embroidery books I have reviewed follow a similar format, so maybe that is standard practice? If so, for a beginner, it is a bit frustrating.

What I did enjoy the most, was how Alice Makabe tackled Tools & Materials and the Getting Started sections. She went over some basic, fundamental information that other books skim over. In these sections, she covers Fabrics, Interfacing, Preparing the Floss, How to Thread a Needle, How to Transfer the Embroidery Design, How to Insert Fabric in the Embroidery Hoop, How to Start Stitching, How to Finish the Threads, Finishing the Project, and How to Read Embroidery Patterns. After which, she then covers the various stitching techniques, illustrated by photos detailing each step. Many embroidery books cover stitch techniques by using simple colored guides. However, I found that Makabe's approach to stitch techniques worked best for me and my learning style. Lastly, I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of the Needle Size vs Number of Strands and Thread Color Conversion (Olympus vs DMC) charts.

I always found embroidery a bit intimidating. However, after readying Alice Makabe's book, I now have basic knowledge that I was missing before and am excited to give it a try.

This book is arranged differently than most craft books I read. The projects are displayed in the front of the book, categorised by colour. They give the page reference for the relevant instruction page, which are all in a later section.

The projects are very pretty and use eight common embroidery stitches that give different textures. If I were going to change anything about the book, it would be to add more stitches and templates for more variety of flowers.

The ones given are a nice sampling and include letters and an owl, which is always a winner with me. Technical information and a section on tools and materials are included, but I particularly liked the flexible attitude the author showed toward colours and making the projects your own.

Overall a lovely book that a beginner could use easily.

This was a wonderful book on embroidery!
It provides full size transfers for 30 different designs to embroider and the instructions are great! There are also full color pictures of the projects that it gives the transfers for, so you can see what they look like completed. It even gives you thread colors and numbers to use to make the design identical to the image! It also allows stitchers to change up the colors if they choose to do so.

I'm an avid cross-stitcher, but I'm fairly new to embroidery so this was a fantastic book for me!

I look forward to trying out some of these designs!

Beautifully color pictures and a chapter telling one of the tools and materials to use with pictures and info on how to get started. The book lays out how to do each stitch and names the different stitches which I loved. The only thing I would of liked to see was the pictures of the projects on the same page as the instructions for that project - there is the prompt of **Shown on Page "" but it would be easier to see the project with the instruction - there is many beautiful stitches to practice and which you can use on many of your different projects.

Beautiful and New Designs With Instructions……............
Beautiful Botanical Embroidery by Alice Makabe is a wonderful book. I am a crafter and do embroidery projects on dresses. The book has some lovely botanical patterns. Also, the author has given sewing instructions for the beginners with stitches. I am definitely going to try all the patterns.

I would like to give 5 stars to the book. Thanks to Netgalley and Zakka Workshop for providing me an opportunity to review the book.

I love this beautiful book of embroidery. This projects are simple, yet elegant. I especially loved the grey apron with the botanicals along the bottomr.

I will be buying this book for myself because I have wanted to explore this craft.

DISCLAIMER: NetGalley provided me with a free digital version of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The days are getting longer and temperatures are getting warmer. My thoughts have turned to planning my flowerbeds. The projects in this book have inspired me to think about how I can add floral embellishments to quilting and sewing projects. Alice Makabe has included easy to follows step-by-step instructions, list of materials needed, a variety of stitches and projects. My first project will be - a quiet night in the forest sampler - the background fabric, soft colors of the flowers and leaves, and the white of the owl - appear to be very soothing and joyful to make. I like how it is finished and displayed. The projects vary in size, from big to small, jewelry, bags, napkins, pin cushions, aprons, and wall hangings. A chart of numbers and the alphabet are also included. What a great way to personalize a gift. As stated in the introduction Alice Makabe likes to "combine various, shapes, sizes, and colors to create unique motifs. Flowers are so versatile, beautiful, and amazing." Looking forward to stitching flowers and to seeing the many blooms this spring in my garden.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this free eARC.

Way back when I was a kid in high school, I learned how to do embroidery. Since then, majority of what I do is within stamped projects. As nice as that is, sometimes I would like to try a bit more free-hand stuff but no idea what to do. When I saw Beautiful Botanical Embroidery I figured, why not take a look and see if within these pages I can discover that special inspiration I so wanted.

Color me inspired! There are quite a few lovely pictures of floral designs to give ideas of what to do and motif designs to follow. This book would be better suited for a more experienced person, since while there are instructions on how to achieve the look, I didn’t really find a lot of detailed information on how to do the stitches.

As much as I did enjoy the book, I’m not a big fan of its layout. Personally, I would like to see the project with the picture, the necessary supplies, and instructions all together and not broken apart and clumped in separate locations. Still, it is an attractive book and would make a nice gift for anyone who enjoys embroidery.


Stars: 3
I received this book from Netgalley. I was not compensated for the book other than the entertainment it provided. All thoughts and opinions are my own.