Embroidered Lettering

Clear, step-by-step instructions and photos, fun projects of varying skill levels, pretty alphabets that are easily adaptable. I'd recommend this to both beginning and experienced needleworkers looking for inspiration and ideas for gift giving, craft fairs, or a treat for themselves.

* Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy to review *

Given the title and the gorgeous cover image, I expected this book to focus more lettering - on stitchable alphabets, alphabet styles (e.g. script, handwritten, serif, sans serif) and monograms. Although all 25 projects feature stitched type very few of them spoke to me. Besides the pretty ribbon embroidered M on the cover, I liked the stitched sneakers and vintage style Love jeans patch the best. The watercolour background technique used in the No Rain, No Rainbows hoop was interesting and something I would like to have seen explained in more detail.

Also, I don't think the cover project is a good representation of the contents. I expected more pretty projects along those lines and instead the author tends toward funky retro styled projects. She also has a quirky sense of humour, evident from the labelled Top/Bottom towel, "This is Where the Magic Happens" bedroom pillow, and "Four Eyed and Fabulous" glasses case.

There is a good Tools & Materials section with a Stitch Guide that includes some interesting stitches like the Couching Trellis Stitch. The stitches are done as step by step photos instead of drawn diagrams which is nice and easy to follow. Best for a very determined beginner or an intermediate stitcher, with the project stitch guides often telling you to reference the photo for detail and colour placement.

However there is a huge drawback to this book and that is the Pattern Templates. Unfortunately there appears to be no download link to virtual copies and the scale at which they are reproduced is far to fine for easy enlargement. Asking someone to enlarge at 150% is bad enough but several patterns - including the lovely floral alphabet on the cover - say to enlarge by 500%!! Needless to say, a scanner would be necessary to resize the templates to working size and I do not think that should be required in this day and age. It's disappointing, and hopefully something the publishers will remedy with future editions.

There are so many cute projects in this book that I literally want to make them all. The days of the week tea towels, the drink recipe coasters, and the bookmarks are my favorites. I like that the beginning of the book includes a lot of different stitches for beginners like me who need to practice different stitches before starting these amazing projects. It is nice to have the visual aides for that at the beginning and the advice about what kind of needles to use. I think this is a great book for a beginner as well as someone more experienced who is looking for interesting projects to do.

There is a project here for every skill level and interest. A template section would be super-helpful; one is mentioned, but hasn't been added to the review copy yet.

I'm pleasantly surprised here. I always wanted to learn how to embroider things but I'm a slow learner in this direction.

I really appreciate that the book took care to show the different stitches. Because that was one of my problems, I know their names in Czech (or French) but sometimes I'm struggling how exactly they are called in English and I often found myself confused by directions. Therefore, I enjoyed that this book started with the basics but at the same time showed several projects which are not basic but something that you can really do and use. I really like that.

I already chose two projects I need to do asap (and I also chose several more for later because they seem more time consuming). I really loved the embroider coasters and the tea towels.

My only issue is that sometimes in the instruction for the projects I feel like the pictures were too small to really understand what the author is trying to show to us. And then there were pictures so big that they took over the whole page when it was absolutely unnecessary.

A charming collection of embroidery patterns. As a non-embroider, they seem accessible, with plenty of step-by-step instructions and photographs. Particularly clever is the champagne-themed hoop with pearl beads as bubbles.

This is a great source for beginners and experienced people who embroider. I enjoyed looking through the book and gathered several new ideas for upcoming projects.

What a beautiful book and the projects are easily explained with pictures that describe the steps. I appreciate handwork and know the time and talent put into each project. I think all the projects in this book are explained to the extent that any level of ability will be able to accomplish them. The author even provides templates throughout the book. This book is a fabulous resource book for any level of stitcher. Keep it on your shelf because you will always be referring to it.

A very well written instructional book on learning basic embroidery skills. As the name of the book implies, this book is revolved around embroidery projects involving text or decorative lettering. I have to admit that not all of the projects appealed to me on an aesthetic level.
Despite that, I liked that each of the project utilize different skills and techniques which can be applied to creating or inspiring your own embroidery design.
The author's coverage on embroidery tools and materials is written for beginners in mind. The stitch library instructional in this book is one of the clearest execution I have seen with step by step photos and detailed captions.
I would recommend this book for beginners in embroidery.

I was given a digital ARC from Netgalley to give my honest opinion.

Beautifully arranged book with excellent instructions to create your own embroidered art pieces. There are 25 unique projects with complete step by step instructions including advice and descriptions of all the tools and materials you will need to create your own masterpieces.

This book features embroidery as an enhancement or embellishment for a variety of types of fabrics. It will appeal to beginner stitchers and the more experienced, alike. The book opens with an introductions of tools, materials, and basic techniques, with encouragement to substitute personal color choices that match the stitcher's preferences, Photos of a wide variety of stitch techniques are clear, and written instructions are easy to follow. The patterns feature a range of lettering styles and images, often based on historical motifs. Projects range from household items such as towels, pillowcases, and coasters, to items that can be hung on the wall.

This is a great book for those who are just beginning to embroider. The instructions are easy to follow and the pictures are very helpful. I don't think that I would utilize the individual project patterns but they were very creative and well designed. I am not sure that the Title really fits the content.

This is an easy to follow book. There are instructions for all the basics to start projects, with detailed explanations.

This is an excellent manual for taking one’s embroidery skills to another level. The directions are very clear and the illustrations and photographs will assist the user who is a visual learner. In addition, the projects are both creative and useful serving as springboards for projects the user can create themselves. This book also makes an excellent gift!

I voluntarily provided my own opinion on an Advanced Readers Copy that was supplied by the publisher and NetGalley.

Wonderful wonderful book. Actual real projects!! I like the coverage of the stitches. As a reader who doesn't learn from videos this book is absolutely perfect!! I'm looking forward to driving into several of these projects!

Embroidered Lettering is full of inspiration. As embroidery has become all the rage again this book answers the call. The photographs are clear and colorful. The author provides instruction for 24 different types of embroidery stitches. She also provides oodles of projects to put your new skills to work. There are 25 projects in this lovely book. The author also has seven different alphabet templates to use. Excellent book.

Note: I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

I have been cross stitching for over fifteen years but always look longingly at any embroidery work. I wish I could do that, but I feel like I am not creative enough to design anything like that. I don’t think I can do think of stitches and colors by myself. That’s why I couldn’t resist Embroidered Lettering by Debra Valencia. I hope this book can help me get more confidence and start embroidery soon.

After describing tooling and materials, Valencia describes the techniques for transferring patterns, finishing a work and even mounting the work in an embroidery hoop. Then basic embroidery stitches are explained with lots of detailed photographs. The rest of the book is filled with example projects. They are described in detail with photographs, color diagrams and tips. The projects vary from monograms, quotes to embellishments on clothes, shoes, luggage tags, labels, bags etc. After the projects patterns are given for several alphabets and for the projects described in the book.

This is a nice book to learn more about embroidery and it contains several nice and fun patterns to get started with. The information is very complete and the many photographs help illustrate the techniques and projects.

Embroidered Lettering by Debra Valencia gives a good look at a number of embroidery stitches that can be used for lettering techniques on clothing, art pieces and more. Overall, the projects were ho hum and very basic, good for beginners but too basic if you have done any advanced embroidery. Many of the projects had a 60s vibe, which turned me off completely. I was hoping for much more from the book and was disappointed.