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book review: stitched blooms

Stitched Blooms Book Review


Have you heard? Carina Envoldsen-Harris of Carina's Craftblog has a book coming out in October! It's full of her bright, colorful, scandinavian style, and I'm so pleased to be part of the blog tour for Stitched Blooms.

The book has 20 projects, many of which will allow you to jump right in by stitching onto an already-finished item, like towels, bedding, shirts, etc. But the projects aren't my favorite part. My favorite part is that there are 300 floral motifs! Each one is unique and they can be combined in all kinds of ways or used as shown and suggested.

Stitched Blooms Book Review
Stitched Blooms Book Review
Stitched Blooms Book Review

You can embellish a shirt, stitch some holiday gifts, or make an AMAZING appliquéd quilt.

Stitched Blooms Book Review
Stitched Blooms Book Review

Because Carina's scandinavian style is so in line with my family's scandinavian style, I couldn't help but choose to make the Dala Horse. I made it in colors to match our dining room, which is where most of our Swedish decor resides. (You know, besides the IKEA that is all over the house...) I also chose to make him a little smaller and all hand sewn.

Most of the templates and project-specific motifs in the book are not at 100%, which is understandable given their size. Fortunately, the included CD has everything at 100%, and the templates and motifs are even set up so you can easily print and assemble the multiple pages for oversized patterns. Still, I decided to print my dala so it would fit on one page.

With the reduction of size, I simplified a few things, and blanket stitched around the outside instead of using the sewing machine and then turning. I loooooove how he came out!

Stitched Blooms Book Review

Carina's eye for color and design really shines in Stitched Blooms. This really feels like a solid title that you'll pull out and use over and over again, because the floral designs are so versatile.

Pre-order Stitched Blooms on Barnes & Noble or Amazon. Thanks, Lark Crafts, for sending me a copy to review, and thanks, Carina, for crafting such a pretty book!

4 comments:

  1. Your Dala is gorgeous! I am loving the colors you used - soooo "traditional"! Soooo beautiful!

    I am also making Dala (ornament size) for one of my Stitched Blooms reviews and I will definitely be linking to yours! In fact, I suspect we are going to see lots of Dalas from Carina's new book this season!!! But as I told Carina, and I am sure you agree, there are many more projects "on the list" for the coming year! Dala is only the beginning.

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  2. I have a hard time picking out good books on embroidery, but your suggestions are always helpful!

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  3. This looks a great book - I love the embroidered blouse!

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  4. This is right up my alley! Pre-ordered! :)

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