book review: stitched blooms

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.





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




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!



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!