The Art of Embroidered Flowers

This inspiring book will have even the most reticent artist reaching for the fabric paints and embroidery threads. Gilda Baron's wonderful floral landscapes are bursting with colour and texture using a combination of fabric paints and dyes, with hand and machine embroidery. Gilda's techniques are generally very simple but she combines them in a very effective way, building up layers of colour and stitch into a rich landscape. Projects containing step-by-step instructions show how to create backgrounds using silk dyes, add detail with fabric pens, use machine embroidery to create grasses and background flowers, and magically bring the picture to life with textured foreground flowers consisting of French knots and fabric circles. The colours are carefully blended and Gilda shows how to dye threads and use shading to add depth. Mounting and finishing instructions are also included to display the embroideries as framed pictures or as cards. These beautiful flowers look so realistic they almost seem to grow out of the picture!

March 06

Because a person's motives for picking up a book can have as much to do with their assessment of it as anything, I'll let you in on my incentive: I am not overly-partial to spending huge amounts of time doing hand embroidery. I like the look of it in certain situations, I can do quite a few stitches quite adeptly, but I simply don't really enjoy it. I have come to the realisation that this phenomenon may be partially due to my lack of patience and partially due to my inability to make embroidery look like it belongs in the piece. Sometimes embroidered work can look more like embroidery than like a part of the picture as a whole and that's not my style.

So I picked up this book because it starts with the premise that embroidery can be integrated into the work as a whole and not look like it was simply dropping on as an afterthought.

The Art of Embroidered Flowers has good photos, clear instructions and is well-written. It mercifully assumes that you have a working knowledge of your sewing machine, how to prepare fabric, how to mix dyes and how to use fabric paints. I say mercifully because so many books run over the same old basics and waste pages of space on something that should be gleaned from another book altogether. But I digress.

The basic premise of this book is that a background should be painted and overpainted before adding embroidery. Stitching can be either by hand or machine (it talks about both and their individual effects on a piece) and is laid over a background of dye, paint and inks. These last set the background tones for the piece and relieve the possibility of there being blank spaces behind stitching or a sharp contrast between the stitching and the background fabric. In essence, Baron demonstrates how to make a transition between stitching and horizon, creating the blended backdrop for the relief that stitching provides.

She also discusses in some detail the concept of dying embroidery flosses with the dyes used in creating the background canvas so as to achieve a unison between foreground and background.

The pieces she uses as examples are small and mounted on paper for framing. While there are a few projects or exercises in the book, it primarily concentrates on helping the student to create their own landscape.

The focus of the embroidery is flowers, grasses and a few vague birds. Everything is done with four stitches, the running, seed and fly stitches and the French knot. This limited palette of stitches could be a hindrance to some, but for those who cringe at the thought of embroidery, it might actually be liberating. She limits the book to developing the potential for these stitches in landscape work, but mentions a whole array of further possibilities at the end, including other stitches, beading, lace, stumpwork and whatever else tickles the fancy of the individual.

Sept 08

This book is awesome. It is both inspirational and aspirational at the same time as being a very practical guide. The book includes helpful information with regard to dyeing threads and fabric that can be utilised even if freestyle embroidery isn't your thing. However, the concise instructions alongside clear step-by-step photos will lure you into trying it, even if you've never thought about doing so before! It's easy enough for a beginner to follow (but in no way condescending or simplistic), but also provides wonderful starting off points for the more experienced embroiderer. A beautiful book that demonstrates exactly what a craft/needlecraft book can and should be!

Dec 05/Jan 06

One of our bestsellers - if you don't already have this book, get it now! Gilda shows how to create original designs full of colour and texture. Sections on developing designs from your own photographs, source material from gardens and landscapes, colouring backgrounds and threads, and the use of both hand and machine stitching are clearly demonstrated. The simple techniques are combined and built up to create effective three-dimensional landscape and flower embroideries.

Gilda Baron trained at the London College of Fashion and spent some time working in the fashion industry as a pattern cutter and designer. She went on to lecture in fashion and crafts and is now a well-respected textile artist, regularly contributing to magazines, exhibiting her work and selling to galleries. She gives lectures and workshops for embroiderers' groups and guilds, demonstrating her love of fabric and embroidery and sharing her enthusiasm with people everywhere.