Embroidered Country Gardens

Be inspired to embroider all the elements of an idyllic English country garden. Suitable for beginners as well as accomplished embroiderers, Lorna Bateman’s beautiful book includes 12 practical projects for you to make and adorn with exquisite floral motifs.Lorna walks you through a variety of stitches including raised and textured stitches, teaching you to embroider individual flowers with them and how to incorporate these into an original garden motif. For the nature enthusiast, there is plenty to get excited about: an A–Z of English garden flowers and how to stitch them; a section on stitching common garden insects; and how to embroider iconic garden imagery such as birdbaths and garden ornaments.Roses are the archetypal cottage flower and Lorna describes how to incorporate a climbing rose, rose spray and standard rose in your designs.Embroidered Country Gardens is peppered throughout with seeds of wisdom: invaluable hints and tips from the author to help you develop your own skills and unique style. As well as step-by-step instructions, there are also detailed photographs, outline template drawings and a fully illustrated A–Z of stitches.

This book is stunning! If you love traditional embroidery designs you'll love this. The projects are varied so there's something for every maker and Lorna Bateman guides you through each project making them simple to follow. I particularly love the fact that there's a section at the back showing you how to finish your work off. , Even if you have never embroidered before you would be confident enough to pick up a needle and start after reading this book. It is probably best suited to beginners rather than more experienced stitchers as the author has gone into lots of detail on techniques such as backing your fabric and transferring designs. There are also detailed illustrations of different stitches as well as templates for 12 very pretty projects which will appeal to those who like their embroidery traditional. There are instructions to create many flowers from agapanthus to wisteria (especially love the hollyhocks and pansies) but also birds, insects, pots, tools and other "accessories". The idea is to give you enough confidence to design your own gardens. Projects range from a wall hanging to a scissor keeper and thread catcher. Practice blooms could easily be used for cards that will be treasured by family and friends. There are also embroidered buttons which would be a very special present for a knitter. Lorna Bateman has been a full-time embroidery teacher for 30 years. She has a business selling her designs in kit form at www.lornabatemanembroidery.com but this is her first book. , I was delighted to receive this wonderful book of traditional embroidery. The instructions are so clear it’s brilliant for beginners of embroidery as well as experienced people like myself. There are a number of projects to complete along with patterns to get you started. I have already used several of the stitches to complete a task I have already started. Brilliant clear instructions to follow for all levels of embroiderers. , This book is a joy to read and use. Lots of information about different flowers, how and where they grow and how best to capture them in stitches. There're some lovely projects and detailed instructions on how to make and assemble them. It inspired me to create this piece of embroidery. It's a "go to" title for both experienced and novice stitches alike. , If you love floral garden embroidery, especially if you like stitching small motifs that have an exuberant garden feel to them, you're just going to love this book. Embroidered Country Gardens is a beautiful book, and it's a thorough book when it comes to instruction for this type of free-style surface embroidery.  I didn't see any "cons" to the book. It'll make a beautiful, fun, and attainable addition to your embroidery library, whether for reference or for further project development.

Lorna Bateman is passionate about embroidery, nature and teaching. She has been working full-time as an embroidery teacher and designer since 1989. Her teaching has taken her all over the UK, to her native South Africa, as well as Russia, France and the USA. In 2002, Lorna launched her own embroidery designs in kit form, available from her website www.lornabatemanembroidery.com. Lorna lives near Alton in Hampshire, UK.

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