Barbara Russell, 2011, self-published, $15
Barbara wrote this book showing twenty of her all-time favorite needlepoint pieces to celebrate her forty years in the needlepoint business.
My first thought on seeing the idea for this book was “I wish I had done that with my own work!” But, alas, like most of us, I didn’t take pictures and don’t know where many of my favorite pieces have gone.
Each pice has a picture and a one-page story that tells you something about the piece, the designer, or how it was stitched.
As a memory of things seen, it’s wonderful. But as inspiration for our own needlepoint, it falls down. The majority of pieces in the book are stitched in Tent Stitch. About another quarter add one additional stitch to the Tent Stitch. One canvas isn’t even stitched.
Only one pieces of the twenty in the book, Shell Maiden by dede Ogden, uses the wider variety of threads and stitches we think of as modern needlepoint.
While the book is a nice record, I think many of us could put together our own memory books of needlepoint that would be more interesting.
The book is available in needlework shops and on Barbara Russell’s site at https://www.barbararusselldesigns.com.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
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