Pansy Portraits – Product Review

I just got this books and I can’t wait to tell you about it. Earlier this month when I saw a picture of these close-up pansy portraits, I knew I had to have the book.
And stitch more than one of these charming designs.

Debbie Rowley has come up with and endlessly creative way to translate these charming flowers into needlepoint with these eight portraits, all in one project book.

What she’s done is take about 35 different hand-dyed flosses and given each one a specific 4×4 stitch. These range from the simple, such as Scotch, to wonderfully complex Bound Crosses. Then each of the eight pansies is translated into the color/stitch pairs. All the thread/stitch combinations are summarized with large, clear charts at the beginning of the book.

The result is wonderful textures flowers, delightfully modern in style, but with the happy charm of these blossoms. With a photograph and list of threads used for each of the eight designs, it’s easy to pick the projects you want to do (I’m planning on stitching 6 of the eight).

Following the material list for the pansies are the charts. Each chart is a double-size piece of paper, printed with a color charts on both sides. One side has the project charted in actual stitches, while the other side has the more traditional symbol chart, using a different symbol for each thread.

I can’t wait to stitch these 8″ designs. I am also enchanted with this idea and would love to see more projects along these lines.

Best of all, sometime next month, we’ll have an interview with Debbie.

PLease note, a copy of this project book was provided to me for purposes of review.