Jill Gordon's Needlepoint: Creative Tapestry Designs [Hardcover]

Jill Gordon (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

More a wellspring of delicious inspiration than a true how-to book, Jill Gordon's Needlepoint is filled with exquisite ideas and loads of colorful photos of her luscious designs. In their subtle shadings and even their subject matter, they resemble paintings more than traditional needlework--not surprising, since the author confesses a lifelong love of painting and uses watercolor sketches as templates for her tapestries. Some are wonderfully clever (a formal garden depicted as seen through a window, with a brightly cushioned windowseat as the scene's foreground), some are almost abstract in their eloquent repetitions (six flamingos clustered together become a series of salmony-orange nuances); all are highly poetic interpretations of the lush beauty of the natural world: flowers, landscapes, fruits and vegetables, fish, lizards, birds. Gordon explains the origin of each of the 20 designs and lists the canvas and yarns used; she also provides full (and necessarily complex) charts and stitching instructions for 13 of them. These projects are definitely not for the less-experienced needleworker (even intermediate-level stitchers may experience some frustration), but the designs are so lovely and the colors so vibrant that crafters of any skill level will enjoy them, and may even want this volume as a design sourcebook for adaptation to other crafts. --Amy Handy

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Friedman/Fairfax Pub (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567992153
• ISBN-13: 978-1567992151
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,350,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely Book BUT BE AWARE, March 22, 2000

By 

S. Webb-Martin (South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jill Gordon's Needlepoint: Creative Tapestry Designs (Hardcover)

This is a great book for people who are inspired by colour and design and it has provided a lot of inspiration for me. However, this is EXACTLY the same book as "The Tapestry Book: Twenty Inspiring Needlepoint Designs" by the same author - Jill Gordon. Only the dust jacket and inside front and back pages are different - if you collect needlework books like me, you DON'T need both!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book!, February 3, 2000

By 

C. Gochicoa "corieg" (Dryden, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jill Gordon's Needlepoint: Creative Tapestry Designs (Hardcover)

I have another perspective on this book. I had never before done any needlepoint, and I have just completed the salamander and frog needlepoint without any trouble. Yes, I do have experience reading charts (I do lots of complex knitting, and I did detailed cross stitch about 15 years ago), but I would not discourage someone from buying this book just because they are not a needlepoint expert. I subscribe to the "If you want it enough, you can do it" school of thought. If you find richly colored needlepoints with unusual subjects to be inspirational, this is certainly the designer for you. I don't find most needlepoints to be worth the time invested, as they seem rather ordinary. Jill Gordon's designs are all extraordinary! By the way, Jill Gordon is aware that she has made people unhappy by not charting all of the designs in this book. She has been having them charted and is making them available on her web site. I for one can't wait for the flamingo tapestry to be available!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gordon's style is peculiar, but some very nice tapestries, November 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Jill Gordon's Needlepoint: Creative Tapestry Designs (Hardcover)

After owning this and Gordon's Tapestry Collection, also available at Amazon, for about a year, I still find her style odd, although her designs have grown on me. The cover design is lovely both in photograph and in person. In this book, there is a nice, though too brightly colored for my taste, hollyhocks 3 panel screen, some landscapes, some fishscapes. It's a good introduction to her style. If you like this book, find the Tapestry Collection too -- the designs are much nicer, more distinct and more artistically mature. And the Tapestry Collection has most of the designs charted, including one panel of a three panel phenomenal wild poppies landscape. Glorious Needlepoint (not to be confused with Fassett's own Glorious Needlepoint, which has been out of print in this country for years although last time I checked it was available at Amazon UK), has many photos of tapestries, but not all are charted, which was annoying. Some of these are available as kits as noted in the book, although the kits are done on interlock canvas, which in my view is rather cheap (the kits themselves, however, since they are imports, are expensive). This book is worth having in your needlepoint library, as is her Tapestry Collection (highly recommended). Caution: if you buy the Tapestry Collection, Amazon also lists Gordon's Tapestry Book. This is the UK edition of the Tapestry Collection -- they are identical. Don't make the mistake of buying both as I did!