Customer Reviews

Jill Gordon's Needlepoint: Creative Tapestry Designs

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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!

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!

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!

Stunning visual treat for the needlepoint enthusiast. Vivid photographs of completed projects are placed alongside their real life inspirations. An English garden becomes a sketch, the sketch becomes a completed design. Nature, animal and fruit, and vegetable still lifes are the themes of the various projects. Pumpkins and mushrooms; plums and peaches; tropical fish and flamigos; hollyhocks and sunflowers. These are just a few of the twenty projects illustrated in this book. While lush and breathtaking, these projects are not for the beginning, or even moderately experienced needleworker. The projects can use over two dozen subtlely shaded colors and the black and white charts are printed dizzyingly small. Unless you posess truly advanced needlepoint skills, this book is more to be appreciated for its rich use of design and color in the projects than for instruction in creating the projects themselves. If you collect needlpoint books or just are looking for inspiration, it is a must have. If you wish for designs that are beautiful and also doable, then you would be happier choosing another title.