Long and Short Stitch Embroidery: A Collection of Flowers (Milner Craft Series) [Paperback]

Trish Burr (Author)

Book Description

Series: Milner Craft Series | Publication Date: August 28, 2006

In this stunning, color-illustrated collection of floral embroideries, the author of Redouté’s Finest Flowers in Embroidery introduces needleworkers to her unique long- and short-stitch “needlepainting” style of portraying flowers like a botanical painter. Five starter projects show novices how to create the illusion of brushwork in thread and use basic techniques, from preparing fabric and transferring designs to blocking and mounting. Sixteen easily achieved but challenging larger projects enable beginners and experts to bring to life meticulously detailed sunflowers, magnolias, bearded irises, an Icelandic poppy, roses, and more. With diagrams, full-size templates, and stitch directions included, this is a must-have for any embroiderer’s library.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Trish Burr has developed an individual approach to surface embroidery. In this book she concentrates on flowers and creates them in spectacular, detailed style. From beautiful magnolias to the flamboyant Gloriosa, from coy violas to blazing poppies, Trish captures the essence of the flowers in her works of art. Silk shading is recognised as one of the more challenging areas of embroidery and this book provides a comprehensive look at techniques for all skill levels. The book includes and introduction to materials, professional tips and a stitch directory. Colour-blending and needle-painting are covered in depth making this a good reference work. There are four flower starter projects, three smaller flowers to work and fourteen full-size projects. In addition there are many leaves to work. This 128 page book is brimming with glorious flowers that you will want to stitch.-KarenPlatt.co.uk

About the Author

Trish Burr is a self-taught embroiderer who hungrily consumes all aspects of this fine craft. Through research and practice she has developed this individual technique of surface embroidery. She is the author of the highly successful and beautiful book Redoute's Finest Flowers in Embroidery, published by Sally Milner Publishing in 2002.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Sally Milner Publishing (August 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1863513523
• ISBN-13: 978-1863513524
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #209,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Trish Burr is a self taught embroiderer. She was born and raised in Zimbabwe. In 2004 she moved to the Western Cape in South Africa with her husband and their three children.

She teaches and gives talks at workshops and guilds in South Africa, and contributes internationally to needlework magazines and other publications.

Her projects are mainly floral but she has recently expanded her work to include birds and portraits, devising means to include minute details in her subjects. Her emphasis on light and shadow brings her embroidery alive and her artistic use of colour further enhances the three dimensional effects in her work.

Trish is recognized for her unique style of long and short stitch embroidery. She has spent many years researching this technique and willingly shares this knowledge with fellow embroiderers. To quote in her own words:

"We need to keep hand embroidery alive, but if we hug our ideas to ourselves, they will become lost and worthless in the future. If I give you a gift, I no longer have it, you do. However, if I give you an idea then we both have it, and if you share this idea with others then we have multiplied it, expanded on it and watch it grow."

For more information on kits and products see online at www.trishburr.co.za.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Instructions better, designs not as good as her previous book, September 11, 2006

By 

Kathy Grace (Austin, TX, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Long and Short Stitch Embroidery: A Collection of Flowers (Milner Craft Series) (Paperback)

After receiving Trish Burr's previous book, Redoute's Finest Flowers in Embroidery (see my review there), I hurried to purchase this one as well. I'm feeling a curious mix of satisfaction and disappointment with this one.

The instruction section on long-and-short stitch has been greatly expanded. I must say that the inclusion of much of the instructional text word-for-word from her previous book jarred a bit--especially the diagrams where pixellated computer graphics had not been cleaned up. (These things do slip through, but to have them slip through twice points to slipshod editing.) On the bright side, there is much, much more detail on exactly how the long-and-short stitch is executed, how to deal with different shapes, stitch directions, and so on. In that respect, this book far exceeds the original (which I'll call "RFF" henceforth).

The sampler in this book was unappealing, as were the first three "simple" projects. The sampler is four "flower-ish" shapes, not remotely identifiable as any real flower. If I'm going to take the time and trouble to embroider using a single strand of floss at a time, I want the result to be something good-looking, even if it's a tiny something! The stylized "simple" projects also didn't interest me at all--to be frank, they look and feel "dumbed down," and not at all true to the spirit of the book. There was a page showing a number of embroidered leaves of different shapes, and I decided to tackle one of those as my starter project instead. I thought the finished product was much lovelier than the samplers.

The flowers in this book were not drawn from a single source like RFF, and it shows in a certain unevenness of style. In my review of RFF, I wrote that the cover is a good example of what you get inside. Not so much so with this one--the flame lily and magnolia shown on the cover (along with a protea, not shown) are by far the most detailed and impressive. Some of the other projects were nice enough pictures, but were somehow missing that "botanical print" look that was so captivating in RFF.

Also, and I'm hugely disappointed with this!, they changed the format of the projects, omitting the diagram dedicated to color placement. Instead, you have to cross-reference between the coded list of floss colors and the written description. Nearly every project is prefixed with the brusque admonition that "it will be necessary to inspect the photo closely to reproduce the color changes" (freely misquoted from memory, but that's the gist). But subtle color shifts in floss are quite difficult to distinguish--that's why threadpainting can look so realistic, and that's why I thought RFF (which showed placement by a colored-pencil diagram, with exaggerated differences between the colors) was so great. Alas, they've thrown that good idea out.

Although I'm disappointed in these changes for the worse, I am still glad I purchased the book. The extremely detailed coverage of the logistics of long-and-short stitch alone made it worth the price. Several of the projects are stunning, and it's interesting to see how Ms. Burr's technique has changed over time (less padding, for one). So... 5 stars for instruction, 3.5 for projects. But if I were only buying one of her books, I'd buy Redoute's Finest Flowers in Embroidery rather than this one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long and Short Stitch Embroidery, February 8, 2010

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C. Macrae (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Long and Short Stitch Embroidery: A Collection of Flowers (Milner Craft Series) (Paperback)

Having never done hand embroidery before I was delighted to find that this book was aimed at both beginner and more experienced user. The lessons progressed in an easy way as each skill was learned. Loads of information, help, illustrations to take you every step of the way. I am now addicted to this lovely art.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long and Short Stitch Embroidery: A Collection of Flowers, September 11, 2009

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Violet R. Paraha (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Long and Short Stitch Embroidery: A Collection of Flowers (Milner Craft Series) (Paperback)

Love the book, easy instructions and love all the projects in the book. Excellent book.