Hand-Stitched Oasis: Embroider Realistic Elements; Step-by-Step Guide with 35 Techniques

I preordered this book before there was much description or photos available, so was under the assumption that this was likely to be a typical embroidery book. By typical I mean a book that has some basic information on supplies and materials, a brief section on different stitches, and then a bunch of projects that are already pre-designed with templates and color lists. Basically a book that is mostly projects with just some instruction. This book is different. This book is mostly instruction with just some projects (5). Basically the premise of this book is to provide you with information and tips on how to stitch up your own happy place scene. There is a section on materials and etc and then a large portion of the book covers topics such as ideas for how to stitch sand, trees, other plants, etc. After this section which constitutes the majority of the book you do find 5 projects (pumpkin scene, palm tree scene, fall scene, night scene, and a desert scene). Finally at the end are templates that you can combine together to create your own scene such as tree outlines, plant outlines, fence outlines, mountain outlines, and the like. The idea is to combine the templates at the back of the book to design your own happy place scene, and then use the techniques from earlier in the book to stitch the scene you created. The pictures are well done, and the book is organized well. Overall I like the book enough to keep it and think the idea of writing a book that people can use to create their own happy place type scenes is a nice one. Unfortunately this book is lacking good information on composition and color theory, so if you don’t already have a good sense of those concepts you might not end up liking your results, but again I think the concept of the book is great. Just know that if you are very experienced in embroidery there might not be anything new in here for you, and also if you are looking for a book that is filled with projects that has minimal instruction that this might not be a good fit for you.