Needlepoint by Design: Variations on Chinese Themes

The title of the book makes clear that the designs are 'variations on themes' so the book does not claim to be authentically Chinese designs. There was a popular school of interior decor called Chinoiserie meaning in the Chinese style. What makes me give this book only 3 stars is the designs are small, so if a craftsperson wants to turn a design into a canvas that can be stitched, s/he must enlarge then transfer the design onto canvas in a way that it is charted. I am glad I paid for a second-hand copy of this book because I would be unhappy if I paid full-price and still have to do so much work before even being able to start stitching.

Nice illustrations and helpful needlepoint instructions.

Not what I expected.

I owed a copy of this book 30 years ago and made several of the designs. I lost my copy over the course of several moves and was thrilled to find a copy of this on Amazon for $3.99. The book arrived in great shape; it arrived in good time and it was greeting an old friend when I opened the package!

needlepoint by design is a book by Maggie Lane and has 24 designs in the book. There are over 90 designs to make such as a parsons table, rugs, small graphs for the readers who change and enhance their own creativity. I highly recommend this book.Maggie Lane went with her parents to China where she was inspired by the beautiful designs in Chinese designs.

I used this back in the early 70's and am glad to have found it still in print. Maggie Lane has some beautiful, simple designs that are really easy to needlepoint.

Great book

This book has lots of prose but not much in thenway of designs. Not at all what I needed. Oh well.

Disappointing. If you're looking for the graph for the green dragon shown on the cover--forget it--it's not in the book. Color photos also include a blue and white scenic of buildings, rocks, and trees, but again, no graph, so what was the point of including them? Naturally these were the two I'd most want to do. The small orange detail in the corner of the dragon picture is graphed, and various borders are graphed, but otherwise it's mostly single creatures such as a bee or a frog, and they're nice but not what I wanted. Two other books by Maggie Lane were better: "Gold and Silver Needlepoint" has lovely creations in it, very inspiring. I think I can recommend that one, and "More Needlepoint by Design" was quite good. I do prefer working from color graphs, and all three of her books that I've bought so far are in B&W, but I can deal with that..

I bought this book because I know Maggie Lane's design are usually great. HOWEVER - this is the same as the paperback published in 1970 AND - although edited to some extent - Needlepoint Pillows. This is actually stated on the publication history page but CERTAINLY should be included in the Amazon details. The reson I am so cross is that its so d----d difficult to return the second hand books to the UK, not to say expensive.On the other hand, VERY good designs.

There is actually nothing wrong with this book, just that having acquired her later works this one, being among the first, is less developed and starts out for the complete novice. I remain a fan of Maggie Lane, but her later works are more exciting.