Melitastitches4fun's Blog

I ordered The Canvas Embroidery Notebook by Mindy English from an Ebay site and was sent Backgrounds, The Finishing Touch by Ann Strite-Kurz instead!

After one look inside Ann’s book, I was happy with the mistake. Wow. I only paged through it, but the amount of information in this book is considerable. It will take quite a while to go through it all. I am excited to see the photos on the CD. Some photos I recall from Ann’ Diaper Pattern and Potpourri of Pattern Encore books, but much is different.

It made me think to look at Ann’s website again to see what other books she has. I already had her Potpourri of Pattern Encore when I started the Master Craftsman program. That’s when I got her Diaper Pattern and Applique books to expand my knowledge of those areas before tackling those steps. All her books have been so thorough. I also obtained Stitch Variations and Mutations, Parts 1 and 2 and Stitch Refinement for Canvas Embroidery (which replaces the older book, The Science of Canvas Embroidery). I could use 6 more weeks of winter to read these books!

Since I keep books organized by author on my blog, I have updated my original post on Ann’s books: https://melitastitches4fun.com/2022/02/25/books-in-my-library-canvas-applique-diaper-patterns-and-potpoutti-of-pattern-encore-by-ann-strite-kurz/

I did find Mindy’s book from AbeBooks, who got the order correct. Not only is this an excellent reference for 20 stitches but also for manipulating those stitches for increased creativity. It was written in 1986 (the fifth revision) but is just as relevant today. The pages are numbered within each chapter, and the index refers you to pages within the chapter, but you have to find the start of each chapter. It’s not my favorite pagination. But otherwise, it’s just what I expected.

There are 26 variations of the Mosaic Stitch. But then there is more variation under Diagonal Mosaic Stitch. The patterns under Mosaic Family combine Mosaic, Scotch, Milanese, and Cashmere. Wow! Both the creativity and time it took to put this together is amazing.

Both Ann and Mindy explore stitch variations. It’ll be interesting to see how each approaches the issue.

Since I now have two of Mindy’s books, one is going to Meghan, a younger member of my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter who has been very engaged in needlepoint since joining our chapter. You can see her owl in the September/October 2023 issue of Needle Pointers along with Lori’s and Patrick’s owls under Chapter News. All 3 are great. Watch for something more from Meghan later this year in the magazine!

I too have a number of Ann Strite-Kurz’s books and love them. Ann will be teaching a class on blackwork to my chapter in May, so I’ll definitely pull out her blackwork book beforehand.

Comment by brendasneedlepointstudioblog February 8, 2024 @ 8:57 am

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Yes, I heard about that from Ann. Very cool.

Comment by melitastitches4fun February 8, 2024 @ 12:07 pm

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