Melitastitches4fun's Blog

These books by Carole H Lake and Michael Boren are intended to aid stitchers of painted canvases. But, they are stitch books, making them relevant and useful for selecting stitches for any project.

Painted Canvas Embellishment: An Idea Book

There is an excellent 5-page introduction of general thoughts, including choosing threads and stitches.

The pages on thread characteristics are not exciting, but I have skimmed them at least once. I underlined “chainette” in 8 places (2 are noted as discontinued – maybe more than that by now). It would make a good reference if you’re threading up an old project that calls for discontinued threads so you know better what to substitute.

Stitches cover faces, fur, clothing, foliage, snow, wings (good for my butterfly that I’m working on but not posting about until the big reveal for my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter), stars, motifs, small areas, medium areas, very large areas, backgrounds, borders, lines, shading, combinations, and beading.

Desert Island Stitches, Volume 1 – Ideas for Small Spaces

It covers tent stitches in the first 2 pages. Can you think of 12 patterns? They did! Then, they go into diagonal stitches, oblique stitches, straight stitches, and cross stitches.

Desert Island Stitches, Volume 2 – Ideas for Creative Borders

These borders are arranged in 6 sections: continuous borders, mitered corners, center miters, log cabin borders, corner motif borders, and center motif borders. I love the reminder to combine several narrow borders to make a wider border. That makes me think of Autumn 3-Ways by Toni Gerdes and 5 Vases with Curly Bamboo by Sharon G.