My Favorite Books

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Book Review Time!



From time to time, I like to do a review of a book that I have and use!  My followers will recognize this book by Margaret Ball that I feel is the best bead book around.  Embeadery is a wonderful reference book for beaders...you can read my original review or some of it here.  It's the only bead book I bring with me to Florida!











And now I have another favorite book for hand stitching.  This is a wonderful reference book and full of interesting techniques in the hand stitching arena!

The Geometry of Hand Sewing by Natalie Chanin is her most current book (2017).   First off, my friends know I love a spiral book and if it's not spiral bound, I'll take it to Staples to have them put a spiral binding on it.  This book already has a spiral binding so the book lays flat!  That's a plus if you are following along and creating sample fabric pages, for example. 


The diagrams of stitches are so easy to follow and the pictures of the end result(s) are shown on  fabric pictures, which are easy to see.

For those of you who don't know Natalie Chanin, she is the owner of
ALABAMA CHANIN AND THE SCHOOL OF MAKING.

They make, by hand, all original dresses or tops, etc. using the stitches in her book(s) as well as  reverse applique techniques.  The clothing line is beautiful and so unique!  

Miss Chanin also has classes on Craftsy.com.  In fact, one of the classes is for making a skirt similar to the one above.

I love any hand sewing and this book has given me some new ideas to incorporate in my art quilts.  I hope you check it out on Google or your  local library.  If they don't have her new book, they may have her older books too, which also look very interesting.  Whether you are an art quilter or sewer of clothes, I think you'll find something to your liking to try!!

8 comments:

  1. The Alabama Chanin designs are so intriguing. Nice book. Have you also seen Dropcloth Samplers? I just learned about this designer, and her embroidery projects are wonderful. I need to embroider something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hadn't seen this book, but if it's hand stitching it's right up my alley and I'll check it out. Thanks
    xx, Carol

    ReplyDelete
  3. After reading your post I just ordered a copy of "Embeadery" and can't wait for it to arrive!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I do love Embeadery, I should pull it out for renewing inspiration. Haven't seen the other one, but I'm trying to curb my book habit and I have several favorites already. But will keep my eyes open in case I come across it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for sharing these most interest books. I love beads and beading and I love hand stitchiing and fabrics so these books really speak to me. I understand having spiral bound to ay flat and you have reminded me I need to get my Crazy Quilting book “spiralized”. Weekend Bliss Dear...<3

    ReplyDelete
  6. The hand stitching book is on my wish list! It is such a lovely book. I am going to order the Slow Stitch one also. That is older but oh so yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I had never heard of Alabama Chanin until last weekend. I went home and looked it up. It is SO weird that I just read your post about the book. You KNOW how much I love hand stitching, so this book is “right up my alley.” I love the fact that it is spiral bound too. I wish more books were done that way.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The book looks wonderful and think I've seen her work featured in a show in Asheville (years back). I loved the cutouts and hand stitching.

    ReplyDelete

Had to put Word Verification back in! Getting strange messages!!!