As regular readers will know, I'm on a mission to extend my crafting beyond knitting and crochet and a few weeks ago I started spinning (now well documented) and a little stitching. As the spinning is going so well, my poor sampler has seen very little progress - I'll show you an update tomorrow - but I wanted to tell you about the book which inspired me to finally pick it up after a couple of years procraftination.

I first dabbled with embroidery as a teen, under my Nanna Shirl's tutelage and I liked it but for some reason it didn't continue beyond a few little projects. Then a few weeks ago, I was sent a copy of 'Mastering the Art of Embroidery' by Sophie Long, and my interest was re-kindled. It's from Jacqui Small - the same publisher as 'The Knitted Home' (reviewed here) which is one of my favourites.

The book is a celebration of embroidery of all types and includes illustrated tutorials from the most basic stitches to more complicated techniques and machine embroidery. It's a weighty hardcover book including contributions from and interesting profiles of numerous contemporary embroiderers, lots of tips, and many beautiful photographs showcasing different techniques.
 
There is something for all levels. The step-by-step tutorials and instructions are sufficiently thorough for a total novice, but there is plenty to interest a seasoned stitcher with many different techniques covered including surface embroidery, counted surface embroidery, embellishment, stumpwork, whitework, three-dimentional embroidery, free-motion and digital embroidery.