The Embroidered Garden: Stitching through the Seasons of a Flower Garden (Make Good: Japanese Craft Style)

I collect needlework books and don't know if I more like the old classics or brand new books like this that may be bound to become a classic. Very many books are being published by Japanese designers recently and their perspective adds a different dimension to our Western ways. Omigosh! I just learned a new word: atelier. (I have a BA in English so I have no business not knowing this word!) It's first mentioned in the Introduction where author Kazuko Aoki relates that her first interest is her garden and from that stemmed her desire to capture its beauty in needlework. It's the ever-changing plants and flowers of the season that keep this endeavor always fresh."Atelier" means an artist's or designer's studio or workshop and Ms. Aoki encourages us to begin with a journal or diary of plants and flowers we like and translate them into potential drawings and then needlework designs. We are first presented with a pretty photo of her Garden Diary which is covered with embroidered linen with images of several plants, a spade, topiary, watering can, and garden boots. She says she began keeping this diary when she first started gardening and she uses it to reminisce on what she's done, to memorialize what she is currently doing and to make notes on what she would like to do in the future. She explains how to make this journal later on in the book. (A huge problem, though, is that she gives no clue about the pages of the journal. She doesn't talk about covering a printed book and I have no idea if all the pages are made of linen like the front and back cover where she practices stitches or if they're paper upon which she writes and draws. It's probably the latter but it's not good that she doesn't display the inside of the journal and the list of materials gives you no clue.)The book is very well laid out: she begins with Spring and each season is covered over 8 to 10 pages. Each season has a paragraph discussion of what flowers excite her for that season and pictures 7 embroidered flowers on the left-hand page and then a larger picture of a wreath of completely different flowers also of the season on the right-hand page. Spring and Summer also have a picture to stitch with a bunch of flowers together and every season has not only individual stitched pictures on linen but also cute projects like frogs or bugs on throw pillows or a linen-covered cork board with pockets for notes and letters and bands to hold other paper. You could also pin paper onto the board.She shows detailed photos of how she get inspiration from her garden and translates them into sometimes 3-D designs. (Again, though, she shows a bunch of butterflies with raised wings and I can't tell if that's stumpwork or not. The whole back of the book is the patterns for all the projects which could have been improved if they weren't so fine and with quite small-font labels and directions.In her stitch "catalog" (as opposed to guide), she diagrams 19 different stitches: although they cover only two pages, they're remarkably easy-to-follow.The most unusual part of the book though is "Kazuko's Stitch Lessons" on pages 49-52. These begin with standard Material's and Tools; then Basic Techniques of transferring designs onto fabric and using a hoop; then Extra Techniques like how to use applique and needle felting; and finally Lessons on Finer Points like how best to make French knots, weaving stitch, and work with ribbon embroidery.The single best thing in the entire book to me is the "Secret Finishing Techniques" on page 51. The displays how she finishes framed pieces: sprays them with a very fine mist of water and uses a wet Q-tip to "fix" the stitches by carefully smoothing them down, gently enough not to make them fuzzy. She shows that this is the best way to make satin stitches be perfectly parallel and neaten all other stitches. Finally, if you have drawn the pattern onto the linen, the water will erase any errant marks.This book is in line with other recently published books and in combination, I think they'll be very useful to expand my vision of designing for myself or at least better stitching others' patterns: Rebecca Ringquist's Embroidery Workshops: A Bend-the-Rules Primer Secret Garden Embroidery: 15 Projects for Your Stitching Pleasure Shakespeare's Flowers in Stumpwork (Milner Craft Series)

I don't understand all the great reviews about detailed instructions. Perhaps they are from people who haven't actually attempted to follow them? The book is gorgeous, the patterns are beautiful and I was eager to do some. And that's where it stopped being so fun. The ones I really wanted to do call for Kazuko Aoki linen floss, which is not available in the US as far as I could tell. OK, I'm weird about following patterns precisely, but the book suggests using DMC linen floss instead (no colors given), but that's been discontinued. Fine, I just picked the next best pattern . . . and I needed to enlarge it. Annoying, but, OK. The materials list is not in numeric order, eh, nitpicky, but still kind of annoying to deal with when gathering/buying supplies, but I do realize that is probably more my issue than the book's. Then, when I finally was able to stitch, (fyi, the #5 threads used are not colors widely available in craft stores and need to be ordered) I discovered how much of a pain the directions really are. The lines for colors are sometimes missing, sometimes wrong and sometimes they aren't really clear as to what exactly goes where and how close stitches the should be to each other (flower buds in particular) without flipping back to the beginning of the book to look at the picture. All things someone can certainly deal with, but, really, if I wanted to deal with all of the annoyances, I'd make my own patterns.

This book is well titled. The important part to me is the clear flower and insect patterns which are divided among the four seasons. The photographs of the completed work are lovely, and clear enough to see the original stitches. The directions to replicate the work are clear and complete. It is important to me that the directions also include the DMC thread numbers so that if the directions are followed the work actually looks like the photographs. OK. my needlework is not that as exquisite as Kazuko Aoki's but at least the shape and colors are true to the photographs. Directions for each stitch are also given in bold and easy stages.I embroidered a row of delicate flowers along a pillowcase for my pre-teen granddaughter and she loves it. I practice on pillow cases just above the border because I hate to practice on scraps and then toss it. This time I may have to place a row of the delicate flowers along several plain white cases because every kid in the family wants one. I am so happy to find this book. It is different from the color drenched Elizabethan things I've beendoing.This book is perfect for beginners and for the really experienced.

Out of all Kazuko Aoki's books, this is the least beginner friendly and is also too sparse to be useful for an experienced embroiderer.I would recommend getting her "Embroidered Garden Flowers" book first. In it you will find useful information such as the order of embroidery and the stitches are a bit better explained. The projects are more varied and cover more techniques. (However, if you get stuck be sure to watch some tutorials or look into other books for help, as none her books are true step-by-step instructions.)So why should you get this book? If you love botanical wreaths, this book has many to choose from. It also has more mixed media/collage projects than any of her other books.Note that this book emphases that Kazuko uses linen DMC, which has now been discontinued. If you can not find it, don't worry, as only one project uses linen (the one on the cover).

Beautiful book to look through. Very cozy. I didn't realize that "The Embroidered Garden" meant we'd be making embroidered garden accoutrements. I thought it was just embroidered flowers. I found that to be a very pleasant surprise. There is nothing particularly difficult about the patterns in this book. But know that there are some things you'll need like wire that you may not have on-hand.

Encantador! O livro te transporta para o mundo mágico do bordado botânico. Além de sugestões de projetos há os riscos com descrição dos pontos. É aquele livro de inspirações e consulta muito útil para quem se interessa pelos padrões florais de bordados. A Autora Kazuko utiliza vários pontos clássicos e se relaciona com a natureza a sua volta transmitindo no bordado a beleza das flores, insetos e jardins.

I came across Kazuko Aoki art while living in South Korea - her embroidery style is extremely popular over there. It was a love at first sight - I didn't know the name of this laconic and elegant embroidery style, so I had to look it up... I bought this book and started my journey in Kazuko AAoki's amazing world... The book is perfect - it's beautiful, very well organized, the instructions are very comprehensive. I did a pillow cover with the autumn wreath - it came out as good as pictured in the book. I did all the flowers - result is above expectations! Now I am planning to embroider those flowers on placemats for my daughter's wedding. If you like embroidery, I highly recommend this book - it's one of the best of its kind.

Livro lindo de bordado, porém não é pra principiantes. Tem lindos riscos. É necessário já saber os pontos para conseguir fazer os bordados.

Un libro molto molto bello, le spiegazioni sui punti utilizzati sono perfette e corredate da schizzi. Lo consiglio a chi ha già una conoscenza base del ricamo a mano e a chi cerca ispirazione per nuovi progetti.

o livro tem fotos coloridas dos bordados, os riscos, os pontos e a indicação das linhas da dmc, adorei! acho super delicado os bordados dessa autora, artista, bordadeira enfim... * * * * * valeu a compra!