Stitched Blooms Book blog tour + Giveaway - Right now September 2013 at iHanna's

Today is a big day for me as it’s the first time ever I join a Book Blog Tour! We’re here to celebrate Carina Envoldsen-Harris’ new book Stitched Blooms – 300 Floral, Leaf & Border Motifs to Embroider! This post contains both my book review and a giveaway!

Stitched Blooms Carina of Carina’s Craftblog and Polka & Bloom Shop (where she sells the most amazing embroidery designs) has written her first craft book, about stitching flowers on all kinds of projects.

This is a great beginner’s book to embroidery, a great start for anybody who has ever thought about stitching. Get the book and start sewing, right now! What I like most is the lengthy introduction where Carina goes through not only tools and different embroidery floss, but also color mixing and basic color theory, finishing techniques, different stitches to learn and even ideas on how to find inspiration outside the book for your own explorations.

Then you get a whole lot of craft projects that in some way include appliqué or embroidery as a focal point. There is a skirt, a baby quilt, ideas on how to embellish shirts and tea towels that you already own, and smaller craft projects like a pin cushion, a holiday ornament (hanging in a hoop) and a very nifty sewing kit idea.

Stitched Blooms | Pom-pom luminaries

My personal favorite is the blomma bag (blomma is Swedish for flower) that has both polka dots and a felt flower that is super cute, though unfortunately the pattern for the bag itself is not included. I also really like what Carina calls pom-pom luminaries, white candle bags to decorate the table with. They’re so romantic, I think they would look great at a summer party or if your’re planning a wedding!

If you’re a fan of Scandinavia you’ll appreciate this book even more. There is a motif to sew onto a pair of mittens that is called scandinavian snö (snö = snow) and even a pattern for a softie dala horse (you can read more about Dala horses here), where templates are included.

Stitched Blooms | Dalahästen

A lot to be inspired by, don’t you think? And like the title hints there are 300 motifs in the book – so lots to pick and choose from (all included on a CD in the back, so that you can print them any size), and many ways you could be creative yourself by combining flowers, leafs and borders into something that will fit your project.

Win win win

Would you like a chance at winning a copy of this book, including some pretty embroidery floss provided from the publisher Lark (!)? Simply leave a comment below to let me know what big or small creative project you plan to finish before Christmas! :-)

My plan is to finish my Week in the Life photo book for 2013! We’ll see how it goes.

I will close comments and pick a winner on Sunday Oct 6! Until then feel free to let your friends know about the giveaway too, by tweeting this or sharing a link to this post on FB, pinterest – or your blog! Thanks for helping us spread the word!

Edit: Giveaway closed – and winner annonced here.

floss

Previous Book Blog Tour hosts include Aimee Ray and Jenny Doh, and today it’s me iHanna and one of my favorite bloggers, toy maker Abby Glassenberg! Tomorrow you should visit Susie Stubbs!

Also check out:

* Stitched Blooms – buy it or add it to your wish list on Amazon
* My embroideries – I stitch some kind of mixed media craziness most of the time!
* Previous book reviews – by yours truly