A wonderful world of intricate beauty You'll be captivated by the elegance and grace of these elaborate shadow trapunto quilts-especially once you discover how easy they are to make! Create the old-world look of tatting or lace with a simple 3-step technique. Geta provides instructions and patterns for working with whole cloth, pieced, or appliqué backgrounds. A gorgeous gallery of her work is included. • 30 remarkable projects include wallhangings, pillows, tablerunners, and postcards • Achieve old-world style with this innovative technique • Patterns in the book can be enlarged; full-size patterns are on the enclosed CD

If you think you know what cross stitch is, look again! Jamie Chalmers, aka Mr X Stitch, shows you how to cross stitch using simple step-by-step instructions and also takes you to the frontiers of cross stitch design. The book is aimed at stitchers of all abilities, from absolute beginners looking to learn a new craft to embroiderers and cross stitchers who want to do something different in cross stitching. For many, cross stitch conjures up images of cute kittens and country cottages, but this book shows people that theres a different side to cross stitching that its an art in its own right, and will encourage them to be a little braver with their art. Jamies writing style is fun, entertaining and highly inspirational. The book aims to appeal to men as well as women, encouraging one and all to take up the ancient craft. It teaches the basics of cross stitching, including information on materials, tools, techniques and colour blending, but also puts Jamies own individual spin on it, with urban flavours and the introduction of different materials such as glow-in-the-dark threads and stitching on metal. As well as providing exciting designs to stitch, there is guidance on how to create cross stitch designs of your own, for example by using photographs and other images for reference. Jamie also showcases the work of other contemporary cross stitchers who are pushing the boundaries of their craft, and introduces more than 20 stunning cutting-edge projects to make, showing that beauty, innovation and 'craftivism' are alive and kicking in this inspirational book.

Over the course of her long and creative career, quilting expert Sylvia Critcher has established her own unique process for combining raised quilt and stitch techniques to create wonderful effects. Sylvia's method features a variety of quilting and raised embroidery techniques including trapunto, Italian quilting, le boutis, French-style cording and English quilting. The book will guide you through the history and context of these traditional techniques and show you how to combine them with the necessary stitches to create Sylvia's distinctive style of work. This book will show you exactly how Sylvia creates her richly textured surfaces by following a simple step-by-step pincushion project from start to finish. The process is broken down into key stages, and clear illustrations are given to guide the reader through the process. All the instructions and templates needed to create nine further contemporary projects are given: a ring pillow, chair cushion, bag, needlecase, lap quilt, runner, table centre, wall hanging and full-size quilt. All the templates required are given at actual size in a handy pull-out section. The book also contains a helpful section on developing designs and a gallery of beautiful pieces to inspire.

Explains how to achieve depth and raised textures when machine quilting and includes quilt patterns and lessons in stipple quilting, background effects, machine trapunto, shading with stitches, two-layer trapunto, and shadow trapunto