A Cross Stitcher's Oriental Odyssey

I will love making one of the beautiful cross stitch. An amazing book.

If you want to decorate something in Oriental and love to stitch this is a cool book.

Amazing designs. Elliot takes cross stitch to the next level; not the juvenile cartoonish looking patterns. The beauty & style sets these designs as art appearing like painting you will be proud to display.

I love cross stitch and needlepoint and I also love oriental designs. This book fits both criteria and then some! You will find wonderful designs, some very small and quite a few large ones. Two things are really appreciated...very few colors are used (which is amazing given the depth of the designs) and very few fractional stitches are used, which again makes the stitching that much more enjoyable. Three large designs of geisha's are included and several designs focus on oriental plants and calligraphy. I would definitely rate this as one of the best cross stitch books I have ever purchased.

I ordered this book seeing the good reviews and because I wanted some oriental cross stitch designs and I must say, I havent been disappointed at all! All the designs in the book are breathtakingly beautiful. Like another reviewer has mentioned, tbe designs are all vivid in detail and rich in color, yet the palette used is limited. There are patterns in all sizes, a few big ones, a few medium sized ones and a few small ones. They are beautiful and easy to work on, yet the end result looks amazing. It is now my favourite cross stitch book.

This book by Joan Elliott truly takes you on an odyssey.The first part of the odyssey begins with the cover image of the Oriental Lady "Wisdom" and continues inside with small and simple florals, sachets, notecards and trinket bowls as well as large and more complex pictures, all rich with color and attention to detail.The second part of this Oriental Odyssey begins with the first words of the Introduction. Joan's love of the Orient is obvious in the history lesson she relates about such cultural staples as the kimono, the obi, the paintings, calligraphy and feng shui. Each design contains a more detailed description of the extensive symbolism within.The third piece of this odyssey is the urge to stitch that is created from the color charts. The number of floss colors required to stitch these designs is minimal given the amount of detail achieved in each. Joan was also able to make the designs rich in symbolism while maintaining a trademark of her work - a deceivingly simple and easy-to-follow flow in the charts.This Oriental Odyssey concludes with pages of instructions for finishing your projects as they appear throughout the book. These instructions are written and illustrated in a clear and concise fashion. A bonus for those who are not confidently creative is the recommendations by the author that various designs can be finished in the same manner as others.After closing the book it became very clear that Joan Elliott not only loves Oriental art but also has an ability to incorporate it into her cross stitch designs and share it with others. She not only created designs that are appealing but also that relate a story within the borders of their stitches.

Joan Elliott caputured the beauty of the orient in her cross stitch designs in this book. Finally there is a source of beautiful oriental designs from graceful women draped in colorful kimonos to Chinese calligraphy. There is also a nice introduction to oriental art and easy to follow color graphs. There is a huge selection of designs and the patterns are easy to stitch. It is a pleasure to see oriental designs make it into the market place in such an elegant way.

Full color charts - great designs, ranging from small to large.Charts include ladies, flowers, and oriental symbols. The designs are lovely and all the charts are easy to read. I hope this author plans to do another book on this subject, as Asian designs of good quality are hard to find. Great book - I highly recommend to anyone who likes Asian designs.