Cross-Stitch Florals

I'd have loved this book only if the book came in with all the pages. There are at least 10 pages were ripped off.

Cross-Stitch Florals is a design book of bright and crisp images. Not all the charts have photographed finished textiles, but the charts that have been photographed are very attractive. The colors used are bold, bright and lifelike. Included are: Anchor to DMC chart, and inches to metric chart. Color charts (555) are on 10x10 grid, easy to follow, with a floss legend on each page. The introduction includes: fabric, floss, design size, needles, stitching and finishing techniques. The finished pieces have vivid, true to life colors and the color photos are inspiring. It will take some imagination for 90% of the charts that aren't photographed, but this book is a nice addition to a stitching library. I purchased it after looking through the book, so I wasn't surprised by the few color photos.

I thought this book was very interesting when I got it. There are really unusual floral designs. They want you to work them as a grouping. Sure, you have to use your imagination on the end result, but so what. I would rather have more graphs then pages of talk and pictures. Really unusual, classy, designs. Vases, realistic flowers, unusual animals and borders. I think some of these will be good for a man and his office. And we know how hard it is to find mens designs.

I really like that the designs are printed in color. They are simple but beautiful. This is my favorite of Marie Barber's books.