Donna Kooler's 555 Country Cross-Stitch Patterns

This was the first book that I have bought for cross stitch, and I don't think I could have picked a better choice. I am relatively a new stitcher (been doing it for a year), and love all the patterns in Kooler's book. It seems like every time I look through it I see a pattern I didn't see before. I find the book great for designing my own patterns by using a lot of the smaller patterns together. The Noah's Ark patterns in here are so vibrant, and you have a choice of two different ones. I really love how big and easy the patterns are to see, with others I have to have them blown up. This book gives you so much, you could decorate your whole house, by using the many different patterns. I also like how the chapters are color coded, this makes it really fast finding a particular chapter. The finished samples are exquisite. I can't really begin to do justice to this book, but I do hope my review will help others in there decision. Right now I am waiting on her "555 Cross Stitch Patterns for the Young at Heart" to arrive. I am looking forward to eventually collecting all of Kooler's other books. Happy Stitching!!!

I love this book. It's so bright and cheery, that it makes me smile every time I browse through it. I think it has the cutest table of contents I've ever seen! The "ground fabric" (i.e. paper color) of each chapter is color coded. For example, all the "Celebrations" pages are green; the "Favorite Things" are red, etc. Charts are in color, most without symbols. If more than one shade of a color is used in the same chart, the chart has colors with limited symbols. Designs are charted for DMC floss. Color photos of some of the motifs is shown at the beginning of each chapter, but not all motifs have a color photo. My favorite things about this book are Donna's creative alphabets. She does some of the best and cutest alphabets I've ever seen. My least favorite thing about this book is the colored charts without symbols. I find them hard to work with. This book is a great source of inspiration for small, quick projects, or combined motifs for a modern-day sampler.

All of Donna Kooler's books have been great. This one is no exception. This has about 8 different alphabets. She has designs for every occassion. The charted patterns are small and in color. They are simple to stitch without a lot of shading. Most of the designs when worked individually could be done in an afternoon. The designs can be switched around and used for multiple things. I really do like this book.

I automatically buy ANYTHING Kooler without question, but I was surprised to find I was disappointed after my first read-through. It SEEMED a bit lack-lustre,almost dull.....until I stitched a couple of the designs - and there again was the Kooler magic: vibrant, 'in-your-face' and yet sensitive and evocative pictures. The book sleeve design doesn't have the same impact as for '555 Fabulous...' and also this time I think the photographer has put his art ahead of the task, which is to promote the designs to stitchers rather than photographers. This is a book of large and small, sophisticated and simple charts - but all of the same high professional quality, and (best of all) good fun to stitch for stitchers of every level and experience.

Great book - full of fun and quick patterns - great for fast gift idea