embroidery for ducks

Here’s another free book, the full title of which is Revised Needle and Hook: Instructions in Silk Embroidery, Knitting and Crocheting, Illustrated with cuts, half tones and color plates. It’s available online from the Antique Pattern Library, and originally published by Belding Bros. and Co. in 1902. This is another of the needlepainting/silk shading/thread painting/long and short stitch books. I like the designs in A treatise on embroidery better on average, but this book does a more thorough overview of embroidering plants. It starts with a little over 8 pages of discussion going through each part of the flower, and stitching, shading, convex vs concave petals, view from above vs below, etc:

Many of the designs are provided with not just an outline, but a numbered diagram, a flow chart indicating stitch direction, and exposition on additional details:

“It is advisable to begin the work with the back and center petals. The veining of the leaves should be very distinct and the edges sharp and jagged”

“The streaks which appear on the berries are put in with fine outline stitches after the berries are finished, with the lightest green, 1720.”

Anyway, here’s a few designs available in the book:

And I will finish the review on a high note, with this rather cool outline of a batch of chrysanthemums:

I’d like to recommend an amazing book on needlepainting. It is completely free because it was published in 1907 and is therefore public domain: A treatise on embroidery; with twenty color illustrations from original models by Hemingway & Sons Silk Co. Clicking on any of the images in this post will take you to a larger picture.

There are a lot more designs in the book than the ones depicted in the twenty color plates. Here’s three of the color photos of stitched examples:

Gorgeous, aren’t they? The book also has detailed diagrams with color placement instructions, pattern outlines, and each design also comes with several paragraphs of text instructions on stitch placement, shading, and anything else required to work the piece.

The book also offers general information for improved stitching of flowers and other designs, including for example the parts of a flower so that embroiderers understand and respect the underlying structure:

The book also has an introductory section, with a stitch dictionary (some of which I haven’t seen elsewhere), general embroidery information, and illustrations of variations on stitches as inspiration. Here’s some examples (I love the leaves):

It really is a wonderful book. Do let me know if you work any of the patterns. I’d love to see the results.

P.S. Turns out, one of my very favorite needlework blogs mentioned this book too (but from a different free source – I think this scan has better colors): Mary Corbet’s post.