Book Review and Exclusive Interview – The Hand Stitched Flower Garden

Yuki Sugashima’s THE HAND-STITCHED FLOWER GARDEN is filled with ideas for creating beautiful and practical handcrafted gifts. The 20 projects are quick-and-easy to make; incorporate the dozens of floral designs showcased in the stitch galleries; and range from a cell phone case, place mats, and zippered silk pouch to truly unusual pieces of jewelry, and much more!

We were so excited about this new book we asked Yuki to tell us about her Passion.

 

Up until six years ago, I was not an embroiderer.  At the time, my craft focus was on knitting, spinning and natural dyeing, with the goal to someday create from sheep to shawl.  But going through my craft supplies one day, I found an old box of embroidery floss and remembered that embroidery was something I’ve always wanted to try.

Armed with a few books from the library and online references, I learned the basics of embroidery.  One stitch led to another– and now,  I’m happy to share my first embroidery book with you. The Hand Stitched Flower Garden is a reflection of my passion for flowers and embroidery, designed to encourage others thinking about trying the craft to get started and introduce techniques beyond the basics to those looking to advance their skills.

The book consists of two parts: a collection of motifs to stitch and project ideas for using those designs. Inspired by local wildflowers and botanical motifs that are traditionally popular here in Japan, the motifs section features a variety of designs including flowers, leaves, nuts, berries and insects.  These motifs are arranged by season and range in difficulty from simple ones using just a few easy stitches to ones that use materials like ribbons and beads or dimensional techniques.  With a little bit of a variety of things, the book provides a taste of different avenues to explore and demonstrates that knowing one extra method can really expand the possibilities. The projects portion features items for the home and fashion accessories, namely, things that can be used in everyday life.  I tend to be a practical person, so the ideas presented in the book are useful in some way, so an embroiderer can enjoy using the finished piece as much as the stitching process.

The projects are generally simple and straightforward to construct to make it easy to adapt them to different motifs and materials.  Of these, I have my own few favorites– the dayflower drawstring bag and the red clover cushion cover.  Not only do I find lots of use for drawstring bags, but also love the blue-on-blue effect; the red clover on the gingham fabric is a fun combination and a cheerful accent to the living room.  In fact, this one has already made it onto my couch!  Motifs-wise, I particularly like the elegant camellia for its dimensional petals and beaded stamens.In addition to creating this book, I run a couple of online shops selling my original embroidered creations and more under the name, Y * Handmade.  I also share bits about my handcrafts and life on my blog by the same name, a way for me to offer a peek at the person behind the embroidery.

Thank you for sharing Yuki!