{"id":3434,"date":"2015-02-07T12:58:18","date_gmt":"2015-02-07T17:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/?p=3434"},"modified":"2015-02-09T14:27:40","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T19:27:40","slug":"book-review-art-of-crewel-embroidery-by-mildred-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/?p=3434","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Art of Crewel Embroidery by Mildred Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a glutton for punishment. \u00a0One of my resolutions for 2015 was to improve my embroidery skills and try more surface embroidery. \u00a0With that in mind, I enrolled in the Embroiderers’ Association of Canada’s Basic Crewel<\/a> correspondence course at the beginning of January.<\/p>\n

Thus far, I’m underwhelmed. \u00a0I’d been a member of the EAC a number of years ago, and even attended a couple of retreats. \u00a0The ladies were lovely, the instruction excellent. Sadly, that experience hasn’t carried over into their distance education. \u00a0But I’ve decided to stick it out and if my impressions improve, I’ll let you know.<\/p>\n

\"crewelsample<\/a><\/p>\n

None the less, I *really* want to take the Intermediate Whitework course, so I’ve decided to stick it out. \u00a0 I will use this course to earn points for my SAGA Artisan card in Embroidery because that at least is of value to me.<\/p>\n

\"crewelsample<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve completed the samples for both of the first lessons and will bang off the research reports this week. \u00a0I also started to build up my reference library (another expense!) because I need the books to write the reports. \u00a0 And this leads me to the book I’m reviewing today: \u00a0The Art of Crewel Embroidery<\/a> by Mildred J. Davis (1962).<\/p>\n

\"DavisArtofCrewelEmbroidery\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because for all my groaning about the EAC’s correspondence course strategy, I am delighted I found this book. \u00a0In a nutshell, I think this is perhaps the best embroidery book I’ve ever had the pleasure of coming across. \u00a0 It is the complete and total package, whether or not you’re interested in crewel work or just surface embroidery generally. \u00a0Oh, at it’s available\u00a0to everyone, for free, through the Internet Archive<\/a>! \u00a0Hooray.<\/p>\n

The book opens with a comprehensive history of the technique of crewel. \u00a0The bibliography is extensive, with a plethora of primary sources from the Tudor through to the Georgian period. This is no fluffy history, but a substantial and well-researched essay, which includes a good selection of photographs of historical stitching, including a ton of close-up detail shots. \u00a0Given the age of the book, many of the photos are black and white but whether they’re grayscale or colour, they’re clear and easy to study, with the museum and collection info easily at hand, should you wish to hunt them down on the internet and see if more recent photos exist.<\/p>\n

\"davisexamplescolour\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"davisexamples\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Then the book gets into the meat of things. \u00a0It includes more than 300 stitches, grouped by type (running stitch, looped stitch, filling stitches etc). \u00a0There are black and white photos of each and every stitch, plus clear and easy to follow diagrams for all 300 stitches. \u00a0 Whether you’re working in wool or doing a crazy quilt for example, there are a plethora of interesting surface stitches to try.<\/p>\n

\"stitches\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s a \u00a0full colour image of traditional colour schemas:\"colourwool\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then, Davis gives several different projects, designed specifically to allow the new stitcher to try out a range of techniques. \u00a0For example, the first project is a little purse. \u00a0The stitches and steps to working the project are all spelled out in such meticulous detail that anyone with a modicum of patience could tackle it successfully.<\/p>\n

\"Davisproject1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Here you can see the design as it would be traced on the fabric. \u00a0I love how clear all of the steps are.<\/p>\n

\"Davisproject1a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All of that would be great and more than enough, but Davis still isn’t finished. \u00a0There’s still more. \u00a0 She gives more than 100 sample shapes, with stitch and colour suggestions for how to work them. \u00a0This allows the stitcher to design their own, or personalize an existing pattern. \u00a0It’s logically organized by type of shape: \u00a0small leaves, medium leaves, large leaves, flowers, fauna, stems. \u00a0It is absolutely brilliant – I wish every book was as thorough.<\/p>\n

\"Davisdesignunits\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"davisdesignunitlargeleaf\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. \u00a0It really is the complete package and I’m so glad I found it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a glutton for punishment. \u00a0One of my resolutions for 2015 was to improve my embroidery skills and try more surface embroidery. \u00a0With that in mind, I enrolled in the Embroiderers’ Association of Canada’s Basic Crewel correspondence course at the beginning of January. Thus far, I’m underwhelmed. \u00a0I’d been a member of the EAC a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,37],"tags":[223,292,294,293],"class_list":["post-3434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-embroidery","tag-book-review-2","tag-crewel","tag-eac","tag-mildred-davis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3434"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3449,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions\/3449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}