The Bibles of Embroidery

My best friend Ann has come to embroidery, like a lot of women, after retirement when time is not so great a factor. She has done a little embroidery most of her life. We have been friends for half a century--what she does affects me and what I do affects her. So when I moved back to Colorado (Ann lives in Cheyenne, WY) and started teaching embroidery there, Ann would sometimes come with me when she got a chance. Several years ago I showed her how to do colcha embroidery. Amazingly she took to it and started doing her own original work in her own original way. It is still colcha, but with her own twist to it. Way to go, Ann!

We have had some adventures because of this road-trip type of teaching, the most memorable of which was being evacuated from Los Alamos at the start of the Cerro Grande fire. Even after my moving to Albuquerque, Ann has come down to take a class or two. When she retired from the WTLA, she joined the EGA and had started studying embroidery seriously.

So last year when I decided to go to this year's Embroiderers' Guild of America national seminar in Louisville, KY, I insisted she go too. I had to twist her arm, stomp on her toes, and hold my breath before she said she would come. Oh, I also told her it would be one of our road trips except by airplane. That was probably what tipped her to decide to come.

One of the grand things, one of the many grand things, about national seminars is the seminar bookstore hat is dedicated to embroidery and related topics. Thousands of books are shipped in and a book boutique is set up for the six or so days of the seminar This year Ruth Kern Books came to national seminar. Way to go Ruth!

Ann and I went into the book boutique and were overwhelmed by the number of titles we could choose from. I was brave and strong and bought only four books (that's all the weight I could take back in my luggage). Ann bought several books too, including a couple of books I recommend for the serious learner.

So now we come to the topic of this post. My bibles of embroidery. I first was learning about embroidery in the late 70s and early 80s, so my favorite books are from that era, though they are still available, certainly as used books and other editions.

The first of them is Therese de Dillmont's The Encyclopedia of Embroidery, first published in 1880. I have a nice paperback from Running Press from the mid-70s. This is the authoritative book about European embroidery and European embroidery is basically what we do today here in America with some notable exceptions. The illustrations are very good and copious. A person could learn much of what embroidery is about from studying this book.

The second book that I owe so much of my knowledge to is Jo Ippolito Christenson's The Needlepoint Book. Now you need to understand that I started out as a canvas embroiderer. But The Needlepoint Book isn't just for needlepointers. In fact yesterday I was researching stitches from it to be put onto perforated paper. Most all of the stitches in the book can be done counted onto linen and can be done uncounted as surface work.

And the third book is Carolyn Ambuter's The Open Canvas. This book opened my mind to possibility. In it are a series of six samplers that represent six techniques that impact the gound fabric. Again, though they are worked on canvas, they can be translated to any ground.

There are many great books on embroidery. Every embroiderer needs to have two or three good, comprehensive books of stitches and techniques. These are my three. Any other suggestions?