Book Review: Joyful Daily Stitching

I am on a listing from C&T Publishing and from Martingale that I get ebook copies of new books that come out.  I have the opportunity to review them.  It’s really fun and I enjoy seeing the new books that come out.  Every once in awhile I find a book that I think I would really love and I request a hard copy of the book.  I recently got an awesome book from C&T Publishing, Joyful Daily Stitching:  Seam by Seam by Valerie Bothell.

Check out the cover.  I LOVE it without even opening the book.  I have forever been intrigued by embroidery.  Crazy quilts I could look at forever and ever.  I was THRILLED to get this book.

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-1

Check this out…See that it says, “Complete Guide to 500 Embroidery-Stitch Combinations.

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-2

One of the first quilts I ever made was for Kelli when she was about three.  It was her first bed quilt….here she is showing it off as an adult.  This is an old picture.  We lived at the farm and Gracie, our first beagle, was still with us.  Anyway, notice the patchwork areas….All of them had crazy quilt embroidery stitches on them.  I was working as a telephone operator at Methodist Hospital in Rochester at the time.  I did lots of overnight shifts.  It was slow and I could stitch.  I LOVED stitching!!

firstquilt

I used to buy cute little denim jumpers and then do ribbon embroidery on them for Kayla.  She wore them all the time.  Oh, I loved stitching.  I wasn’t quite into quilting so much then….

Anyway, you can see why I was so interested in getting a copy of this book…for nostalgia sake if nothing else.

Let’s show you a peek into the book….I love this.  Notice that to the left is a simple stitch…as you go further to the right, the stitches get something else added to them to make them more and more complicated.  It’s great encouragement for beginners!!

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-06

The illustrations in the book are very nice.  The wording is complete and easy to understand.  Imagine how hard it would be to write directions on how to make a stitch!!

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-07

There is a big section on adding beads to the stitching.  I wasn’t as excited about actually doing that but it was interesting to look at, see and understand how adding beads would be done.

The flower stitches are my favorite.

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-08

I LOVED the ribbon embroidery section.  I have a stash of ribbon embroidery stuff.  Oh I loved doing that…then it kind of went out of fashion and I didn’t see supplies or more publications about it.  Through it all, I’ve still kept my supplies with the hope that it would make a come back…I have more hope now than ever.

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-09

I’m going to be on the hunt for some close for our new grand baby Lucy that would look good with a little ribbon embroidery on them.

In the back of the book there are pages and page like this.  What I love about it is that it says what stitches were combined to make the end product.  AWESOME.  I love when things get broken down into understandable parts.  It makes it all more do-able.

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-10

Cool right?

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-11

I loved these leaves!!

Joyful-Daily-Stitching-12

I don’t know how or when I’ll be stitching and using this book….but I sure am happy to own it.  It is one of those books that I want on my shelf for a reference.  When the time is right to stitch I want it there and waiting for me.  In the meantime, I’ve been reading the book at night at bed time and admiring all of the great stitches.

Bravo to the author and bravo to C&T Publishing for making the book a reality!

7 thoughts on “Book Review: Joyful Daily Stitching”

  1. The author has a blog, The Pink Bunny. (I just googled her.) She did a felted wool crazy quilt star for her first book that looks right up your alley.

  2. What a great book! I used to love to do embroidery and counted cross stitch, but my eyes just don’t cooperate anymore.

  3. Me too—-I would love to see ribbon embroidery come back….I loved doing it and made many things….I totally love doing it…….I have to get this book…I have a crazy quilt project going….

  4. Lovely book. I, too, have a container full of ribbon embroidery supplies. One day I will get back to it. I love stitching!

  5. The other day u were talking about want to sew other designers’ quilts. I found a book recently that I really like. It is for jelly rolls as I have collected a few of those. You could also use your scrap user 2-1/2″ strips. The book is called JELLY ROLL QUILTS IN A WEEKEND, by Pam and Nicky Lintott, a mother/daughter team. It was published in 2017. I then bought another book by them, Jelly Roll Quilts, from 2008. I’ve already made one of the quilts from their new book and can’t wait to make more of them. Just a suggestion cause I felt the same way as you about broadening my horizons with other designers. Love Bonnie’s and have made a few of yours too!

  6. Elizabeth McDonald/catskillquilter

    Thank you for this comprehensive review! I love embroidery and have looked at this since it came out. It can be really difficult to assess a quilting book online, without having it in your hands to turn pages, read a little, glance at the illustrations to see if they are easy to understand. Now I am convinced that I need to buy it!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top
%d bloggers like this: