Embroidered Knot Gardens: Using Three-Dimensional Stumpwork, Canvas Work and Ribbon Work [Hardcover]

If you enjoy both gardens and needlework this is a book you'll treasure forever! I can look at the designs for hours and love to just browse through this book. The beautiful photographs tickle your enthusiasm and fantasy and the clear instructions will get you started in no time. What you will create will really be an exceptional piece of art and you will be working on it for months, maybe even years but the result will be very satisfying for you and everyone who will be able to admire your work.

The information, designs and instructions in this book are directed towards creating three-dimensional knot gardens but after reading this book you can make just about any kind of miniature garden you'd like.

The most important aspect for me was whether this book was going to be useful or not since I have no real experience in stitching or embroidering. It's best you have a basic knowledge of stitching but the instructions are explained step by step so that even a beginner can perfectly understand what the book is expecting you to do.

The chapter "Thinking about your design" is the most theoretical part of this book and holds a lot of information. It teaches you how to sketch your desired garden on paper from just about any shape you see around. It explains how to transfer the design to canvas and which stitches to choose. Most interesting it also gives a short historical background on knot gardens and explains the meaning of the different colours often used in gardens.

The next chapters teach you how to add garden paths, flowerbeds, water features, hedging, topiary and brick walls to your miniature garden. Each chapter contains a bit of theoretical background information, step by step stitch instructions, real life knot garden designs as well as miniature gardens to furthermore tickle your fantasy and give you extra ideas.

The first appendix covers dressing a slate frame, the second appendix explains mounting a knot garden.

I can't think of any book being better than this one on this particular subject as it explains and instructs everything you'd ever need to know about making your own miniature knot gardens.

This book is the result of a series of workshops run by Owen Davies and has been aspired by the ideas, the excitement and the creativity of the students in those classes.

-reviewed by Eveline for Euro-Reviews

As a professional garden designer and aspiring textile artist, I find this book inspiring in the extreme. The instructions are excellent, the garden design advice (intended for non-professionals) is surprisingly good. I appreciate the attention to real plants and environment, while also being loose with the representation (for instance, a brick wall is embroidered with the lower portion in darker, greener colors because there would be more moss at the bottom!).

I have poured over this book so much, I think I have it memorized. I've designed a dozen fantasy gardens for these techniques, which I am working on learning and hope to implement someday. The book keeps me excited to learn the techniques as I imagine my own garden designs in thread and yarn....and then I imagine them in art museums and as heirlooms....it is that inspiring!

Good photography, darling and detail-oriented gardens, and real plants inspiring it all.....leave it to the brits.

I would love to see more unconventional gardens done, too, but this book stuck to formal gardens, especially knot gardens (not surprisingly, given the title). This hardly matters, though, because it is clear that the creative needleworker will be able to adapt to any kind of garden desired.

This book is not only beautifully done, it explains each process of the unique needlework projects. A wonderful addition to your library.