Long and Short Stitch Embroidery: A Collection of Flowers (Milner Craft Series) Paperback – August 28, 2006

It is very difficult to trust book on sale without pictures. I'm a visual person, so that made the decision even harder. I read all the reviews and took a leap of faith. This wonderful book is perfect in every way for what I need. It is instructive in detail, it has wonderful exercises for beginners with "Starter Projects". The more elaborate projects are exquisite.There are plenty of close up pictures in each project that helps in seeing the needle/thread painting and following the example. Trish explains more clearly each project step, which I love. I now have 3 of her books, and one that I've checked out of the library and will probably purchase. As a beginner, I find her work something I can only strive for. This book along with Needle Painting Embroidery are the best I could have. I've checked out and ordered other books and none seem to explain so clearly needle painting with thread as much as Ms. Burr's book. You will not regret this purchase. When I have had a question, I've emailed Ms. Burr and have received responses quickly.

I have been embroidering since childhood, but never knew anything about long and short stitching. I hated cross stitch and wanted to try something beyond the usual. Trish Burr is amazing, especially as she is self taught and has a unique perspective. This style is not easy to master, but Trish includes so many tips and projects, that I could take my time, learning a little more with each completed activity. What I really like about her book is that it is not cookie cutter, she provides the technique instructions, project patterns and the thread colors needed. At times I wasn't exactly sure, but I referred to her pictures for help. Do mine look exactly like hers - no! They look like mine -- she teaches you to learn for yourself. I just received another book by Trish 'Color with Confidence'so I can continue learning and begin making designs of my own, using my eyes, techniques, colors to create art. Thank you Trish!

This is a clearly written book with detailed instructions to create beautiful flower embroidery. The projects include small (about 2"x2") flowers that would be cute decorations on greeting cards or sachet bags, somewhat larger (about 3"x4") flowers, and quite large (up to about 6"x10") for framed art. All flowers have tracing outlines, color suggestions and finished project photos. The magnolia is so beautiful I can't wait to start it as a project, but I will do an easier one first for practice. Also, with practice, I see no reason why one could not use these guidelines to create their own flower pattern using their own detailed photo of a favorite flower. Clearly that would be a much more difficult project, but chances are that anyone interested in creating one of these printed projects would have a favorite flower in their back yard that could be equally beautiful.

What a lovely book! Just looking at the mouthwatering embroidery is almost enough reason to have it on your bookshelf, but it's also full of tips and guidance for at least having a go at making the truly lovely flowers created by Trish Burr. I not only recommend this to friends and anyone interested in long and short stitch, but I've given it to friends as a (much appreciated) gift.

After receiving Trish Burr's previous book, Redoute's Finest Flowers in Embroidery (see my review there), I hurried to purchase this one as well. I'm feeling a curious mix of satisfaction and disappointment with this one.The instruction section on long-and-short stitch has been greatly expanded. I must say that the inclusion of much of the instructional text word-for-word from her previous book jarred a bit--especially the diagrams where pixellated computer graphics had not been cleaned up. (These things do slip through, but to have them slip through twice points to slipshod editing.) On the bright side, there is much, much more detail on exactly how the long-and-short stitch is executed, how to deal with different shapes, stitch directions, and so on. In that respect, this book far exceeds the original (which I'll call "RFF" henceforth).The sampler in this book was unappealing, as were the first three "simple" projects. The sampler is four "flower-ish" shapes, not remotely identifiable as any real flower. If I'm going to take the time and trouble to embroider using a single strand of floss at a time, I want the result to be something good-looking, even if it's a tiny something! The stylized "simple" projects also didn't interest me at all--to be frank, they look and feel "dumbed down," and not at all true to the spirit of the book. There was a page showing a number of embroidered leaves of different shapes, and I decided to tackle one of those as my starter project instead. I thought the finished product was much lovelier than the samplers.The flowers in this book were not drawn from a single source like RFF, and it shows in a certain unevenness of style. In my review of RFF, I wrote that the cover is a good example of what you get inside. Not so much so with this one--the flame lily and magnolia shown on the cover (along with a protea, not shown) are by far the most detailed and impressive. Some of the other projects were nice enough pictures, but were somehow missing that "botanical print" look that was so captivating in RFF.Also, and I'm hugely disappointed with this!, they changed the format of the projects, omitting the diagram dedicated to color placement. Instead, you have to cross-reference between the coded list of floss colors and the written description. Nearly every project is prefixed with the brusque admonition that "it will be necessary to inspect the photo closely to reproduce the color changes" (freely misquoted from memory, but that's the gist). But subtle color shifts in floss are quite difficult to distinguish--that's why threadpainting can look so realistic, and that's why I thought RFF (which showed placement by a colored-pencil diagram, with exaggerated differences between the colors) was so great. Alas, they've thrown that good idea out.Although I'm disappointed in these changes for the worse, I am still glad I purchased the book. The extremely detailed coverage of the logistics of long-and-short stitch alone made it worth the price. Several of the projects are stunning, and it's interesting to see how Ms. Burr's technique has changed over time (less padding, for one). So... 5 stars for instruction, 3.5 for projects. But if I were only buying one of her books, I'd buy Redoute's Finest Flowers in Embroidery rather than this one.