The Hand-Stitched Home: Projects and Inspiration for Creating Embroidered Textiles for the Home

A Hand-Stitched Home is one in which lovely embroidered designs personalize and enliven the space. These designs can be tiny embroidered details, decorative trims, or large, colorful pictures.

In this uniquely beautiful volume, five sections and twenty-four embroidery projects reveal how to turn your living space into an elegant, inviting Hand-Stitched Home.

Making Pictures
A needle and thread are perfect tools to paint pictures—like a countryside image to adorn bookends or a nautical scene to transform a scrap of fabric into artwork so lovely that it begs to be framed.

On the Edge
Simple decorative details can add beauty in the most unexpected of places. A light green print of ivy can embellish the edge of a chair cover, a print of kitchen supplies can makes shelf edging easy on the eyes.

At the Table
The kitchen is the heart of the home and the table is the heart of the kitchen. A vibrant pinwheel design makes a stunning tablecloth runner, names or initials on placemats will bring the whole family together at mealtime.

The Soft Stuff
Nothing lends itself as easily to embroidery as blankets and pillows. Textured violets on a pillow or bright, scattered flowers on a white quilt fill living rooms and bedrooms with comfort and cheer.

At the Window
Embroidery allows everyday objects to add grace to the home. A white thread design on a sheer curtain or an embroidered pelmet are delightful accessories to guide sunshine into the home.

Having only taken up sewing herself in her late thirties, CAROLINE ZOOB hopes to inspire people who have always wanted to sew but felt intimidated. After training as an opera singer and then qualifying as a solicitor, she is now an embroiderer and designer of china and textiles. She undertakes design commissions for several large companies and runs a website selling her embroidery and a range of home-wares. In 2000 Caroline and her husband became the tenants of Monks House in Sussex, the former home of Leonard and Virginia Wolf, staying for over a decade and tending the two-acre garden which has become an inspiration for Caroline's embroidery. www.carolinezoob.co.uk