Secret Garden Embroidery: 15 Projects for Your Stitching Pleasure (What Delilah Did) Paperback – May 19, 2015

Love these books/ this author. I have all 3. Great instructions, great pictures. Super fun and inspirational for projects. I thought I’d given up cross stitch but these books make me want to work on little well hangings and all sorts of things.

This book is dreamy. My favorite needlecraft book so far. I love her style, botanical/vintage/fairy tale. I want to make everything in here! I made the cover project, the honey bee, and it took me less time than suggested in the book. I'm very happy with it. She gives excellent instructions, I am almost a complete beginner and she explains things quite nicely.

I don't have the previous book-- Storyland Cross Stitch: 15 Projects and a Free Gift for Your Stitching Pleasure --so I'm unfamiliar with Sophie Simpson. It's weird that the author is given as "What Delilah Did" which is the author's online business and blog and the very first mention of this is on page 142. Page 143 is the Acknowledgements page and on the very last page, 144, is the publishing info. I don't think any other of my huge library of books is like this.So what is this book all about? It states it has 15 projects and, wonderfully, 4 of the largest projects have charts on folded paper tucked into a small envelope on the back of the book.I far prefer Rebecca Ringquist's Embroidery Workshops: A Bend-the-Rules Primer which also includes a stamped piece of fabric in the back of the book. The main reason for this is that the biggest pattern given is for a dreadful bunny head surrounded by a simple oval border with a few flowers. It's entitled "Miss Millicent's Hare" and has a stitch count of 116 x 147: on 32 count linen, it will be a little over 7 x 9 inches. The entire bunny is stitched with one color of mocha with the exception that the one eye is black. Well...there are black eyelashes and whiskers. But the entire border is just as boring: in black and the 2 sets of flowers in one color of Kreinik gold braid. It's displayed as a framed picture on page 31 so at least you can tell if you like it. It's good that an estimate of 23 hours of stitch time is given. (For me, this would produce an amazing waste of one day in my life I'd never get back.)I'm not really impressed with the whimsical story given in page-long segments at the beginning of each of the 15 projects. But that's just me.I find her directions to be very clear and she gives an excellent photo display and text for materials and supplies needed. While the beginner techniques shown are pretty good, the stitch guide would be greatly improved if the nine stitches were shown over more than three pages...they're too small if you're not already familiar with the stitch.I like it that the three chapters are Bud (Small Projects for Beginners), Blossom (Mid-Sized Projects for Improvers--really like that term) and Bloom (Large Projects for Practised Stitchers). (Yes, she spells them "practised" and "jewellery" and "colour" because she's English.) The templates for each project not included in the patterns in the envelope are in the back of the book.The projects included are mostly 3-dimensional and range from a simple book mark to a jewelry roll to a really pretty band sampler cushion.The single most unusual thing about the book is her preference for stitching on felt using waste canvas--9 of the 15 projects including the large cushion. (Being from Britain, she prefers pure wool felt so be careful about moths if you use it.)It's dicey for me if I pick up a book and am not instantly drawn to do at least one project. Sadly, none of these spring out to me but that's because I have about a million books, projects, leaflets and kits already in line. I don't want to dissuade you buying this book if you would find the story whimsical (she even includes a recipe to make rose petal jam!) or any of the projects irresistible. The cost is pretty reasonable even for how new it is so, soon, it should go down even more. Yes, this book would be worth $5 to $10...to me anyway. If you get it, I hope you love it.

This book is inspiring and each page is a work of art. A wonderful resource book.

I really wanted this book, in fact I ordered twice because the first order got lost in the mail.The cover attracted me and I'm not sure what I imagined but is not what I got when I opened the book..It does said embroidery on the cover, I didn't think was a book about where to stitch your embroidery .A lot of cross-stitch and simple counted stitches.But worse of all a whole lot of sewing...Lots of pages wasted on materials treads etc.... I wish authors will assume that unless the books are marked for beginners or have truly innovative or little known techniques, somebody with a minimum experience already know all about types of treads, fabric and basic stitchesMaybe my reaction is so bad because I was expecting so much .I guess if you are a beginner you probably will enjoy this book.

I had a lot of fun working through the projects in this book. Most embroidery books are pretty dorky, but this book had projects I actually wanted to make for myself and as gifts. I am now a big fan of Simpson and would like to see what she comes up with next.Instructions were very straightforward, the design of the book was appealing, and the projects were cute.

This is such a lovely book! I own her previous book, Storyland Cross Stitch, as well and highly recommend them for beginners and experienced stitches alike. She clearly explains the materials and techniques she uses. Her writing style is so pleasant that I enjoy reading through the books which makes is so much easier to start and complete projects.

Lovely, love book with lots of beautiful ideas for embroidering nature. I'd waneed this pattern book for awhile and I'm very glad I finally purchased it.