Cross-Stitch Florals

Rating:
Summary: Lifelike flower designs...
Review: Cross-Stitch Florals is a design book of bright and crisp images. Not all the charts have photographed finished textiles, but the charts that have been photographed are very attractive. The colors used are bold, bright and lifelike. Included are: Anchor to DMC chart, and inches to metric chart. Color charts (555) are on 10x10 grid, easy to follow, with a floss legend on each page. The introduction includes: fabric, floss, design size, needles, stitching and finishing techniques. The finished pieces have vivid, true to life colors and the color photos are inspiring. It will take some imagination for 90% of the charts that aren't photographed, but this book is a nice addition to a stitching library. I purchased it after looking through the book, so I wasn't surprised by the few color photos.

Rating:
Summary: Simple designs, but very good.
Review: I really like that the designs are printed in color. They are simple but beautiful. This is my favorite of Marie Barber's books.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, but oh so disappointing!
Review: I saw this book on this website and as I am an avid cross stitcher and a Marie Barber fan to boot, I decided to buy it after looking at a picture of the front cover and reading the synopsis on the book. However, when it arrived at my doorstep, I was terribly disappointed to see that 90% of the patterns in the book were not shown as completed projects. The book is jam packed full of, what seem to be, lovely patterns, but only about 10% of the patterns are shown as finished. This was a great disappointment to me as I like to look and see what the finished item looks like before I start to stitch it. This helps me to decide whether I am going to use the recommended fabric, or try one in a colour of my own. As far as I am concerned, the author spent so much time packing the book full of patterns that she never took the time to get all the projects stitched and photographed for display. Because of this, I find myself staring endlessly at a pattern that I think I might like to stitch, only to put the book down in disgust, not wanting to waste my time starting a project that I might turn out to dislike. All lovers of the art of Cross Stitching will know what I am talking about when I say this. Finally, and this is the greatest frustration to me, but there is no dialogue in the book....just pages and pages and pages of patterns that may or may not stitch up to the satisfaction of the stitcher. So, the book spends more time on my shelf than it does in use and I regret the wasted money. Having said all this, I still rate the book 3 stars as I don't think I would be too disappointed should I try out one of the patterns as Marie Barber's work is usually a delight to me. However, for those of you who like to see the finished result before you start stitching, this book will be a great source of frustration. It certainly is that to me.

Rating:
Summary: Whats all the negative fuss about?
Review: I thought this book was very interesting when I got it. There are really unusual floral designs. They want you to work them as a grouping. Sure, you have to use your imagination on the end result, but so what. I would rather have more graphs then pages of talk and pictures. Really unusual, classy, designs. Vases, realistic flowers, unusual animals and borders. I think some of these will be good for a man and his office. And we know how hard it is to find mens designs.

Rating:
Summary: Good sourcebook for SIMPLE floral designs
Review: Inspite of its title this book does include designs of some animals and insects (I wish it didn't).But it also has many designs of floral alphabets and borders. Some designs are really nice like the tulips and fern. The designs charts are in color,very few photograghs of finished results are included. The layout of this book reminded me of Donna Kooler's books,so if you have enjoyed them ,you might enjoy this one. I think the price of the book is a little bit too steep for the patterns it offers. I must admit though that it is packed and I enjoyed the results of my stitching.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing unusual
Review: This book contains patterns that are typical of any other pattern book. The patterns are not great nor are they spectacular. Rather, they are what I would consider basics. If you are looking for unusual patterns or motifs, you will not find them in this book. Most projects are simple enough for beginners but experts may not be challenged.

Rating:
Summary: Whats all the negative fuss about?
Review: This book falls short of my favorite Marie Barber book: Gifts of Nature: An American Sampler. The qualities that I liked most about that book are missing from this one. There, Marie had large samplers that were photographed in finished form as well as including ideas of how to pull out portions of the designs for smaller projects. This book is loaded with small patterns but few are shown combined or photographed finished. I would like some suggestions on how to use these patterns individually or combined. I also miss the size charts that tell me how big the finished design will be based on thread count of fabric used; call me lazy.
I have worked a few of these designs, and they are easy to follow as are all of Marie's patterns. So I would say that this is nice book for someone who is looking for a collection of small, simple floral patterns.