Crafts Hobbies Books

The book came in a reasonable amount of time. It looks like new.I am very happy with this product as well as the vendor.

A quilt pattern that has been an enigma to some and a complicated mess of little squares to others is now as simple as cutting and sewing strips together! Thanks to Eleanor Burns' methods, the quilts actually can come together in one day. Her "system" is also adaptable to bargello quilts, and any number of other designs. Ms. Burns also provides her simple and fast method for applique using fusible interfacing. The Waterlily Quilt design has been one of my favorites since I first saw it, but I knew I'd never have the talent for the piecework or the applique. Eleanor has again placed a complex design within my reach. This book is great for beginning and experienced quilters of all ages and tastes. Definitely worth adding to your bookshelf.

This is an excellent book for beginning quilters. One can learn how to make a beautiful quilt that will last a lifetime in a short amount of time. Eleanor Burns is very good at explaining the quilt process.

Exactly what I was looking for. Really enjoyed full color pictures and and instructions.

I wanted an easy, dynamic quilt for a wall hanging, and had been looking at other trip around the world patterns. It seemed as if I was going to have to cut out lots and lots of little squares. But then I happened upon this quilt book, ordered it, and strip quilted the top in a day!
I am looking forward to making another larger one with different color combinations. I am pretty much a novice, but this book is clear and precise.

my grandson is three-years old and loved this book! he sat down and in one day had gone through the entire book. my daughter and my son-in-law erased the pages when he was sleeping so he could do them all over again!

My daughter loves these "Kumon" books. We now have several and the Amazon price (with free shipping) was cheaper than we'd pay at our local store. Also the selection here is awesome!

This is a lovely book, but it really seems to be for 4 or 5 year old kids. Or precocious 3 year olds.

My son (5) loves all the Kumon books we have tried so far (Numbers 1-30, Capital Letters, Mazes - Animals and Mazes - Things that go). While he normally does not like to practice writing skills, he spends a good amount of time on the Kumon books and I consider them a good investment. His 3 year old sister is very skilled with the mazes as well (we bought her the beginner maze book, also excellent). The quality of the paper and images is superior as well, compared to most activity books out there. Highly recommended.

Excellant book with some great creative ideas in it.

Easy to understand and read.

Great for a beginner.

This book has wonderful photos and projects! If you work with metal clay, you need to have this one in your library!!! AWESOME!

Great book! A must for those interested in working with metal clay. From the extremely clear explanations to the detailed step by step photos it is hard to imagine how one could go wrong with this "personal and private lessons" kind of illustrated text.

As someone who works with jewelry I found this book to be a most up to date source of both information and resources. I sincerely hope this is not the only book Ms. Duhamel writes, as I for one would be waiting for the next. If you are interested in technique as well as design, this is a must next to your bench.

This book "makes the creation of fine silver and gold objects a possibility for non-metal craftsmen." Indeed, Louise gives very precise instructions how to work with metal clay for someone who has never taken a class -- but -- it's still better to take a class for safety considerations because firing requires using a torch or kiln. A class will also help you to plan your design before opening a package of metal clay; once exposed to air, metal clay dries very fast, so it's important to know what you will need to accomplish before firing.

Metal clay is a relatively new product. Invented by Japan's Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, it is 99.9% precious metal and .1% binder. Jewelers in the US learned about the product in the mid-1990s and embraced it as enthusiastically as versatile polymer clay had been earlier. Like polymer clay, metal clay can be molded, rolled, stamped, and folded. Gemstones and glass enamel can be a part of a design in metal clay.

Louise carefully describes the various forms of metal clay and provides an excellent chart of temperatures and times needed to fire different clays. Although there is no waste with metal clays because you can re-hydrate scraps, you must be careful not to mix two clays that require different firing temperatures.

Twenty projects are shown in detail, from simple to more difficult. Jewelers who have struggled with solid gold granulation will be shocked to see how easy it can be accomplished with metal paste. A metal clay class and this book will certainly inspire you.

I recently started working with metal clay. As a result, I purchased a series of books in order to learn more. This book is by far the best I have ordered. I really enjoyed it because it is full of innovative, very creative techniques yet it also covers all the basics in detail. The directions are clear and don't make the beginner feel intimidated. This book guarantees that you won't be bored after you master the basics.

Oh, how I wish I had that pile of old sweaters I donated to the thrift shop! If I only had them now, I'd soon have a kick-ass collection of sox, leg-warmers, even cooler new sweaters, hats, bags, baby booties, necklaces, purses, skirts, head-bands, pet bed, laptop cozy and mnore, more, more!

File this book under "Why didn't I think of this stuff first?" -- but go buy it now and make up for lost time! Sweater Surgery: How to Make New Things With Old Sweaters is a gold mine of crafty ideas!

I have had this book a couple of weeks and have gone through it several times reviewing projects that I want to do. I realize that many reviewers consider this a beginner book but I am enough of a newbie to appreciate it. I had purchased Petra Kaiser's earlier book,Fuse It, liked it well enough to want to read this one. I enjoyed the projects in the second book a lot. I will certainly be making several of them. I had not worked with fiber board before and looking forward to experimenting with it.I was reather disappointed one of her cover projects were not really detailed at all in the book. There was a small picture with a three or four lines under the pic about it. That happened to be one that I was interested in but I am certain I can work it out myself but would have liked to have a bit more about the projects.

All in all I liked the book and as I said, will make several of the projects. I will also push myself into playing with creating my own molds with fiber board. For me, a successful addition to my library of books on this subject.

It was a disappointing book. I'm just getting started in fusing and slumping. I was wanting more instruction and more ideas than this book gives. I wouldn't not recommend it.

This is a great book for the glass fusing novice. It provides step by step directions for several projects as well as a solid overview of the process involved in art of warm glass.

I find this book very informative for the new glass artist. Easy to read and understand. It provides easy to follow directions for some nice pieces. I feel that making a beauiful piece sucessfully gives a person the motivation to spread their wings and try new and different things! This book is a good place to start.

This is a good intro class to glass fusing. It walks you thru projects and explains the various stages of glass fusing in the kiln. The graphs explain the kiln firing-"ramping", "Flash Cooling", when to "Hold Temp" in an easy to understand way. This is the perfect first book to start fusing glass. 200 color photographs. Idiot proof.

This book was well worth the purchase price, as it explains very clearly more stitches than most people will need in a lifetime of stitching.

I bought this to replace a copy I gave to my sister. I like how the stitches are demonstrated and described. I would have liked more combination stitches.

What a fantastic little book! There are over 200 stitches described in this book!! I've been embroidering on and off for many years and had no idea there were so many different embroidery stitches!! An invaluable resource for beginners and a great reference for the seasoned veteran. Every stitch has a "how to" diagram, a paragraph explaining how to work the stitch, a picture of the finished stitch, and tips on suitable uses for the stitch as well as recommended fabrics. It's spiral bound so no worries about losing your place when referencing a particular stitch. It's the perfect size to carry with you on trips, too. I simply love this book and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn the beautiful art of embroidery. Also recommended: Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Embroidery Stitches.

This book is an excellent stitch guide with clear instructions. It is organized so that you can find the kind of stitch you want and then zero in on the exact stitch you want to use. Highly recommended for novices right through masters of the art.

I have to add my two cents. I didn't like the fact that this book includes alot of canvas stitches used in needlepoint. I wanted embroidery only and since it said "embroidery" stitch bible that is what I thought it would be. I will admit it is alot of stitches and it is in a handy format and the best thing about it is the size and the spiral bound pages. It does not inspire me though.

This is an excellent reference for the bench as well as an inspirational book. It explains in a detailed manner about metalurgy, alloys, basic techniques, intermediate and advanced. The pictures are big and the author shows an extensive variety of projects (gallery and wearable pieces) to demonstrate the different techniques. It is a big book, therefore, contains lots of tables, information and pictures.

The book is complete in reviewing all the aspects of jewelry making. Very clear explanations supported by big beautiful photographs. A must for all jewelry enthousiasts who would like to start steps in this beautiful craft.

can't put this book down. My design club members are borrowing it.Probably 6 more sales of this book as it is great reference material. The book is also "fun" to read. Great down time pleasure.

This book is by far the best I have. I have no professional training and I am pretty much a beginner (amateur at polymer clay pendants and total beginner at metal). The thing is that I love sculpting....Yet, this book has more info that is helpful to me than any of the other books that I have. The illustrations in this book are more helpful to me than just drawings, like in some of the other books. The angle of the photos shows me exactly what the author is doing. Yeah, it's a lot of info, but that's what I wanted. This book is more complete, in my opinion, than the other books that I have. I love the project pictures that the author has included, as well as the pictures of other artist's work. It's a good price- cheaper than the others that I have, and I'm glad I bought it.

I've been doing basic stone setting and soldering fabrication for a couple of years and have been looking for a good introduction to more advanced jeweler's techniques to help inspire me to take it to the next level. There are a multitude of beautifully illustrated and produced books that attempt to do this - but fail because they don't show you enough (in an misguided attempt to keep it simple) - The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques comes to mind as an example of this problem. This book - Carles Codina's The Complete Book of Jewelry Making - is the real deal. It serves as a basic introduction, but gives enough detail to really get you off the ground and doing projects. I learned new wrinkles on techniques I thought I knew - and got really good insight into new techniques I've been wanting to learn, such as bead setting, engraving, bright cutting, granulation, reticulation, patination, enamel, etc.. Impressive as getting this right is - this book goes further: it gets into the cultural history and significance of jewelery art and is full of really inspiring examples of jeweler's art. Simply having pictures of great art isn't impressive - but really connecting the achieved vision of that art with the techniques described is. So, you don't just get a good idea of how to do the technique and what it looks like - but you also get a real sense of why; of how the technique pays off artistically.

This book starts off with a brief introduction of where jewelry fits in human civilization. Then it moves to introducing the bench and basic techniques and then moves on to advanced techniques. The basic techniques section mentions important details such as collecting and organizing your scraps and assaying metals. The techniques section illustrate each technique step by step and each one shows you a finished project. Finally it does a series of project illustrated step by step that make use of multiple techniques in a real applied fashion. Each part of the book is illustrated with sumptuous photographs showing the technique and tools. The text is brief, but doesn't lack detail. The artistic vision of the artist is modern - but whether you love the pieces shown or not, there is no debating that they utilize and illustrate the craft in an admirable fashion. This book fires me up and gets me working.

I love this book! Great blocks with a great variety for everyones taste. The CD is fabulous... I did find the block sewing instructions a bit confusing. Over-all a really good investment for those who love paper pieceing.

The title is misleading if you are looking for paper piecing for cards or layouts. However the patterns are great & can be adapted to cards quite easily.

I like the foundation pieced blocks in this book. I like the fact that it has a cd with the book. I like the fact that you can resize the blocks for printing. I do not like the fact that Ms. Doak did not name the blocks in the book, or on the cd. Even so, it was a good purchase.

This is a great book for any quilter who is learning or experienced in paper piecing. There are a lot of patterns to use. This is my second book that I have purchased by Carol Doak. Carol has great PP books!

This book and the accompanying CD are a fantastic resource for quilters interested in paper piecing. Everything from beginner to advanced, single blocks to multipart, elaborate designs. It's a must have for paper piecers from the best known name in paper piecing!

I would never have touched this if I hadn't been able to thumb through it in a bookstore first, but I did--and hey! It's FUN. It's also a GOOD BOOK. The whole Goth theme of the layout and the haunted, shadowy models is clever, even if it's not to your taste. The author is clearly very talented; her grasp of design is stunning, way over my head.

The real surprise for me was the technique section: I was bowled over by the instruction segments and the clever way they were incorporated into the projects as sequential "lessons." My one whine would be that there weren't enough sequential pictures of the gnarliest techniques--damned Kitchener grafting!--and there is an occasional leap forward that leaves the reader in the dust. This is the curse of any technical writer, who already knows what she means and forgets that we are puddling along in her wake, bewildered. It was infrequent, however, and as jaded and crabby as I am, I learned things.

I'd have to agree with some of the previous reviews concerning the usual percentage of thuds--ye gods, another knitted necklace! Do they haunt me? And the star pillow, and yes, the mohawk hat, and the totally uninspired droopy handbag. However, to tell the truth, I loved the little "Bite Me" Valentine hearts--they carried the day. The Red Riding Hoodie is the jewel of the book, worth the price of admission on its own--a beautiful design. The Lone Wolf sweater is very handsome, with or without wolf--interesting cuffs, for example, which is nice. The zipper vest and the City Coat are also very attractive although the City Coat would rival a Burberry in cost for those of us who are not yarn-subsidized. Another thing that makes this book likeable is that most of these things are not limited to the nubile, elfin or wraithlike, either by size or by design. A few, yes. But the creativity backed with solid design is a very pleasant combination. In my opinion, this woman is actually what another loopy designer only thinks she is. I've actually leafed through it a few times just to enjoy the whole presentation, and I'm stacking up Bite Me pillows for Valentine's Day. Put it this way: if she writes another book, I'll probably buy it sight unseen.

Finally a book that has no errors, and where patterns are written clearly and consise. Awesome. I hope Jennifer Stafford writes another book!
Buy this book!

I purchased this book with some hesitation, as there was only one pattern I was interested that wasn't similar to something I already had. I found the instructions poorly written and confusing, and had to re-knit the Mohawk multiple times due to the poor instructions. While the corrections to the published errors helped (check it before you begin any project, as there are entire lines omitted from some patterns, reversed instructions ie purl instead of knit and so on.)The directions were still unclear. Half the patterns the book have significant errors, and one pattern is (deliberatly) omitted entirely. And even the web page you can find this missing pattern at has errors!!! Now I wish pretty in punk had been instock instead of this piece of garbage. You always expect any pattern book to have a few errors, but the amount in this book is unacceptable.

i checked this book out of the library, and did not want to bring it back! well...i did the right thing, and returned it, so i had to order one on amazon!
anyways...this book is not only filled with cute/kinky things to knit, but it is the most clearly written instruction book that i have ever read!
it is HARD to write down how to do a specific knitting stitch, especially the more complicated ones, but this book not only has clear photo illustrations, but easy to follow directions as well!
i have been knitting since kindergarten, and i am so happy that knitting has finally started to emerge outside the box!
if i can master knitting the Little Red Riding Hoodie, then i will never have to buy an overpriced hoodie again! :)
other very cute/kinky projects include "spank me" pillows and a knitted winter hat with devil horns :)

I have been knitting for many years, and every so often someone asks me for a book that can get the beginner going in the right direction. I am not a pattern person, but i do like good visual instructions. This book has that in spades. The first half of this book gives you clear and precise instructions (the long tail cast on has never been better shown) in basic techniques, and does so with a wit that is often missing in knitting books. pair this with any title from Elizabeth Zimmerman, and you are good to go.

Janet Arnold is the preemminent clothing historian of our day. As with all of her books she has provided a concise reference to the garments of the period in question, listing the fabrics, colors and cuts that are appropriate for the given garments. Also typical of Arnold books is the scale patterns for the given garments in the back of each text, so, with an understanding of pattern drafting one can easily reproduce the garments from the book as well as size the garment for a particular wearer. As with many of Ms. Arnold books she draws examples from extant examples taken from trunks and in some cases the casket. Another exceptional book by Janet Arnold for the clothing historian or the obsessive compulsive costumer.

I was a bit disappointed in this book. Especially as compared with the book that precedes this one in time period. The Elizabethan period book has all sorts of YUMMY details (photographs) of actual garments. Those details more accurately illustrate how a technique was carried out, and should look when finished. This book has exactly TWO photos! And both are of finished modern replicas. ALL the illustrations are line drawings. Exceptionally done line drawing. Very well executed. But nothing holds a candle to a photograph.
The greatest covered fashion period in this book, is about 1750-1800. It is nearly bereft of 17th century examples. And there is only a handful of Victorian era (1830s-1860) examples. That was refreshing, as there are enough other books that cover Victorian decades.
All that being said, it is still a VERY INFORMATIVE and well illustrated book. You could certainly learn a lot about construction techniques and cut.

-- Metric conversion chart included.
-- List of source references
-- instructions on altering a modern dress form to work for period
-- Pattern layouts are not modern with PRECISE measurements. They are
period layouts that assume knowledge of drafting and fitting

My Wife is absolutely thrilled with the material in this book ....she has told me several times, in less that a month, that "I've learned something new !!! "

It doesn't get any better than that

thanx

It was with great reverance that I approached my first look at the Patterns of Fashoion. I have heard so many great things that I was almost afraid I would be disappointed. Not so, this book has exceeded my wildest expectations. I own at least a score of books on Tudor/Elizabethan clothing or general costuming and can resolutely say that there is no equal to this book when it comes to detailed exactly how a garment was constructed. Each piece of extant clothing is given multiple pictures and the most detailed descriptions of any book I've seen. While this is not a guide that may interest the average costumer ...if you're serious about period costuming this is your resource.

I was very excited to receive my copy of Patterns of Fashion, Vol I by Janet Arnold. As a Revolutionary War reenactor, my interest in 18th Century clothing is continually deepened by more and more detailed research, and this book is a treasure trove of information. The specific details, such as a discussion of how saque-back gown sleeves were set into the body of a gown, are invaluable insights into garment construction, and equally invaluable how-to aids. Although the book covers a wider range of period garments than just 18th Century clothing, it seems to concentrate on the 18th Century,(at least, that's my perception!) and it's easy to use the book in order to put the Revolutionary War period into perspective in the timeline of fashion. The addition of useful tools such as the metric conversion chart are bonuses.

Even if each garment were not charted on a grid, making it possible to draft a pattern, just the discussion of the details of each garment would make the book a must for every seamstress' or shelf. If you can only afford a few books on historic clothing, this one is a must.