Doodle stitching The holiday motif collection : embroidery projects & designs to celebrate the seasons The holiday motif collection :

The latest in Ray's popular series of embroidery books (Doodle Stitching: Embroidery & Beyond; Crewel, Cross Stitch, Sashiko & More) focuses on Christmas projects featuring embroidery. This time, Ray has enlisted several popular embroidery bloggers, including Mollie Johansen and Carina Envoldsen-Harris, to bring their own style to holiday embroidery. The projects fall solidly on the "cute crafts" spectrum-think whimsical elves, woodland animals riding a toboggan, and charming gingerbread boys and girls. A sewing machine is not required but may be helpful for some of the larger designs, and an easy-to-follow stitch guide gives an overview of basic stitches. The enclosed CD includes all of the motifs from the projects, plus a number of other holiday themes, and a selection for a variety of other celebrations such as Halloween, the Fourth of July, and Hanukkah. VERDICT Hand embroidery continues to grow in popularity and these appealing and cheery projects are simple to stitch and the patterns are easy to mix and match. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.