Book Review of It Is About Darn Time

book review It Is About Darn TIme
              It Is About Darn Time By Sharon G. A book of needlepoint darning
                           patterns and open stitches.


This new book by Sharon G is a book of needlepoint darning patterns and a great resource for anyone interested in using open stitches on their needlepoint canvas.

What We Like About This Book:

  • It's more pictures than words. The graphic illustrations in this book are really good. They are large, covering about half of each page, and you can clearly see the direction your thread needs to travel, and over how many canvas intersections. Good images are much easier to follow than a bunch of words and this book is big on graphics.
  • It's reassuring. Open stitches formed by following darning stitch patterns can seem daunting if you haven't tried them before - how to secure your thread, where to start, what pattern to choose, these are all things that can cause anxiety. This book has over 125 stitches to choose from, with a few lines about each stitch and how it might best be applied, and only 1 or 2 pages on general darning tips. You would think this might be a bad thing - where are all the other instructions? - but, it's actually reassuring. Most people are happy to read a page and a half of general instructions before launching into some darning stitch practice. It makes these stitches very accessible to novice and expert stitchers alike.
  • The stitch patterns are varied, from open lace patterns to motifs like stars, bells, wine glasses and dog bones. There truly is something here for every canvas.

Any Negatives?

  • Not really. This is a soft cover book, so at $46 it may seem expensive, however it's good value for the number of stitch patterns included, the quality of the paper and binding, and the large size graphics.
  • It doesn't have an index at the back and this may have been a useful addition.
  • There are no illustrations/photographs of finished designs; I suspect due to printing costs as it is printed in 3 colors.

dog-bone-darning-patternA dog bone darning pattern. Learn how to do
open stitch patterns like this and more in
It's About Darn Time.
 


Once again, a great stitcher's resource and all you need to get darning.