Have Your Say

When it comes to books, judging by all the responses we’ve received on the topic, our bookshelves are as precious to us as our stash, helping to inspire us and give us comfort whenever we need it.

We pick up where we left off last week with more tales from our fellow book enthusiasts…  

Bunny Goodman said that the mere mention of embroidery books made her happy. In fact, if she had a tail, she would probably wag it right off! Bunny adores the feel of the pages, so digital books simply don’t do it for her. Every time she gets a new book, she puts two labels on it: one inside the cover with her name and the date she got it, and another on the front cover that says, ‘this book belongs to Bunny Goodman’. This is to ensure that, if she ever lends her books out, they will always come home again. 

Whenever Bunny is out and about, she searches for embroidery books. She has a list on her computer of books she’d like to own, then enjoys the thrill of hunting for them and sometimes finding them at a bargain price. She keeps her library in order by technique, but she also has a spreadsheet to keep track of what she has. This avoids those inevitable moments when you buy a book and then realise when you get home that you already have a copy!

Her favourite book, hands down, is The Stitches of Creative Embroidery by Jacqueline Enthoven. We concur with you, Bunny – this is an exceptionally good book. Unfortunately, Bunny’s copy was so well used that it fell apart! So, she cut off the binding and put the pages in plastic sheets in a binder. Since then, she’s been adding stitches to the binder that were missing from Jacqueline Enthoven’s book and has even redone the book’s index on her computer to keep it up to date with the new additions. This really is dedication at work.

Lynda Steele was thrilled to discover that not only was she amongst friends when it came to UFOs (Unfinished Objects), but she’s also in a community of book lovers. She says:

Ann wrote that she also has a vast store of books that she’s collected over the past 50-odd years. They chart her interests, from hand sewing, through to dressmaking, lace, papercrafts, crochet, spinning, weaving and even felt making. She also owns books on theatrical make-up and costume making. It’s clearly quite a collection! Ann does try to keep them in subject order but because of the huge variety, it doesn’t always work.

Ann also wrote to us about choice, which she’s got plenty of between her UFOs and NSPs (Not Started Projects). She finds herself trying to choose between those projects she ‘ought’ to do as opposed to those that she wants to do! Quite often, she ends up doing neither, preferring to stuff her nose into a favourite book to avoid having to make the decision. Of course, this means the ‘ought to dos’ loom larger. Eventually, Ann finds the self-discipline to do the ‘oughts’ and gets them out of the way!

Finally, Andrea Eufrazio wanted to share a word of warning in response to the creative idea of winding fishing nylon around hoops that we wrote about in All Stitched Up! issue #309. Andrea did this in the past but found the colour from the nylon bled into her linen and wouldn’t come out. She’d spent a year stitching a piece for a wedding gift, and it was lucky the framer could frame it in a way that hid the marks, but she wanted our readers to just be careful. Thank you, Andrea and we’re sorry that you had to discover this the hard way.

Keep the responses coming. We love reading them and sharing them. You’re all part of our big needlework family who make coming to work each day a joy.