There were a lot of great tips and easy to follow instructions in this beginner's guide. Even though I'm not technically a beginner, I still found that I learned some new to me techniques.

This is a good starter book, however some information should be reviewed further. The author suggests as an option for Sharpies as tracing markers, however not all Sharpies are acid free and may ruin the art in the future. Otherwise, the book showcases a variety of stitches and cute patterns.

A beautiful and instructive book about embroidery. As a fiber artist, I found the descriptions and instructions relatable and easy to follow. Beautiful designs using the long and short stitch.

If you have never tried to embroider, this is an excellent introduction. I have been embroidering all my life, and I still learned a lot of techniques that I can use. Well done Sara Godfrey!

Very nicely laid out book, lots of step by step illustrations, and instructions. Quite a few projects are shown plus instructions on designing your own project..

Even though I'm no longer a beginner, I found many useful tips and refreshed many things I'd forgotten along the way. This book is definitely one to add to your craft library or gift to someone who loves the needle arts.

This was my first time using a book instead of YouTube or other social media for patterns. A book gives a much more personal experience. The author shared about herself as an artist and how to develop the skill of embroidery. The illustrations and photos were very well done and the directions easy to follow. I enjoyed the experience of accessing patterns via a book and I could tell that a lot of care went into creating this book and sharing the craft of needle painting. I haven’t tried the craft yet but this book made it seem much less daunting and I will be trying it.

A great take on learning needle painting. Fun beginning projects and lots of encouragement to create your own designs. Fun pictures and very well written.

I have struggled greatly with whether or not to post this review, but as the deadline approached, I felt obliged to.

I am not a beginner embroiderer nor is needlepainting a new technique for me, but the projects pictured looked interesting and I’m always interested to learn new ways. It’s fair to note that I’ve actually won national awards for my embroidery and handwork and have taught classes on the subject, so this is not just me thinking I know a little bit because I’ve done a few projects.

This book is a disaster from start to finish. The author gives terrible technical advice that shows a serious lack of understanding of the materials. She suggests using a Sharpie to mark your fabric, which should NEVER be used unless you’re happy to have it eat through your fabric in 15 years and show yellow feathering in a few months. There are acid-free pens actually suited for the job. The author says how she prefers to use linen but fails to either acknowledge that most people embroider on calico (aka quilters cotton) or discuss the challenges in using linen. She also mentions how she prefers to shop in person, which is ignorant of how inaccessible linen is to most of her audience. It’s also a convenient excuse to not provide any shopping resources. The book never discusses all the many options of threads and flosses available on the market and I’m forced to make the assumption that the author simply doesn’t know they exist.

Speaking of floss, only three steps to describe how to blend colors on thread painting?! No information on when which amount of strands are necessary, no info on securing threads, start & stop, order of colors because of show-through… you know, the bare minimum basics that a beginner should be taught. And to top all of this off, the book refers to it as “thread painting” everywhere but in the title.

The finished objects pictured are beautiful designs and the author is clearly a capable graphic artist. I wish I had more nice things to say, I really do. If a reader is interested in needlepainting (or thread painting) there are much better books out there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Landauer Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. To the surprise of no one, all these opinions are my own.

"Beginner's Guide to Embroidery and Needle Painting" by Sarah Godfrey was a blast! I loved the easy-to-follow instructions and the beautiful patterns included. It made learning embroidery feel like a fun adventure, and I felt proud of my creations with each stitch. Whether you're a newbie or an experienced embroiderer, this book is a must-have. It's inspiring and keeps you excited about needle painting!

Wow what a fun book! I love that there are a variety of projects given for the user to work on their skills. The author's skills are immediately clear when you look at how the chickadee comes alive with shading. This type of embroidery has always impressed me and this book makes me motivated to spend time working on developing my skills in this area. I think the author gives useful tidbits about choosing the size of your piece and the appropriate stitches to achieve the look you are going for. I look forward to this book in print so I can admire the details in the stitching and keep it as a reference for future projects.

This is a wonderful book, full of detail to easily follow instructions to embroidery and needle painting. Starting off with ways to choose subjects, to use in the designs, how to home into the aspects to use, and how to combined them into items for gifts or yourself..
The detailed instructions take you step by step from start to finish, and gives one the confidence to make a beautiful needle painting. There are templates to copy, before finding your own designs. Thanks you NetGalley and the publishers for the DRC

Beginner's Guide to Embroidery and Needle Painting provides instructions, 18 nature themed projects (including numerous flowers, a mushroom, and a butterfly), and the templates for those projects. Overall I thought the book gives a good starting point for a novice. I found it accessible as someone who has watched thread painting videos but has not tried it. I appreciated the book contains both smaller and larger projects and that the author provides specific embroidery thread colors for each project. I wish the instructions included recommendations on when to use long versus short stitches and how to know where to place the stitches. As a non-painter, that would me feel more confident when trying a project.

I should start this by saying i own exactly one book on needle / thread painting, have watched a few videos on the subject, and have done some basic stitching - that’s the extent of my experience with the craft.

Based on that limited experience, I would rate this book as really good for beginners like myself.

The projects are all fairly small. The projects use anywhere from 2- 10 colors of threads. There are templates to print out for each project so you don’t need to have any drawing skills to do these projects. The stitch guide shows you how to do 4 stitches: french knots, backstitch, split stitch, and straight stitch. The guide is okay but if you’re like me, you might want to supplement with YouTube videos (what can I say, french knots are challenging for me).

I feel like once you master the projects in this book, larger or more complicated designs would be less terrifying for you. Great starting point to learn thread needle / thread painting from.

This is a beautiful book that starts with the basics and provides all the information you might need to jump into embroidery. As a long time needle worker, I feel this book is a great starting point for beginners. It provides a section on tools and supplies, pattern making and the different types of stitches before jumping into your first project.

The author walks you through each project step by step. The projects begin relatively easy and progress to what I would consider an advanced beginner .. Each project is accompanied by beautiful pictures that truly enhance the book.

I look forward to seeing this one in print and adding it to my craft book collection!


I received a free e-ARC from Fox Chapel Publishing, Landauer Publishing & Netgalley for my honest review.

This is a wonderful guide. I’m used to embroidery books and patterns but I really appreciate the needle painting technique used here. The projects are of all sizes and suit any skill level. There are lots of photos and clear instructions. I love the nature themes of all of the projects.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book for review.

The patterns are great if you are starting with needle painting embroidery, this is a good start. The pansy was my favourite to make. The flower designs are the most fun in my opinion.

A lovely and helpful guide to expanding your embroidery skills beyond simple outlines or cross-stitch. I heartily recommend this for anyone who loves threadcraft!

Very nice book full of step-by-step instructions and photos for 18 projects you can embroider on anything. They look like they would be perfect for beginners as they are not too complicated. After doing some of these, you are bound to be able to create your own designs. I like almost all the projects.

These kind of books really get my fingers itching to pick up needle and thread!

Beginner's Guide to Embroidery and Needle Painting is another great crafting book from Sarah Godfrey (who has also written Organza Hoop Art). This one explores hand embroidery on more convention fabrics (such as linen or denim) and the specific skill of needle painting - using the embroidery floss as a painter would to create shading and depth to the design.

There is a brief section about the tools and notions required, before exploring how to find inspiration for the artworks and design your pattern before going into the primary stitches used needle painting: long and short stitch, french knots back stitch, straight stitch, split stitch etc. I was really impressed with the inspiration and design sections particularly, as this is often glossed over in other craft books.

There are some great step by step tutorials, with templates included, from feathers to flowers, to birds to bees, accompanied by discussion about why certain elements were added to the design, or how to get certain texture effects.

Finally, we have an incredibly useful DMC conversion chart, for those stitchers who use different brands.

The projects are all accessible and easy to follow (at least for me, with a background in embroidery), and turn out lovely, useful end products.

~Many thanks to NetGalley, Fox Chapel Publishing and Landauer Publishing for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~