501 Enchanting Embroidery Designs: Irresistible Stitchables to Brighten Up Your Life

This translated collection by Japanese publisher Boutique-Sha features a number of small (most not larger than 2" × 2") motifs perfect for embellishing an assortment of textiles. Themes include Scandinavian designs, birds and forest creatures, children at play, and flowers. A gallery of more basic projects (with directions included) presents suggestions for using embroidery on a range of objects. In typical Japanese craft book-style, a collection of full-color photos of the completed motifs is presented in the front, with directions and templates in the back. The editors of this collection added the page numbers for the directions on each section of the gallery, which makes a quick reference. A brief introduction to embroidery tools and techniques is included, as well as a bare-bones stitch guide. Crafters just getting started with embroidery may need an additional source to help them begin.