Transfer & Stitch: Romantic Motifs

Introduction4

What you need6

Stitches used8

Transferring the designs14

Using an embroidery hoop15

The samplers 1680

The projects82

The transfers96

About Carina Envoldsen-Harris

Carina Envoldsen-Harris is a Danish designer, blogger and author living in the UK. She has a background in multimedia design as well as in art history and Italian language. Under the name Polka & Bloom, Carina has been designing and selling embroidery patterns since 2009. The patterns combine her life-long passion for art, design, history and nature, often including floral motifs and bright colours, and which she sells successfully via her online store, along with hand-embellished items of clothing and accessories

Carina is the author of Romantic Motifs (2016), Mandalas to Embroider (2017) and Thread Doodling (2021), all published by Search Press. Carina lives in Essex, UK. For more information about Carina visit her website www.carinascraftblog.com.

Postcard Reviews, https://tracyshephard.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/romantic-motifs-transfer-stitch-carina-envoldsen-harris/

This collection of 64 beautiful romantic motifs and accompanying transfers provides a must-have source of design ideas for anyone who enjoys stitching. Featuring designs from hearts and flowers to swallows, wedding rings and butterflies, the book also includes twelve beautiful embroidered projects for inspiration. There are notes on the materials and basic techniques used at the start of the book, including how to successfully use the transfers and how to frame up a ring frame. With just eleven simple embroidery stitches to choose from, all with clear, step-by-step diagrams, even those new to stitching will be able to tackle all the designs provided. This is a must-have resource for sewers of all abilities.

This is a gem of a book for embroiderers..

With over 60 designs, each double page is dedicated to the design, thread key and method to bring to life the beautiful flowers, hearts, birds and  borders.

The designs are a good size and Romantic Motifs comes together with

an iron on template, that is reusable

and a color and image page.. which can be used with a light box for darker fabrics. (the book does not suggest this)

There are stitch guides and material suggestions and Carina Envoldsen-Harris has put the projects together with some fabulous ideas. I love her idea of a sampler using all of the motifs.

This is a very pretty book and would make a gorgeous gift. The craft itself is not difficult to learn so even someone just stating would find this book delightful

I think the only problem is which one to do first.

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Jackie Cridland

This is a beautifully illustrated book, you are able to use the transfer up to 9 times. Used the motifs on red work. Would recommend this transfer book to other stitches.

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Pat Jones

I was attracted to the concept of this book, having learned to embroider many moons ago using old-fashioned transfers. Certainly re-usable transfers are great and there are clear instructions on how to use them and how to stitch a fairly limited range of stitches. It seems initially to be aimed at the novice embroiderer, but many of the designs are only outlines with suggestions of filling them in and more advice about that and alternative colourways would be helpful for those less confident. Inevitably, given the title, there is a preponderance of hearts and flowers.

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Jo Udall

A fantastic book brilliant designs. Having trouble choosing which one to do first.

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Lyn Rochester

A brilliant book, a wide selection of modern and Classic designs, lots of ideas shown in the book. Each transfer can be used upto 10 times. An excellent book to inspire you to embroider.

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Ruth Boyd

This book is absolutely beautifully illustrated. Clear and precise instructions. 60 reusable motifs is an added bonus and considering these can be used up to 10 times is just fantastic. The full colour photographs, which are excellently photographed, show exactly how your designs should look when completed. The guide at the start of the book gives a list of everything you need to get started and really simple instructions on how to line a hoop etc. A must for the novice.

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Lyn Rochester

 A brilliant book, a wide selection of modern and Classic designs, lots of ideas shown in the book. Each transfer can be used upto 10 times. An excellent book to inspire you to embroider.

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myshelf.com

If you are looking for a comprehensive guide to taking up freestyle hand embroidery, then this is a good place to start. You can find out what you need to buy in order to start embroidering, learn from diagrams of the stitches you really need to know, look at samples of finished work, get ideas for projects and choose from over sixty different embroidery transfers.

This is a lot for one book to deliver but it does, helpfully debunking the myth that you need to know a lot of stitches or buy a lot of pricey supplies in order to do any embroidery. You dont need to buy much or even learn many stitches in order to stitch all the transfers, and there are also useful guides to using a hoop and transferring the transfers, which you can use more than once. Every motif has a page showing the design worked with a key to stitches and DMC threads. These are described as samplers and are all worked on white cotton cloth for clarity. Following this section is a shorter one of projects, but these do not come with instructions and would be better described as inspiration. There are photographs of garments, pillows, an apron, tablecloth and table runner plus a page of advice about what you can stitch on and with apart from 6 stranded floss. The final section contains the transfers themselves, which all have a romantic theme. Choose from florals (lots of these), art nouveau, hearts, doves and more; these are mostly single motifs, but there are a few border, corner and frame designs. They have all been previously featured in the Design Library or Design Source books, and it is interesting to see what can be done with them using just thread, cloth and a needle. All transfers are printed in black and can be used up to ten times; a boon especially if using them for repeats. They are arranged on thirty-two numbered pages to correspond with the stitched samples and vary in size from under 3 to whole page motifs. This is the third entry in the series after flowers and borders and motifs, and I look forward to more titles.

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YarnsandFabrics.co.uk

Discover over 60 motifs to use time and time again. These iron-on motifs can be embroidered to add a touch of colour to clothes and accessories. It is a useful design resource for those who love to stitch. Transfer the motifs to your fabric and stitch. There are 32 stitched samplers with notes on stitch and thread plus 32 re-usable iron sheets showing over 60 designs. There are also project ideas to get you started.  The book includes what you need, stitches used, transferring a design, using an embroidery hoop, samplers and projects. The how-to guidance is excellent with clear instructions and photographs. The samplers are shown small size over two pages so you can see them all at a glance. Then each sampler is shown as an outline drawing and also as a finished stitched piece. The instructions are easy to follow. The samplers include floral, bird, butterfly and heart designs. The projects include embroidering the designs on cushions, aprons, blouses and tablecloths and other clothing. The transfers are given at the back of the book.

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East Kent Embroiderers Guild

Danish designer Carina presents a collection of over 60 reusable motifs to iron on and embroider.

With a delightful romantic theme, including flowers, birds and hearts, each embroidered design is shown in colour as a full-size sampler with full details of materials and stitches used. The transfers can be re-used over ten times each, and the inspirational designs are not only perfect for clothing and accessories but ideal for creating heirloom gifts to celebrate special and seasonal occasions.    A useful book for all who enjoy hand embroidery and very good value for money.