Book Description
A collection of over 40 cross stitch designs inspired by William Morris, the famous 19th century decorative artist, whose designs are as popular today as they were during his lifetime more than a century ago. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Some nice projects
I was fairly warned by the other reviews, but I bought this book anyway because I really like William Morris. There are a couple of very nice projects that I might actually do, but not nearly as many as I was hoping for in a book of this size. I am probably going to buy a book from Dover of Morris' designs and chart my own. These just wouldn't be up to Morris' standards. You should also know that many of these projects are tiny. So tiny that if you saw them stitched, you might not recognize them as William Morris patterns. I think most stitchers looking at this book are hoping for some large, lovely, tapestry-like patterns. Look somewhere else if that's what you're hoping for.

A brilliant interpretation of William Morris's Work
Barbara Hammet has created a wonderful tribute to William Morris in this work. For those unfamiliar with William Morris, she provides a work biography of the master artist. Though short, she gives examples of his work, and explanation of his background. Once this is explained, she launches into the rest of the book, where she offers more than 40 charts that are Hammet's interpretations of Morris' style. Pillows, bell pulls, small motifs, wall hangings, broaches, bookmarks, and even a full alphabet are some of the items she offers. She even gives the design and instructions for a 3-D treasure box! There are small motifs in a few colors, or larger items in less than 4 colors which would be very well suited to the beginning stitcher and many things that are large and complex for the experienced stitcher.

Another reviewer said these are poor examples of William Morris's work. I must disagree. These items are beautiful, and they are Barbara Hammet's art she BASED on William Morris. Still, any of these finished works would be the perfect compliment to Morris's art.

Because of the wide variety of skill levels and project scales I would highly recommend this book to any level of cross stitcher. Even those needle artists not interested in Morris might find a few projects they find enjoyable in this diverse volume. Hammet does offer instructions for finishing the projects and a few basic cross stitch instructions, but I would recommend purchasing the Cross Stitcher's Bible in addition if you have NEVER cross stitched before, as you will probably need more instruction than is provided here.

Highest recommendations!

William Morris cross stitch
I first purchased this book prior to hearing about Beth Russell.The projects in this book are relatively straightforward and attractive, however, they do veer off from what William Morris was really trying to accomplish (i.e. rich, medieval tapestry, etc..).Please compare to Beth Russell's interpreetation of W. M. I have made a couple of projects from the Barbara Hammett book, but in future, I will work on Beth Russell's William Morris interpretations which capture the Arts and Crafts essence alot better.Some of the skein counts in B. Hammett's book were inaccurate as well.

Overall, if you want a basic book on William Morris, without anything too complicated or costly, this book is for you.The materials for Barbara Hammett's projects average between the 20 and 30 dollar range per project.Beth Russell's book patterns average over 100 dollars since you have to buy costly wool and heavy duty top notch canvas.Still, there is no comparison between B. Hammett and B. Russell.Although I have enjoyed doing B. Hammett's projects, I will do B. Russell in future, despite the cost.B. Russell's projects are truly for heirloom quality keepsakes.

I'm Having Reservation About This Book.
I just received this beautiful book in the mail. Several projects will look great in my American Arts and Crafts bungalow home. I have purchased the material for the Orange Bell Pull and found the materials information for the item inaccurate. Specifically, the fabric called for cannot be Sage Aida 16 count. When I placed all the skeins of floss against the fabric called for many colors washed right into the color of the fabric!
I find the book easy to view and very aesthetically pleasing to read. Howeveer, if this material information is any indicative of other corrections I need to problem solve I am going to be very upset as I spend time/money on projects only to be met with frustration caused me by an editor's oversite.
I will, therefore, remain hopeful and positive and continue to stitch! If a reader of this has done the Orange Bell Pull and would be interested in sharing their experience with me please email. drl34859_98@yahoo.com

Beautiful, accessible designs
I love the William Moorris style and this book presents his designs in beautiful needlepoint patterns that can be produced by even a novice.There is also a good variety of types of projects.CLear charts and instructions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

WOW! Great Ideas!
I have an addiction: I am a craftaholic. Also a confession: I don't do them, just read about them. My intentions are always good: to someday get organized enough to start Christmas presents six months in advance and dazzle everyone with homemade gifts. (These are particularly useful for gifts to co-workers when you want something different, but not too expensive.)

Most crafts books are disappointing, I find. They offer very similar items, all with that fake "country" look which I absolutely loathe, or they're caked with sequins and plastic jewels to the point where you could burn your retinas out just looking at the damned things. I will admit that some of the projects here fall into that category, but - and here is my point - many do not. This book has a huge variety of crafts. Looking through I saw at least half a dozen that I'd be delighted to try - and as you may have gathered earlier, I'm pretty picky. Some are simple, some more complex. There are crafts that involve sewing, knitting, crochet, needlepoint, decoupage, candles, Christmas ornaments... you get the idea. Anyone reading this book should be able to come away with several ideas for crafts projects.

The other nice thing about the book is that it gives many practical tips for selling the items once you've made them. Setup, scheduling, display techniques, how to tempt shoppers over to your table... again, many great ideas.

In short, I was very pleased by this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for some good crafts ideas for the holidays (or even at other times; many of the crafts can be either seasonal or non-seasonal in design and color choices). ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

"Full Color" is a Misleading Description
There are 291 designs on this CD-ROM.The cover says it has "Full Color Electronic Designs."Of the 291 designs, only 40 are full color! Of those 40 color designs, about 10 look like they are scans of carpets. The rest are black and white graphics.Of the black and white, 24 are frames, 27 are pictures, & 200 are letters of the alphabet. Overall, you aren't getting what you pay for, even at the low Amazon price.

Not For Everyone
All of Dover's books are beautiful.However, because the images are skewed, there is no repeat pattern.

beautiful images which print very well
This book includes a selection of black & white picture frames in both narrow and wide styles. The narrow ones have turned out to be very useful for innermost frames of pictures and other images, then surrounded by color frames. I've even used the black & white picture images for hand-coloring. But the color images in this book are magnificent, and they print exactly as well as one would hope. This dover collection is a credit to them. ... Read more

Product Description
"Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs Receive our air- that moment they are free; They touch our country- and their shackles fall." COWPER ... Read more

Book Description
Nonfiction curriculum and report topics in graphic novel format! History leaps off the page in Capstone's Graphic Library now in Spanish.Eye-popping artwork and easy-to-read text offer an appealing, accessible alternative for struggling and reluctant readers. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Junior Scholastic, published by Scholastic, Inc. on December 12, 2005. The length of the article is 1497 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Miles to freedom: the dramatic escape of William and Ellen Craft.(American history)
Author: Elena Cabral
Publication: Junior Scholastic (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 12, 2005
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Volume: 108Issue: 9Page: 14(6)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from MELUS, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2006. The length of the article is 13026 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: "A complication of complaints": untangling disability, race, and gender in William and Ellen Craft's Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom.(Critical essay)
Author: Ellen Samuels
Publication: MELUS (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 31Issue: 3Page: 15(33)

Article Type: Critical essay

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 2248. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very forgettable!
I bought this book thinking I might actually get some cute edible craft recipes for kids. What a disappointment! No recipes-- just the typicle candy necklaces, candy glued to paper, etc. Waste of money-- don't buy!

Looks like the authors were really stretching for ideas here
I bought this book because I was hoping to find some ideas for snack time at my first grader's CCD class.I was sorely disappointed, on a number of counts.

First, a lot of the things were related to some relativelyobscure Bible passages.There was virtually nothing in the whole book thatwould be appropriate for Christmas, and only one idea that related toEaster.Some of the more well known basic concepts or stories, typicallytaught to children in the lower grades, like Noah's Ark, creation, the GoodSamaritan, the rosary, the season of Advent, are also either notrepresented at all or represented by only one or two crafts.So, Eastergets the same amount of attention as Jacob's gift to Esau (that's ok--I hadto look that one up, too; see Genesis 33:11).

Second, the vast majorityutilize candy.

Third, in many cases the edible part of the craft appearedto be just an afterthought for the sake of getting it into the book.Forexample, one craft involves making a puppet out of a paper bag.The ediblepart of this craft is that you fill the bag with candy, then use the puppetafter you eat the candy! A lot of the ideas weren't that new or orignial,they were just old ideas with candy added to them.Many would be just finecrafts with the "edible" portion deleted.

Fourth, even thoughyou use food in all of these crafts, you wouldn't necessarily want to eatthem.At least one involved gluing jelly beans to paper.Another was agame involving ice cream cones and marshmallows, where you were throwingthe marshmallows around.Assuming everyone would miss at least one throw,who wants to eat marshmallows that have landed on the ground?Just becauseyou use a food to make a craft doesn't make it an edible craft!

Andyes, there are patterns, but only 13 pages worth.And 3 or 4 of the pagesare for basic enough things that you don't really need a pattern.

Thebook is listed as being for 2nd through 6th graders, but aside from acouple of crafts designed as snacks, I think the majority of this is wellbeneath 5th and 6th graders.First and 2nd graders are probably the bestaudience, although they may need assistance in putting some of the itemstogether. ... Read more