When I first stocked Alison Cole’s Goldwork Masterclass (which you can read about here – and which is in stock again here), I received a few inquiries about why I would stock other people’s embroidery books on Needle ‘n Thread.
Since bringing in Alison’s books, I’ve also had inquiries about other books becoming available on Needle ‘n Thread.
And so, today, I thought I would address the rather sticky question of stocking embroidery books. It’s sticky for a number of reasons.
And yes, I have another beautiful book coming from abroad! So I’ll tell you just a wee bit about it, before I officially show it to you in all its detailed glory once it’s in stock.
First of all, the upcoming book!
A Sea to Stitch is Elisabetta Sforza’s new design, project, and instructional book featuring a glorious sea-themed alphabet, along with additional decorative elements in the same theme.
It is similar to her In a Wheat Field book that I reviewed here, but it even grander, with additional instructive content for creating your own custom designs, for mixing colors, developing designs, and so forth.
It also tells a little more of the “story” of the designs. The book is, I think, over twice the length of the previous Wheat Field book, giving the embroiderer lots of scope for adaptation and customization.
I’ll go into more detail about this book when I’ve got it in stock, giving you a much closer look at what’s in it. Today I’ll just whet your appetite with some of the cover art and interior pages!
As usual, I’m not taking pre-orders, since I only sell items that are in stock and ready to ship. Just keep an eye here on the website next week, to know when it’s ready for you.
So, why am I stocking these books?
Well, all of them so far – Alison’s Masterclass books and Elisabetta’s new book – have a few things in common:
1. They are beautiful and excellent instructional books for the embroiderer;
2. They are self-published by the authors; and
3. They are not available through today’s widely-accessible book outlets – namely, Amazon, Book Depository, and other big-quantity discount book sellers.
I don’t (and most likely never will) physically stock books that are available through major book outlets.
Why not? Simply because I can’t afford to. I can’t afford the space to stock them, and I can’t afford to purchase them at prices higher than those found through volume book retailers, where everyone can already buy them cheaper. That is simply the reality of the book publishing and selling world these days for the very small business, and this reality is not going to go away any time soon.
So it would not be good business sense by any stretch of the imagination to stock books that would cost me more than what you can buy them for elsewhere.
It obviously makes more sense to invest (and take the risk of investing) resources into stocking specialty books that are self-published and that are not available through major book outlets.
This helps the authors who have made the huge investment to self-publish, it helps you, and it helps me a little bit, too. This, in fact, is the way book publishing should be – the authors receive a much higher return this way for their efforts.
So that is why I am specially curating a small collection of needlework books to stock here on Needle ‘n Thread. Each book is a book that I love, that I think is especially valuable for the embroiderer; it is usually self-published (the author paid to publish it); it is not available through the major book selling outlets; and I can ship it very quickly to domestic addresses.
I may expand the offerings slowly, being very particular about the books that I stock. We shall see how it goes!
In the meantime, keep an eye out for A Sea to Stitch! I’m so excited to have it available here on Needle ‘n Thread – it’s an enchanting collection that really speaks to me – I love all things oceanic – and I’ve been waiting with tingly anticipation for Elisabetta to publish it!
Once it is here (hopefully in the middle of next week?), I’ll show it to you close up in all its glory, and it will be available for you to purchase.
Coming Up on Needle ‘n Thread
And that, my friends, brings us to Friday!
I’m testing some new sewing threads this weekend, after running into an awful problem with the last two spools I purchased for hand piecing my hexie quilt. I’m going to chat with you soon about this particular thread problem, because it’s something we run into with embroidery fabrics and embroidery threads, too.
Almost all week long, we’ve been weighing beads here in the studio, so I’m glad the weekend is here! It’s a tedious process, that whole Bead Thing!
Over the weekend, I plan to embroider (working on another adaptation of this rose) a little bit, get this pall put back together, and get some much-needed computer work done. We will see how it works out!
I hope that you’ve got good plans for the weekend, including some rest and relaxation with your needle and thread!
I can’t wait to see and hear more about this book – it is going to have to find a home in my collection
I’m looking forward to ordering this book, Mary! I have the previous two books from Elisabetta and this one looks wonderful as well!
Hahahahaha! “Stocking Embroidery Books”—Did anyone besides me think this post was going to be about embroidered Christmas stockings?
LOL! I didn’t even pick up on that – but now that you’ve said it, I can’t get it out of my head. :-/
Thank you and God bless you for carrying this book. Sforza’s embroidery is so exceptional. I’ve been wanting thus book but was resigned to not having it. I follow her website and saw that she had self-published the book and with her being in Italy, I was sure that the books wouldn’t make it across the sea. Now I will have a chance to purchase a copy.
So soaking in mild detergent worked?
Shells are fascinating, I think. Shells and water. Rockpools and seaweed. Haven’t been to a beach for ages and now it would be illegal ….
No, soaking in mild detergent didn’t work. LOL! More on that later!
Hello Mary
Thank you so much for a glimpse of A Sea to Stitch it looks absolutely stunning, I am looking forward to seeing a little more.
Am I right in thinking that the book is in Italian?
It has a very good English translation as well – so, Italian on part of the page, with the English translation on the other part.
Dear Mary
The book A Sea to Stitch looks lovely especially the M shown in the photo above, I really like the embroidered shells and the sea and birds beautiful piece of embroidery. I think it’s very nice of you to sell these books on your website and give your personal view on the books, I should imagine that helps the authors to get the book book on the market. I do hope the book is a great success and many people will buy it. I really look forward to the coming week and hope we get to see the progress on the linen Pall. Hopefully you will have the weighing of the beads over with soon. Thank you for letting us know about stocking other people’s books and for the preview of the book A Sea to Stitch and for the photos above. I hope you have a great weekend and look forward to hearing from you next week.
Regards Anita Simmance
Hi is the beautiful book ‘a sea to stitch’ available.?
If It is, can you tell me how I can buy it
Many blessings
Reverend Biddy Saunders
It will be available here on Needle ‘n Thread hopefully by the end of this week. Keep an eye out! You might want to subscribe to the email newsletter (you can do that here: https://needlenthread.wpengine.com/newsletter-signup), and that way you’ll get the announcement in your inbox when it is in stock on the website. You’d have to do that probably before Friday, because I’m hoping they will be on the website by then.
This book looks irresistible. Can’t wait to order it!
Wow! The colors are really speaking to me. I can’t hardly wait.
Will this be available in English?
Yes! The edition I’m bringing in is Italian and English. The translation is quite good. Hoping to have it in stock this week!