From Rose to Rose by Elisabetta Sforza – Book Review

Today, I want to introduce you to Elisabetta Sforza’s newest embroidery book, Di Rosa in Rose – From Rose to Rose, a collaboration between two artists: Patrizia Silingardi who paints with watercolor, and Elisabetta Sforza who paints with thread.

From Rose to Rose features a collection of delicate rose and floral sprays that originated as watercolors and were then ingeniously interpreted into stitches by Elisabetta. The result is embroidery that is exquisite, ephemeral, airy, and just really beautiful.

Elisabetta combines traditional and basic embroidery stitches to create these light sprays of flowers that are slightly dimensional and quite realistic.

Let’s take a look at the book!

Like Elisabetta’s other books, From Rose to Rose offers instructional content in both Italian and English.

The book is filled with a plethora of illustrations and diagrams to help the embroiderer achieve success when embroidering the projects.

It’s a soft cover book, with a nice smooth heavy weight cover, 56 pages in full color, and pull-out, full-size patterns in the back, so that you don’t have to do any guess work when enlarging the decorative drawings for scrolls and garlands.

There’s a full alphabet with roses (6 cm or 2.3 inches tall), 14 decorative motifs (scrolls, garlands) that can be adapted to other projects, instructions for embroidering the drawings with diagrams for all the stitches, and 12 different color interpretations.

The book begins with an introduction to the theme of the book and to Patrizia, the watercolor artist behind the designs.

Elisabetta sets her book in an imaginary setting that helps deliver a certain “mood” to the whole book. It’s quite nice and poetic! There’s a somewhat romantic sense here that lends itself well to these designs.

There are 12 color themes presented for the designs, so that you can suit the colors to your tastes and decor. The colors range from muted, soft colors to bolder, exciting colors.

For summer, I love this deep yellow and red combination – it is warm and a little sultry. It reminds me of looking over a summer landscape bathed in hot sun, while sitting in the shade surrounded by the scent of flowers and the buzz of bees. Enchanted August!

Wowee! This vibrant blue is unique for an interpretation of roses, but I think it’s positively lovely. Perfect for the boudoir or the garden!

You’ll find subtle salmons, vibrant purples and fuchsias, delicate pale pinks, muted lavenders, whites – a whole range of lovely color palettes for the projects.

After the color schemes, we move into instruction on interpreting the paintings as embroidery.

There is an excellent section of stitch diagrams for the embroidery stitches used on these projects.

Elisabetta covers the basics, too, like how to transfer the designs onto fabric.

And she takes you through the details of stitching the designs, including stitch placement, number of threads, and so forth.

While the alphabet in the book is a key feature, I particularly love the extra decorative touches – the sprays of flowers, scrolls, and other design elements that can be adapted to all kinds of embroidery projects, from household linens to clothing to accessories, curtains, chair covers, lamp shades … you name it!

In fact, there is a section in the book dedicated just to the question of adapting the designs to different projects and uses. Very nice!

You’ll find line drawings of the alphabet, for those who wish to stitch decorative initials with the rose designs…

…and in the back of the book, you will find pull-out pages that unfold into full-sized drawings of the extra decorative elements (scrolls and garlands and such), so that you don’t have to try to figure out how to enlarge by this or that percent to get the design size correct. Very helpful!

In a Nutshell

This is another wonderful book from Elisabetta. It fits well into her current repertoire of exquisite embroidery books! Elisabetta has such a lovely style with her embroidery, and From Rose to Rose doesn’t disappoint. The designs are beautiful, the instruction is solid, and she imparts a great sense of ease and comfort to the embroiderer. There’s just something nice about reading her books and exploring the designs and projects in them.

If you are a fan of floral motifs, if you like decorative alphabets, if you yearn to stitch beautiful linens and other useful items, if you’re keen on realistic and somewhat dimensional embroidery, if you love having guidance with assembling a variety of color palettes, this book is for you!

Where to Find It

Well, of course I’m carrying it. I love all of Elisabetta’s books, and I’m happy to have them available for you in my shop!

You can find all four of her titles currently available here. I’ve presently listed them at the top of the “Embroidery Books” section of the shop. If you purchase multiple titles, I’ll combine shipping into the best option for priority mail and refund any significant difference in shipping costs.

If you are unfamiliar with her other books, you can check out my reviews for them here:

Sea to Stitch – oh man! I love this book, and I enjoyed stitching this monogram from it.

In a Wheatfield – a pretty collection of poppies, cornflowers, daisies, and wheat. A favorite! I love the colors, the flowers, and everything about this one!

A Flower Alphabet – featuring an abundant and gorgeous floral alphabet and matching decorative elements with lots of stitches & textures.

More to Come!

Last week, I mentioned Giuliana Buonpadre’s reticello books, and I’m so excited to have most of them here, ready to add to my shop. By the end of the week, they should all be in the shop, if you’re looking for them. Next week, I’ll show them to you up close. They’re fabulous books for anyone who has an interest in reticello, Italian needle lace, Hardanger, drawn thread work, and the like!