The Golden Gate Canvas Workers Chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild is selling their famous book of background stitches for $25 (including shipping and taxes) this year. To order, send a check made out to GGCW-ANG to Mary Pat Carney, 10 McKenzie Court, Hillsborough, CA 94010-6873. You may email Mary Pat for further information at marypatc at aoldotcom.
By coincidence I had just pulled out my copy of A Background Stitch Reference Book to look for a background stitch. My copy is a spiral bound booklet dated June 1997 with black and white hand drawn diagrams for 131 background stitches. Perhaps a dozen of these are stitches I've never seen anywhere else or a unique variation of a common stitch. Although these stitches were intended to be used in backgrounds, some of them are small scale enough that they have other uses. The diagrams are very clear and each stitch has a brief comment such as "This is an excellent background stitch where some texture is required" or "On colored canvas, an interesting contrast develops by not using the cross stitches." Note that most diagrams are not numbered (although the complex stitches are clearly numbered) so you will have to figure out where to start each stitch unit and how to proceed in most cases. An experienced stitcher shouldn't have any trouble with this. There are no stitched examples in my version of this classic book, just the diagrams.
This book I consider a "must have" if you collect stitch dictionaries and are always looking for new ideas. If you just need a basic stitch book or if you are a beginner, this isn't the right book. You'd do better to invest in something along the lines of Jo I. Christensen's The Needlepoint Book.
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
