Window Gardens in Bloom Book *NEW*

Window boxes earn pride of place in the city, where they expand a gardener's canvas and, in some cases, provide the only sunny spot for nurturing favorite plants. As a child growing up on a farm in rural Ontario (Canada), I spent countless hours tending our vegetable gardens and many more hours in the barn with the animals. Although I now live in the city, my rural roots have never left me. My artwork alternates between rural and urban landscapes simply because I love them both! My gardening, however, is strictly city as I try to squeeze annuals, perennials, and bulbs in every corner of the garden and every available planter.

I attended art school at a time when embroidery wasn't part of the curriculum and a "serious artist" was encouraged to study fine arts.

Undaunted, I studied textile art and cast about for my own training in embroidery. Fortunately, I found One Stitch at a Time, a nearby embroidery shop whose name suited my pace. A whole new world of fabric, thread, and color opened up for me when I walked through those doors. However, feeling somewhat overwhelmed and a bit shy, I walked out empty handed. I went to a larger department store where, feeling less conspicuous, I purchased several colors of stranded floss and a remnant of fabric and rushed home to stitch up a pansy. My masterpiece was stitched by hand using six strands of floss and an old needle. The next day, I marched down to the shop and proudly showed off my work. I'll never forget the owner's smile and her gentle manner as she patted me on the shoulder and said: "Why don't you come and take a class, Margaret?" What followed were two years of extensive training in the fine art of embroidery - all under Ann Adam's patient and knowledgeable tutelage. She allowed me to struggle with my own designs and, of course, learn by my mistakes. I came away from the experience with a love of embroidery and a fastidious approach to technique. I've been stitching, drawing, and, of course, gardening to this day.

Although I have taught embroidered landscapes for many years, I was keenly aware that many embroiderers were not quite ready to give up kits and tackle a landscape. So I designed an "Embroidered Gardens Under Windows" course after endless experimentation with crayons, paints, applique methods, and embroidery techniques. The course was received enthusiastically and I have been teaching it ever since, using every class as an opportunity to iron out details and fine-tune the design. The results are the projects and instructions offered to you in Window Gardens in Bloom: 25 Hand-Embroidered Flowers in Easy-to-Create Settings.

I hope you will take the time to read through Window Gardens in Bloom and create your own painted and embroidered window garden. If you come away from the experience a bit wiser in your approach to fabric painting and embroidery or inspired to try new techniques and designs, my work will be complete. Maybe the next time you walk into your favorite embroidery shop, you, too, can show off your original masterpiece.

Window Gardens in Bloom
25 Hand-Embroidered Flowers in Easy-to-Create Settings
by Margaret Vant Erve

Create an enchanting window garden of hand-embroidered flowers

• Move beyond embroidery kits! Take your hand embroidery to the next level with flowering window gardens.
• Pick your favorite flowers from a stitch directory of 25 flowering plants.
• 2 projects for flower backgrounds, an outdoor window box and indoor window sill - with unlimited creative options.
• Create unique backgrounds for your embroidery with easy fabric painting techniques.

64 pages, color, softcover, ISBN: 1-57120-306-0