My friends, I think I have my Embroidery Book of 2026!
Yes, there are several embroidery books coming out in 2026 that I think are worth noting and highly desirable. I’ve already got a few on the calendar for review.
But this book – THIS book! – ticks all my little-embroidery-lovin’-heart’s boxes, on several levels. There is so much about it that is instructive – also on several levels – and so much about it that’s just downright charming.
Couple these points with the fact that it presents an approach to embroidery that can be highly customized into deeply personal and unique embroidery works, and I think you’ll understand why, even this early in the year, I think it is most likely my Embroidery Book of 2026 – and perhaps even beyond 2026. I suspect I will use it as a reference, project, practice, and inspirational book well beyond this year.
Please allow me to show you, up close, Cassandra Dias’s Richly Stitched Landscape Embroidery, published by C&T Publishing, and available worldwide now. Are you familiar with Cassandra’s work? If not, pop by her Instagram channel! You will be mesmerized by her landscapes.
Stick with me through the review, and at the end, you’ll have the opportunity to win your very own digital copy of the book, courtesy of C&T Publishing.
The book is about exactly what it promises in the title, richly stitched landscapes, and how to accomplish them.
Cassandra is obviously an artist in her own right. Her skillful use of color, proportion, perspective, composition, movement, and even life come across in each of the little projects in this book.
In addition to her artistic skill, she certainly understands how to teach the concepts and techniques of her art to her reader, and in ways that are remarkably accessible. Whether you are a beginner or a skilled stitcher, you can do what she’s teaching you to do, because she knows how to teach you how to do it. And that’s a marvelous gift!
The book is logical in its approach – it makes sense and it is orderly. Here, you’ll find well-presented, good instruction.
And then…. and then… it’s just pretty. The projects are really, really pretty. I want to be in every spot depicted in these projects.
Alright, there’s my overly effusive intro. I can’t help it. I love this book!
What’s In It?
The whole point of the book is to present Cassandra’s methods for embroidering detailed, beautiful, realistic landscapes. They are not huge images – they are sometimes-vast scenes of visual beauty captured in a small frame. From rolling hills to jagged mountains, seasides to still lakes, vineyards to forests, you’ll find a variety of scenery types in the book, and you will learn how to stitch them.
You have but to learn and then adapt her methods to stitch your own view. But she gives you the step-by-step process, practice elements, and projects to lead you to the mastery of her approach.
Each project is designed to fit in a 3″ display hoop, but the author gives clear instructions (and percentages) for enlarging the designs if you want a bigger finished project. If you want, for example, a 4″ round landscape that will fit in a 4″ display hoop or display frame, she tells you how to accomplish that before you transfer the design.
The book begins with general concepts. First, there’s a section on tools and materials, including hand embroidery threads, tools, fabric; transfer tools; materials for finishing and display; and more.
Next, the author tackles notions of color and design. Though short, this is a fascinating section! She shows you how to work from a reference photo, to turn a snapshot into your embroidered scene – how to break the scene down into elements to stitch and how to plan your approach to stitching it. And she also takes you through the process of choosing colors to bring your scene to life.
Now, don’t worry! As you learn from the book, the author does not expect you to come up with scenes to stitch. She provides you with practice scenes.
Next, we move into Embroidery Techniques & Tips. Here, you’ll learn the basics: transferring your design, how to use the embroidery floss, how to set up your hoop or frame, the general concepts of thread painting, how to finish a hoop for display, and the like.
Following this, you’ll find a stitch library. The embroidery stitches are all presented with step by step photos. None of them are difficult, complicated stitches. They’re all simple stitches.
And then we move into the specific instructions for landscape embroidery, and I love, love, love what Cassandra has done here.
Before we start stitching whole scenes, she takes us step-by-step through how to stitch common elements of scenery, providing designs, materials, and step-by-step photo instructions for typical parts of scenery: the sky, clouds, hills, mountains, trees, grass, flowers and bush, calm water, waves, sand, rocks.
Taken individually, each of these is a great lesson in interpretation of natural element into embroidery. While she presents these elements each in their own little hoop, I could see laying them out on a strip or square of fabric and working them as a legit sampler. It would be challenging, instructive, and fun!
Finally, the projects! Cassandra gives us seven complete scenes to embroider, and they strike me as being arranged from less difficult to more challenging: a rolling hillside, a seagrass shore, a rocky seascape, a serene lagoon, a foothill lake, a vineyard valley, and a wooded trail.
If someone pinned me down and said, “Pick out your favorite,” it would be practically impossible. The Foothill Lake is exquisite. The reflection of the water, the billowing clouds in the sky with the rolling hills before them, the trees and sky reflecting in the water… it’s hard to believe all of this is presented in such detail, so vivid, so real – with thread – in 3″ of space!
Be still, my heart!
But that vineyard valley makes my heart sing. And the serene lagoon, the seashores, the… the… I can’t pick. Each scene is lovely.
If I had to pick one that resonates with where I live, I know you won’t believe me, but it would be the rolling hillside. (You think Kansas is flat, don’t you?) It’s not – and that little hoop captures the typical hills in the area I live in, and the big sky that mesmerizes with its ever-changing sky-scape.
(But – shhhhh! don’t tell Kansas I said this: I dream of living above that foothill lake or on that rocky seashore!)
With each project, you’ll find all the information you need to stitch the scene.
The designs are located in the back of the book, where you’ll also find a QR code for an electronic version of all the patterns. This makes it easy to enlarge them and print them if you wish.
There is a materials and tools list with each project. The materials list includes the DMC thread list. On some of these scenes, there are a lot of colors employed! And an others, not as many, but still quite a few. For example, the Rolling Hillside uses 21 colors of DMC thread. The forest path? 58! With this type of thread painting, the extensive use of color is what makes it so realistic.
And then you will find the step-by-step photo instructions for building the scene with embroidery. Every little element unfolds before your eyes, so that you can see how it’s done and have the confidence to do it yourself.
Pros and Cons
All pros, no cons.
This is a fabulous book – it’s instructional and inspirational. I want really badly to work through every project in it. Right Now! I want really badly to have little embroidered landscapes peppering my gallery wall! Right Now!
Where to Find It
You can find Richly Stitched Landscape Embroidery: Mastering Thread Painted Scenes by Cassandra Dias available through Amazon now – it’s been out for a short ten days! It’s right here at the top of my Needlework Book Recommendations list.
Get it! And let’s stitch some landscapes!
The link to my Needlework Recommendations List on Amazon is an affiliate link, which means that Needle ‘n Thread may receive a small commission for items purchased through that link, at no extra expense to you. Thanks!
Give-Away!
This give-away has ended. Thanks to all who participated!
Courtesy of C&T Publishing, I’m giving away a digital copy of Richly Stitched Landscape Embroidery to one lucky randomly drawn winner!
If you’d like to join in on the give-away, please leave a comment below on this blog post. You can follow this link to the comment form, answering the following question:
What’s your favorite landscape? Are you a mountains person? Seaside? Open skies and rolling hills? Prairies and plains? Forests and streams? A lake lover? Rugged cliffs with salty spray, or soft, sunny, sultry tropics? What type of ideal scenic setting do you escape to in your favorite daydreams, that would want to stitch?
Leave your answer below by 5:00 AM Central Daylight Time, Wednesday, May 27th, and I’ll randomly draw for, and announce, a winner that morning. Make sure that you leave a recognizable name in the “name” line on the comment form, and please double check your email so that I can contact you directly.
Entries left anywhere else besides this blog post are ineligible. Your comment may not appear immediately because all comments left on Needle ‘n Thread are moderated before they are published.
I am a Rocky Mountain girl who loves nothing more than a blaze of purple peaks against the setting sun.
This looks like an amazing book, thanks for introducing it to us. My favorite landscape is a lake surrounded by mountains on a clear day where the water is so still and calm, it reflects the mountains and sky.
My favorite scape is anything along the Minnesota north shore of Lake Superior. Blue water, crashing waves, pines, cliffs that are reddish from the iron ore in the rock. It’s harsh and craggy and beautiful.
Beautiful book! I’m partial to the rocky seascape and the conifer forest sceneries, but would also love to adapt the techniques to stitch my hometown’s iconic mountain in Bolivia, the Illimani.
All my life, I have been partial to landscapes that include the sea. I have always lived near the ocean and have stitched many crewel, counted cross stitch and embroidery seascapes. Until this year…… when I moved to Lancaster PA and I am now totally smitten with rolling hills, farms dotted with sheep, orchards and cornfields. I still do escape to the ocean, even if only in my dreams or my stitchery.
I really partial to mountain landscapes. Trees and mountains and lakes are my favorite.
You would think that living near one of the Great Lakes would automatically make that my favorite landscape-and there’s no doubt, it is quite beautiful, but I have some lovely forests, rivers and streams in my area that I can occasionally spend some time in. Now if I could just move a few mountains into the area I’d be set.
Oooh!! This book looks amazing!
I would love to win it if I’m lucky enough !
Not sure I could pick one out from your selection from the book either they ALL look absolutely stunning before looking at them however I would have said my favourite landscape would be something from the seaside so I’m going with that as my choice! And with fingers crossed I’ll await your next newsletter
Sue Staniland
I love them all but have a special place in my heart for the beach.. Can’t wait to learn her technique and then design my own. What a special book and talented artist.
I love woodlands, being in the middle of a pocket forest feels like being in a wonderful little hideaway.
Thanks very much for sharing this book. I am genuinely excited about reading more her exquisite landscape design techniques.
I dream of a lagoon with talc like sand, a surround of palm trees, just the right temperature, just me!
Lakeside!! Anything fresh water!
You are so right — it is almost impossible to choose one favorite scene!!! But, because I love hiking in the woods I will go with the wooded trail. Her work is beautiful and her approach to giving both stitching and color instruction is excellent. Thank you for showcasing this book!
Mountains, hills, forests, fields or seashores? I love them all! My favorite right now is sunsets. I’m living in Ohio again after many years in the hills, mountains and lakes of Upstate NY and the this flat area of Ohio offers THE BEST sunsets (and frequent rainbows.) This looks like a great book. I’m quite sure I recognize the NaPali Coast in Hawaii in one of the small stitched landscapes. Thank you for offering this give away and for making us aware of this treasure of a book.
My favourite scenery is mountains. I love seeing mountains in the distance and when I daydream I see myself looking at snow capped mountains and having the ocean near by. I would want to stitch a scene with the mountains in the distance with a lake also in view.
This appears to be a lovely book. I think my favorite landscapes include flowers with the seascapes as second.
My heart also sings at the beauty of the images! Would love to win
Oh, what a delight you have located! This makes me want to learn the techniques and also complete the scenes as soon as I can. This guarantees there is no end to delights with thread.
Oh just love seaside landscapes! So tranquil. I would love to learn this technique.
The landscape looking over the lake past the trees to the mountains is my favourite – but really it is quite difficult to choose as they are all so lovely.
What a wonderful book! I would say I’m a seaside, rolling hills, prairies person. I think I would start with the Foothill Lake. It is absolutely beautiful!
Wow! What an amazing book and definitely worth the price! I’ll have to add it to my list!
My favorite landscape would be the rocks, lakes and trees of the Canadian Shield where I grew up.
For many of us it’s always the landscape we grew up in. That’s why some love the prairies and I find them lacking. For me it’s the Appalachians in all their ancient forms that I love. I’ve lived away for decades but whenever I return I literally feel my heart jump in my chest as I first glimpse their graceful shapes. I have stitched bits of them, but the variety will outlast my stitching years.
I have found over the years that my inner spirit finds the most peace with soft breezes through the palm trees on a tropical beach. The waves can be mesmerizing and captivating.
The sea!!!!!!!!!!
Any water really, but I grew up near the sea and it is (as I often remind him :-)) the one thing I hold against my husband: that when I moved to the UK when we got married, he lived in the dead centre of the country, as far away from the sea as you can get.
I would love to stitch a sea scene just to have around and look at whenever I miss the real thing *sigh*
I dream of stitching a vibrant tropical paradise
A beautiful book! My favourite landscape is a British Columbia seaside, beautiful sandy beaches with smooth rocks and at times an abundance of bald eagles!
I am a Prairie girl who loves mountain scenery, whether it be our own Canadian Rockies, the UK Monroes or the Swiss Alps!
My favorite scenes include a little bit of everything…and the examples shown include one—mountains in the background, lake in the middleground and trees in the foreground. It makes you wish you could wander through!
Mary,
I hope your surgery on your thumb went well and your back to stitching.
My favorite landscape is the forest, rich greens and browns, burgundy and oranges. Crunching leaves and pine cones and pine needles.
I love all you have done for us stitching folks.
Melinda
What is my favourite landscape? That’s easy! The Australian outback! I love the colours, the earthy tones of ochre and terracotta, the plants of grey green eucalyptus and olive foliage with bright yellow or red flowers, all set against a clear blue cloudless sky. White trunks of tree stretching towards the sky. Marvelous. And the vastness of the landscapes, rugged, wild, open, it is simple beautiful. To fly over with a birds eye view looking as far as you can see. So many ideas to stitch, from up above and on solid ground. One couldn’t ask for anything else.
I am not sure if I already commented. I took my eyes off of my computer for one second and I was back on the main page! I would have to choose one of each, because I love all of the different landscapes. Each of them has a special place in my heart. Thanks for the chance!!!
My dream landscape always includes a beautiful sunset, a few palm silhouettes a calm ocean and gentle waves.
It is tough, they all bring back different memories but if I have to pck one it would be the forest trail because that is currently where I escape to!
I love green rolling hills! I dream of laying in the tall green grass in the warm sunshine
and just letting life and its complexities float away in the breeze!
Love this book!!!
What a stunning book, and what a hard choice. Even though I live in the heart of Constable country and am surrounded by the classic scenes that he painted, my heart truly soars when I see a turbulent seascape – and how amazing would it be to be able to stitch that!!
Wow! That book is gorgeous! I’m definitely a mountain girl!
I’m usually a walk through the woods picture kind of gal. But I just spent a week at the beach and that scene with the waves and grasses is really spectacular and calling to me right now. Beautiful book!
What’s your favorite landscape? Are you a mountains person? Seaside? Open skies and rolling hills? Prairies and plains? Forests and streams? A lake lover? Rugged cliffs with salty spray, or soft, sunny, sultry tropics? What type of ideal scenic setting do you escape to in your favorite daydreams, that would want to stitch?
Im from Eastern Iowa along the Mississippi with bluffs and rolling hills and trees and cornfield all together. I absolutely love it. It’s so pretty and peacefull!
I am a mountains girl! I would love to stitch a landscape of my happy place!
I am definitely a water person. Having said that, the lake and the rolling hills are equally inviting. I don’t know: do I have to decide? I would still probably stick in any form to water.
I think these landscapes look absolutely amazing. So I totally understand your enthusiasm about this book.
I totally hear you on the review for this gorgeous book! My stand out favourite would have to be the beach scene, but like you, it’s challenging to have to choose just one.
Thank you for offering a chance to win a digital copy of this book.
I think at I am attracted most to landscapes with lots of plant life,trees and flowers, with a water feature. Thank you, Mary for calling our attention to this book and for the chance to win it.
Pat
My favorite landscape is any body of water with a beautiful sunset that includes rich pinks and lavendars.
I love mountain and valley landscapes, in addition to seashores. However, my daughter lives in UK and I have taken some absolutely gorgeous pictues that I’ve always wanted to translate into needlework but just felt overwhelmed. Looks like I finally have the right guide!! Can’t wait to puruse this lovely book – also helps tremendously that YOU recommended it.
I love all the landscapes! Dense greenery – the best!
I want to incorporate flora and fauna is my dream.
I like forests with bubbling streams and dappled sunlight. I love dark greens and brown trees and other plants, blue skies, and a bit of yellow light to set it all off.
My favorite would be Forrest’s and streams.
My favorite landscape is waves pounding on a beach, with rocky areas and tide pools.
Mountains have me every time, but I live by the ocean, so I see all these grasses and clouds and water elements all the time, but I’d love to capture them with threads! This seems like something I might like to do and give away as gifts to family who come to visit! Then, perhaps, they will invite me to the mountains, and I can add those scenes to the camera-of-my-mind, too!
Probably because I live in a desert area, I love forests with lots of trees! I think they’re so special.
Absolute favorite is always a stunning sunset on a beach!
Love mountain scenes with water! Grew up in my childhood by the Canadian Rockies and love going back to see them! Favourite place is Lake Louise that has beautiful mountains around it! Thanks!
Valerie
I love the shores of Lake Michigan along western Michigan. The sandy beaches with white capped rollers and dune grass with sailboats bobbing along and seagulls against the blue sky. My happy place!
I absolutely love the idea of embroidering landscapes and, if I were to name my favorite type of scene, I imagine two locations. First, it would be the Smoky Mountains where my husband and I started a school in the late 70s. I used to love to hike along the Blue Ridge and look down at the old mountains and the unique blue haze that I can only hope might be possible to capture with some interesting stitches. Next it would be the Libyan desert where I lived as a little girl. My dad would take me riding in the desert on his big, black horse and it was incredible how many tiny, interesting plants we could see upon careful inspection. Those desert scenes remain in my memory and dreams—especially one time when some sort of weather anomaly made the desert come alive with tiny flowers as far as you could see that disappeared when you stepped on them—and I’d love to find a way to embroider that.
Thank you, Mary Corbet, for your energy and resources. I’ve embroidered all my life but have improved markedly since my retirement, thanks in many ways to Needle ‘n Thread.
It sounds like a great book. Could the landscapes be made larger than 4″? I’ve never worked on something that small.
Yep, she tells you how to enlarge the images.
My favorite landscape is a green area with a waterfall ahead! Simple, yet calming.
I’m definitely a seascape person. I love seeing how the waves play with the rocks and the sand. I love seeing the kelp and watching the animals as they go about their business of living. My favorite walk is a 4-mile loop that takes me to the observation deck at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A great way to start my day!
My favourite landscape to stitch? Any landscape with colourful flowers. For example, a meadow with swaths of purple, red, yellow, white and all the greenery that goes with the flowers. This would be a grand landscape, but I really love to work small. That landscape might be a garden, such as my own back yard, But also down to the micro level, where the landscape would be small flowers and leaves at ground level, with maybe some details of sandy soil, bugs, emerging seedlings with tiny first leaves. All of these landscapes are wonderful and colourful.
My first thought when I saw this book would be to make a seaside. It would make my heart sing. Can’t wait to get a copy of this book!
I love being outdoors and find it hard to decide which landscapes I like best. I love the woods and running stream also where cliffs meet water
I love prairies in person, but I might like to stitch a pond scene best.
Living in Seattle – I do not dream I go to the mountains two, three sometimes four times a week (Retirement does not suck). My favorite landscape is a sea of mountains from a high summit. I have long been pondering how to capture that in thread.
I’m a seaside person who also loves to embroidery flowers. Book looks amazing. Thank you.
Be still my heart❣ What a lovely book, I’ve been wanting for some time to stitch a whole scene and these are exquisite. If I were to pick a favorite (living in California as I do) my first pick would be the seaside. But we also have the majestic mountains and I live in wine country, soooo… Fingers crossed I can win this.
Moraine Lake in Canada. We went for our 30th anniversary – beautiful mountains all around, the most amazing color of blue that I’ve ever seen – almost unreal in its intensity and hue!
This book is breathtaking! I’m not sure I could pick a favorite landscape, but I do love the Smoky Mountains. You get mountains, forests, and stunning water features all in one place.
I’m a lover of lake scenery- sunny, cloudy or hazy!
Beautiful book.
Peggy S
My favorite landscape to look at are hills and prairies. I adore going to South Dakota and seeing the rolling prairie hills full of buffalo as well as the amazing rocks and valleys. I’m also in love with the Loess Hills near Sioux City, Iowa. Stone State Park has paths that little wider than a foot on top of curving hills and steep drops. I think the scene I would want to stitch is a photo I took in South Dakota with a buffalo laying by the cliff edge overlooking the badlands.
I am a lake lover having lived on the lakefront of a beautiful lake spanning New Jersey and New York.
This book sounds like just what I need for my EGA Master craftsman project. It’s been on hold as I imagine how I will embroider a landscape of rolling hills.
Thanks Mary.
I grew up in west Milford- beautiful country!
My favorite time of year is Autumn, Fall,”by any other name.” Being from western Pennslvania, I just live the vibrant colors of the hillside. Maple and oak come to mind first as that is what I loved as a child and do to this day and forward. Having lived in California the last 50+ years, that is what I have missed most. (That and not having a garage right outside my back door.) And it’s back to PA I will be heading very soon – back to Autumn and family.
I would love to paint these pictures in thread.
It is difficult to say what my favorite landscape is because I love the sea and grew up near mountains, but I forests and streams bring me the most peace. One of my favorite trips was to Prince Edward Island and the path that Anne walked behind Green Gables was so lovely. I was fortunate to go at a time when there were few tourists so I had the opportunity to walk the path alone. I videoed the stream just to hear the sound.
I love the idea of small landscapes and learning how to make that stream come to life with dozens of colors…I’m getting better at my thread painting but need a bit more ‘learning’ and it sounds as if this book would fit that void.
Of all scenes, a small, quietly gurgling stream amidst overhanging trees gives a great sense of peace and pleasure. Though a much larger piece would be my preference.
Thank you.
I love all of our beautiful world! If I have to pick a single ‘snapshot ‘it will be the ocean scene. I never get to go often enough but I love the idea that every wave washes a clean slate and we can start afresh to do even better
Would love this book!
I live at the ocean. I would love to try the beach/ ocean scenes!
Thank you!
I love the seaside. The sun, the waves and the sand between my toes. Bliss. This book has it all.
WOW, what a resounding success of a book and article. It is painting 101 rolled into embroidery 101 and then going beyond expectations. I see this as both a beginning and ongoing training book because the individual can continue to grow and learn and perfect up to their hearts content. Thank you so much for giving us a preview.
The book sounds wonderful! Lease enter my name for the free drawing.
Adrienne G. Meyer
This book looks like a winner! Hard to decide but I love scenes with rolling hills and lavender or other plants growing on the slopes.
My favourite landscape is a beach/sea scene. Especially with a sunset or storm in the sky. They are just so peaceful.
I love the prairies and the big skies. Although that foothills lake project looks pretty beautiful too!
Hmm…I think the lake tops my list, followed closely by the vineyard (its colors!) and the forest path. What a beautiful use of needle and thread!
What beautiful work in this book. My idea of a good scene is a mountain meadow with multi colored flowers. Thank you for the chance to win.
I love all of outdoors so it’s hard to pick a certain landscape. Right now, my flower garden is my favorite but tomorrow it may be a hike in the desert mountains around me or a stroll through a forest. This book looks wonderful and I’m so glad you brought it to our attention!
Forests and streams. Thanks for sharing a peek at this inspirational book!
I especially love landscape pictures the have a beautiful waterfall down the side of a hill or mountain. It ‘s even better if you also can see the body of water or stream that it falls down into. They are so amazing. I love to take pictures of them and it would be wonderful to stitch one of my own.
Every scenario you suggest is an appealing one to stitch. I think if you’re a person who notices your surroundings with interest, as I am, you would relish the opportunity to represent them in stitch. Even photos of other peoples’ travels send my mind in the direction of ‘what would that look like in stitch?’. I guess my first one would be of an ocean scene but then closely followed by large forested areas.
My favorite landscapes are those in western rural Ireland, which combine standing or ruins of medieval churches in the gorgeous setting of Ireland’s beautiful wild and often rugged nature. I love landscapes that combine the best of human architecture (and here I mean churches, ruins or in tact, best in the sense of human ideals of yearning for the Divine), with the natural world all around it. The Celtic view of the boundaries of realms, earth and otherworld, in communion with one another. I particularly love wide skies of Ireland with all their clouds and drama, the bodies of water, whether lakes, rivers, or sea. These landscapes help me connect with my Irish ancestors, their characters and their hearts.
I am a prairie girl too but I’m drawn to the sea and mountains.
My favorite landscapes include scenes of Scotland, whether it’s a seaside, or a Scottish loch. Scotland has the most beautiful scenery.
I’m a huge fan of mountains (specifically the sort of forested mountains you get in the Northeast, like the Poconos, since that’s all I’ve really seen), but I also love a good beach.
I love forests with streams and ponds. It would be fun to try to stitch them.
I too like the Foothill Lake. I’d love to embroider it for my husband. The book looks fantastic.
Hi Mary,
Thank you and C & T Publishing for this giveaway. My ideal landscape is rolling green hills by the seaside. I think specifically of the Cantabric coast in the north of Spain and the lush green and crystal blue waters
I am a nature lover. I prefer soft clouds, billowy trees, forests, mountains, gurgling streams and beautiful lakes. I am from the Great Lakes and that is what our surrounding nature lands are like. Thank you for this opportunity.
As I live very close to the Black Forest and the Swiss Alps I love mountains with their forests , flora and fauna.
I am a forest person and would love some instruction on embroidering trees. The book looks wonderful.
I like to embroider fields of wild flowers.
What an exciting book! I LOVE small, intricate projects, and these all speak to me. I can see why you are so thrilled with this new volume!
I am definitely a prairie girl. I think the Flint Hills of Kansas are one of the most beautiful places in the world. How can rolling green hills and a big blue sky full of fluffy white clouds be beat?
My absolute favourate is the forest scene. Those trees … ahh, I am in love with leaves and trees. She is a stunning artist.
Adrie
My favorite landscapes are beaches. It is where I love to vacation and relax.
I am lucky living in Wales – we have fabulous beaches, rolling hills, towering mountains, meadows and lakes, all within a couple of hours, and I love the fact that you can never get bored with the ever changing scenery. But my favourite, that I would stitch – a wildlife rich garden with a pond. Thank you for highlighting the book, Mary. She is so very talented. Best wishes Laura
I live near the coast in northern California, where hills meet the ocean. That’s what I LOVE!
Thank you for having such a wonderful website & blog. You rock it!
Wow! Those are gorgeous! My favorite is definitely the beach scene.
I have enjoyed sooooo many scenic places in this wonderful country, so it is very hard to pick just one. I think, perhaps, the calming waters of a lake surrounded by lush trees and pink mountains lit by fabulous sunrises and sunsets would be a perfect sanctuary for me!
Thank you for reviewing this book…I love every project you showed!
I love the rolling prairie with a bright red orange sunset.
I love the mountains,also. This technique fascinates me.
I love the ocean side. And find stitching water to very tricky. Sounds like my favorite kind of book that breaks down the how to with inspiring projects! That’s a nice review Mary! Even if I don’t win, I’ll buy the book through your link. Thanks for the heads up!
My favorite places are pristine clear lakes in the northern forests, a place of refuge and remembrance of natural balance and peaceful contemplation.
Thank you Mary for your great website with the varied tips and tools for stitchers
I love the great outdoors and often use Mother Nature as a source of inspiration – love to own this book 🙂
I’d love to live in a landscape with a forest and meadows, with a stream. I’d love a bungalow with a long, covered porch on the sunny side and lots of windows. At my fantasy home, there is a weather-tight barn that is my studio and can host family and friends for creative adventures.
I’d stitch all the views and probably a map of the two acres that incorporate my ideal home.
Absolutely gorgeous! It’s hard to choose one scenario over another. I love them all. I am drawn to the mountains! But I think they will all find a place on my travel wall. Thanks for sharing this book title.
What a stunning book. I’m a fan of the views of the mountains. Living in Seattle, I’m surrounded by incredible scenery and very interested in her techniques there!
My favorite landscapes are rugged cliffs and rocky shores. California’s BigSur, the Shetland Islands, the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland come to mind. I look at our photos from those places and would love to stitch them.
I love reading your newsletter for so many reasons. Your book recommendations is one. I love this book.
Gorgeous book! Seascapes are my favorite. Thank you!
Forests and streams are my favorite landscape.
I love the sea as it can be very peaceful and calm or very stormy and it will either calm the soul or fill it with energy. So many different ways to embroider the different moods.
My favorite landscape is vineyards above a lake.
Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I envision myself in a sand chair with my feet in the water listening to the waves and watching my children play in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California. Ahhhh…..
Similar to you, I like the rolling plains. I grew up on the eastern plains of Colorado and many times I have marveled at the colors in the sky over the plains. I think about trying to capture them in thread and it doesn’t surprise me that it might require more than 50 colors!
Thanks for your newsletter. It is one of the favorite parts of my week.
Inspiration for me comes from where I am at the time. I’m a person who can look up and watch the clouds go and get lost, time doesn’t exist.
I enjoy doing all forms of artist work, such as: designing needlepoint pieces and then transforming them into a water color.
The scenery can be very relaxing and mood altering. Taking pictures as I walk, traveling and even watching nature scenes on TV are ways to get an inspiring idea.
Art is what keeps us “grounded”!
I love all the landscape views, but the ocean ones takes my eyes to see far out in the waves.
It is such a hard choice! The lake reflection is so beautiful. The color play in the vineyard is stunning. I am equally drawn to both of these. I live in coastal California and any one of these could be a local picture for me. A truly beautiful book.
Thank you for the opportunity to win a copy.
Like you, I’d be hard pressed to pick just one. I love all landscapes. But the top would probably be mountains or foothills or prairies or …..
I love seashore stitching as I am lucky enough to be able to walk to local beaches. There is endless inspiration, whether observing a distant view or a tide pool. Thanks for the opportunity to win.
Love all the patterns but the lake in the hills is my favorite! Thanks for the give away.
favorite landscape=tropical ocean with sandy beach, flowers and foliage , waterfalls and mountains
I love rocky seascape! This book looks amazing!
My favorite landscape is a local park trail in the woods. On a hilltop I can see down through the trees to a pond which reflects the sky and trees around it. Very peaceful
Mountain mama here
I love walking in the woods and looking around at all the trees, plants, and flowers. To make it into a scene for a landscape, I’d pick the woods that edge a lake near where I live, so one gets a glimpse of the lake and a far shore in the distance.
I escape to a beach where we used to live. Not the sandy type. The one with craggy rocks, offshore breakers, and practically no one ever visits. Great place to meditate.
My favorite landscape is a forest next to a field of flowers! This book looks amazing, thank you for letting us know about it.
My favorite landscape is from Vermont in summer at the side of Harvey’s lake with beautiful rolling hills on the other side of the lake. The reflection of the hill in the morning is just beautiful!
Oh my goodness, I did not know she was writing a book!!!! I have been following Cassandra on Instagram for years….I have found her work amazing and dazzling. I think from the book, the two reflections in water – the mountain in a lake, and the reflection in a stream of the surrounding landscape – those have always been my peaceful spots in my mind. She does them so well. I would love to win this digital book! Becky McGinnis
I love the grasslands of the prairie countryside. The fields of the crops that feed the world and the small lakes and rivers that manage to dot the landscape in total beauty.
Of all the different embroidery I have done. I find landscape embroidery very challenging. So would love to conquer it.
Boy howdy! Mary, I agree that this must be an amazing book as I look at the detail of the landscapes! I love the seascape, myself, always wishing to live by the sea! Thank you for sharing this book with us.
My favourite landscape is prairie fields.
My favorite landscape to stitch (and to be at) is the oceanfront in Maui. Palm trees, ocean views, beautiful beaches – what’s not to love!
Thanks!
As aformer resident of California I can honestly say the beach with a mountain view. Somewhere I can hear the waves and totally change my view by skiing in the mountains.
I’ve been lucky enough to experience an incredible range of landscapes. But my favorite is the golden rolling hills of dry summer grasses occasionally dotted with gnarly old oak trees.
My favorite landscape would require a forest, a stream, perhaps a waterfall with moss covered rocks scattered throughout. Colorful wildflowers along the stream banks…lupines and irises…and a small clearing which would be a perfect invitation for a picnic, a book or dare I say a little stitching! Thank you for the peek into this beautiful book and the opportunity to own a digital copy! Beautiful!
In September last year, we went on a road trip and among many beautiful areas (eye candy) we visited my favorite was Yellowstone. The falls were absolutely gorgeous (I cried when I first saw them) and I would like to recreate those in thread. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise!
I love Mountain View with reflections on a body of water. I live in Washington and see this everyday. Your descriptions have enticed me into maybe buying this book. I want to start right now!
My all time favorite landscape is the beach with water crashing on the cliffs, sparkle jewels of sun on the water, shorebirds running up and back with the shore water, and white, white sand. Puffy clouds are there.
Wide open prairie is my favorite type of land. I think it could be stitched beautifully even though at first glance prairie is flat and uninteresting…small wild flowers, waving grass, small dips and hollows, mouse whiskers at the camera lens… and gorgeous wide and clear blue sky.
This looks enticing enough to try needle painting again, even though I struggle without a pattern and holes in the line to tell me where my needle goes next
Like you I can’t decide which one I would like best. I have the feeling that I would do all of them and display them as a group and see what friends and family pick as their favorite.
Thank you for the chance to win this book. I have not ever done any thread painting and now I am more interested in it than I have ever been. I always thought it would be out of my creative range but the book looks and sounds like one that no matter what level of embroidery you are you would be able to accomplish great art.
My favourite landscape – the prairies. I wish I had this book before I started my four-part series of landscapes. I would have made the landscapes a LOT smaller than the 8″ x 8″ scenes that I did!
As someone living on the west coast, it’s sometimes hard to choose between seaside and mountains, or the lovely rolling hills of farmland. But, if pressed, I would likely choose seaside. I’m working on my first landscape scene now, a beach scene. Learning how to stitch water has been a fascinating exploration.
I have tried landscape embroidery with mixed results.This sounds like a good place to try again.
The landscape I picture is at my grandfather’s house on Broad River near Beaufort, SC. A hammock swings between huge oak trees hung with Spanish moss. In the background are salt flats and sparkling water.
Mary,
The landscape I long to see again are cliffs by the sea. I grew up in New England with Cliff Walk in Newport showing beautiful vistas of the sea, sand, and a cottage or two. The Aquinnah cliffs at Gay Head on Martha’s vineyard are so colorful. The Calvert Cliffs in Maryland near where I am now, have so many fossils to see. Then there are the cliffs of Moher, so dark and moody. to be able to recreate the mood and atmosphere by stitching the picture instead of printing the photograph, would give that much more depth and character , to the viewer, with the texture of the stitches. So, with the instruction available in the book, I will be able recreate these as reminders of the joy I had in each location. Of course, this calls for a road trip, (and plane to Ireland) because I will need new pictures to work from!
Oh this is hard to pin down a favorite landscape! As much as I love the sea side, I think mountain landscapes are my favorite. I grew up near the Smokey Mountains, with their muted greens and blues and lovely low clouds. They are near and dear to my heart. I think I would love to sititch the Smokey Mountains with lots of luscious clouds. Makes me homesick just to think a bout it. (in a good way.)
Hi Mary, I used to be a seaside landscape lover, but now that I live in New Mexico and we see mountains in every direction, I love mountains! By the way, I am an alumna of Kansas State, so the prairies also speak to me. So I guess I love all landscape projects! Love your blog! Diana
I cannot wait to get this book. Landscapes are what I’ve always wanted to do, to create original work.
This book is a Godsend!!!!
What a simply stunning review! Having recently moved to a rural area, where the big sky and the Southern Alps are my daily view this book has inspiration in bucket loads.
Thank you for your superb offer.
Anne Whitehead
My favorite landscape always includes the ocean (even though I live in a land-locked state!)
Oh what a marvelous book this would be! I’m a West Virginia girl and love the hills and mountains!
I don’t have a favorite landscape. I’ve traveled across the U.S., from one coast to the other and everywhere in between. There is beauty in all of it. The beaches, mountains, plains, deserts are so different and I love them all. This is a beautiful book. It would be a pleasure to own and use.
I love the forest scene. I want to embroider a 4 hoop set with the 4 different seasons. Using fabric in combination with embroidery stitches.
Love your blog and the new book woo enjoy a free copy.
Karen
Hi Mary,
What a wonderful embroidery book Richly Stitched Landscape Embroidery sounds from your description. My favourite daydream escape is strolling along the black volcanic sandy at Fitzroy beach, New Plymouth in New Zealand paddling at the edge of the breaking waves. Lots more stitching to look forward to!!
Regards,
Marilyn
What marvelous work! The book looks fabulous!
Forests and Streams-who can resist walking along a stream, listening to the gurgling of the water, watching the shadows that dance across the stream and skipping rocks.
I’m about to visit Yellowstone and I’m honestly excited to take some pictures of cloudy skies above those forests and turn those into embroidery scenes. The different types of gray can be so beautiful, but it’s so hard to even capture that with a camera: it never looks right.
My landscape is a rolling meadow full of wild flowers with blue, blue skies above.
The forest path, the forest path, the forest path. Not exactly like where I live, but it makes the heart happy.
Dear Mary,
In my mind and in my heart I go to Northumberland – often described as God’s Own Country.
It is a vast English county and the topography goes from the golden sands edging the North Sea, westwards to rolling lowlands and then to towering mountains. The view from one of the northern most roads when cresting a hill are simply breath taking – crest a hill, look over a valley to the majesty of a range Scottish mountains – nature in all her grandeur!
In the Autumn, the ferns on the lower hillsides turn to crisp russet as they die back for the winter waiting to unfurl again in the Spring. The slanting sunlight turns them to living flames and a place were magic happens.
I just cannot tell you how beautiful it is throughout the seasons.
If I were to win your prize then I would hope to use my needle to paint the scenes which I enjoy and which mean so much to me.
If you were to come to the UK in the Autumn and I could take you there you could see for yourself. An honour and a pleasure.
Best wishes and more to those who win a copy of such a lovely and inspiring volume.
Sue
I love landscapes of mountains & deserts. This book excites me with the possibilities! I’m already dreaming!
I always dream of mountains but love to stitch prairie scenes!
Choosing a favorite scene is difficult. I grew up in West Virginia. After moving around with my husband’s Army career we’ve settled in Tennessee. I still love watching the valleys while driving up and down all those mountains . I especially enjoy the sight of a rolling green valley below partially obscured by trees. My second favorite are the poppies the bloom in the Franklin Mountains in the middle of El Paso, Texas. I loved the sight of the seemingly barren looking scene bursting into color in the spring a mountain that is right in the middle of the city.
I love the landscape around Dingle, Ireland with sea, green hills, vacationers, mist and on and on!
This is right up my alley!!
What a wonderful book! Each little scene more perfect than the next.
I love the mountains, covered in pine forests. If it overlooks a lake, pure perfection.
Hills and streams! Sand dunes and waves! Trees and lake! It’s the combination of topography and water are what make a landscape appeal.
Simply marvelous, stuck for words, would love to have this book!!
There are so many beautiful landscapes but I do love the big skies and the rugged beauty of the Australian outback, particularly the Kimberly region in the north west. I have a photograph taken there that I want to embroider. The red escarpment and grassland, and blue, blue sky. The book would be a delight.
I am a Colorado girl that Loves the ocean and everything beachy, Sunsets in the mountains and at the beach are my favorite.
Wow! What a fantastic book!! Thank you Mary for introducing Richly Stitched Landscape Embroidery to me. I am very much a realistic embroidery person so this book really speaks to me.
Flowers should look realistic, long and short shading and textured stitches like cast on and bullion stitches. Two of my favorite landscapes are an alpine lake with a field of flowers in bloom, mountain background and the national parks in Utah. The blue sky contrasting with red rocks and green vegetation is beautiful to my eye.
Thank you for all that you do and share.
Kathy
Rocky Mountains all the way!
Just wow, I could get lost in those landscapes. Up on the wall to look at and dream or just bring back amazing memories.
Thankyou for sharing.
I’m like you. I love them all but those with water appeal to me most.
I am a lakes and streams person and especially like that little lake in the foothills. Mind you, I like all of them – what skill and beauty. Thank you for showing us the book, for the first time it looks as though thread painting could actually be possible instead of earning wistful sighs and a mental ‘No, not for me’.
I just returned from a sentimental journey to my Mother’s home town, Galena, Ill. Located in the driftless region of Illinois, Galena is a historical city with the beautiful landscape of the rolling hills of this land the glaciers did not cover. Surrounded by rich farmland and flat prairies, the surprise of verdant rolling hills brings me wonder every time I visit. It would be fun to stitch this landscape.
Thanks for the giveaway, Mary! This does seem like a lovely book.
I’m a desert girl. I love the clear night skies, the beautiful sunrises/sunsets, the flowering cactus. The animals and birds are interesting to me. I also love the dry heat–I’m always cold, so the high temperatures appeal to me!
Carol
My favorite landscape has to be the gently rolling green hills of the Midwest, covered in a tapestry of row crops reaching up to the blue sky. Add some farm buildings dotting the landscape, leaving the feeling that all is well with the world. I’d love to stitch this picture!
I love beach scenes. I’ve created one from a picture I took but I’d love to learn to do what she shows…such talent.
My favorite landscape is a mountain landscape. I would love to be able to stitch Mt. Fuji, a mountain I climbed in 2019 and that I can see from my apartment on clear days. Thank you for this giveaway opportunity! It looks like a fantastic book!
A mountain forest is my favourite landscape, with maybe an alpine lake thrown in to camp beside.
I like it all from stormy seas to snowy mountains. A good escape is to lush riparian woodland in the autumn. Peaceful and colorful.
I enjoy the peace of gurgling mountain brooks where ferns and moss abound.
I really like the step by step diagrams in the book. I love staying in the mountains but I prefer to embroider beach scenes. Her book might help me to embroider mountain scenery better.
I’m definitely a rugged cliffs kind of girl. I love the British TV series with coastlines that have rocky shores and those cliffs you could just fall off into the rocks. Not that I want to fall, but there’s something about the wildness of them that makes me want to walk the edges like a tragic fictional heroine!
So hard to pick. I love the seaside and watching the sea spray from the rocks….every day is different watching the glorious sea…I also feel so calm in green fields and shady trees..wild flowers peeking out attracting the bees and bugs. Nature is so special. Ariel.
A lake in Vermont with rolling hills! Beautiful in the morning with mist burning off!
I love the Atlantic coast, complete with lighthouses and Rocky shores.
My favorite landscape to look at are rivers and rugged cliffs or any type of body of water with cliffs and mountains beside them because something about the wide expanse and the tall sides that one can see is mesmerizing to me that when I can go back that space (or if I can find those views in my photos) that I would love to stitch them.
This book on landscapes , scenes in a small format inspires me to create!
Carol b
I would go for streams and forests or a meadow filled with flowers and pops of color.
Mary I am so torn and hard to decide. We live in hamlet called Myalup. It sits on an small isthmus with the ocean on one side and a lake on the other. In front of us is a National Park so we have Australian bush with lots of flora and fauna. We have it all and I love each section. Can’t decide!! The book looks beautiful.
I love an ocean view with a beautiful sunset.
So beautiful! They all speak to me on some level, but for me a path through a fairy tale forest is like walking through heaven!
My favourite landscapes have water in them, whether a pond, lake or ocean!
I would love to see a good forest landscape, with rich ferns and undergrowth.
Thank you for introducing this book, it looks so tempting. I have such a hard time deciding my favorite scene as well. I imagine a lovely blue lagoon with crystal clear water reflecting a gorgeous sunset, or being at the top of a mountain with a view of the Adirondacks spread out in front of me.
I am obsessed with getting good skies on canvas. I like the gradation of blues with some light pink and grays as the sunsets. I have tried numerous sky stitches.
Hi, Mary, and thanks for the heads-up on this amazing book. If I can ever muster the talent to stitch a favorite landscape, it might be a small island off the coast of Maine. Views to a vast horizon from a high cliff, plus paths through woodlands and fields, seabirds . . . You know, all on a 3-inch hoop. Or maybe just one small perfect wildflower with a jeweled damselfly sitting on it. Thanks again. Kathryn
While I love many different landscapes, I think the one closest to my heart is the one I grew up seeing every day. My childhood home sits in a valley formed millennia ago by glaciers retreating at the end of the ice age in the Finger Lakes area of NY State. Beautiful fields of crops and pastureland dotted with black and white cows, gurgling streams, so many shades of green, sunlight sparking on a lake, and small farmhouses, all nestled between steep, heavily forested hills that rise like walls on either side of the valley. In the fall, the colors of those hillsides are amazing!
Favorite landscape is the deep forest. A cabin in the woods!
I can see something to appreciate in almost any landscape but I think my favorite has to involve trees, water, dappled sunlight, a bit of sky, possibly some blooming plants.
I’m a mountains kinda gal because those in my experience usually also have forests and streams sometimes with waterfalls — but then I also like the shore and shelling… this is a hard question as we had a field next to us at one of the places we lived and we’d wander that too. So, I guess I enjoy all of God’s creation! Add in embroidery and WOW!
Mountains, specifically the Palisades glacier where my family went backpacking when I was a kid.
I love a combination of the seaside and sky scenes. That combination give me peace and remained me my father who used to go to the beach to find a place to find peace and enjoy his free time since he was a child.
Favorite landscape: Ocean with beach.
My favourite landscape is rolling chalk down land in the south east of England where I grew up. Sweeping dry valleys, chalky white paths and distant glimpses of the sea sparkling.
Though I live in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, the Atlantic Coast is my favorite landscape. I just got back from the Outer Banks and have collected so many photographs that I want to stitch. There’s an Embroidery Guild ‘on demand’ class about stitching a painted canvas that I hope to view this weekend.
Stumbling on your website has been such a gift, really and truly. The breadth of your knowledge and the entertaining way you write are remarkable. I start every morning, during breakfast, reading another of your posts and I am inspired. My heartfelt thanks to you for sharing so much. PS. I will buy the book; please don’t include me in the drawing. I hope someone else who, perhaps, can’t afford it will win.
Every each of them looks beautiful! Always wondering how it is done. Because in the middle of the process you must think-where is this project going!! Greetings
I love mountains! I don’t live near any proper ones, so seeing REAL mountains is always wonderful.
Wooded Trail
My favorite landscape is the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where my family and I have been hiking and vacationing for over 40 years.
My favourite scene would be a wild seascape… preferably with cliffs, huge waves and a stormy sky.
Nothing beats the ocean on a stormy day!!
Blessings
Maxine
I love to embroider anything beachy as well as birds common to beach areas and saltwater fish. I occasionally focus on other topics, but I always return to the sandy beaches and saltwater!
My favorite landscape scene is right here where I live. The Appalachian mountains are lovely all year round – softer and more rounded than those out west due to their advanced age. Hiking is always a treat in our mountains, and we never know what we’ll find – an old abandoned cabin, some wild ponies, mountain laurel and wildflowers.
My childhood memory of our farm in rural Ohio is what I would love to create. I’d like a set of four, showing our fields in each season. From the spring colors planting of wheat and corn to the fall colors of harvest. Our barn was built in 1845, and I’d include it.
That’s the landscape I’d paint in thread. In a fabric book.
My favourite view is one including Mountains and water. Hard and the fluid. Contrasts.
I love the mountains and the vast open fields and big sky of the Great Plains.
I don’t really have a favorite landscape as far as mountains vs. plains vs. lakes. I do prefer landscapes where I can look out over a distance vs landscapes in a forest or jungle. As far as landscapes in the book that you’ve shown – the seashore top center on the cover catches my eye.
I was through Kansas once – not flat at all. Many people think Iowa is flat too. People who have ridden RAGBRAI can attest it is definitely not.
All of those landscapes you mention are amazing and we’ve seen them all in our drives across the country from Florida to Wyoming. If I had to choose, it would be the rugged mountains of the west – in particular, the Big Horn mountains of north central Wyoming. They rise up from the rolling grasslands to heights of 11,000 feet – not like the 14ers of Colorado, but spectacular in their own fashion. And the canyons that weave between the peaks are amazing to drive through!
I love the mountains with the breezes and immaculate long range views and wonderful
sunsets and sun rises. The fresh air makes you feel renewed and revitilized. The lakes feel refreshing also. The best is the lake view with a mountain behind it to make you feel like a new person. You always do a great job of making me feel ready to tackle a new project. Thank you for all your work.
I love rural scenes of fields and pastures, stone walls and beaver ponds. Old New England.
My favorite landscape definitely includes “rocks” – Grand Teton with Jenny Lake in the foreground, or the amazing formations as you travel west from Colorado Springs toward Green Mountain Falls!
Such a beautiful book! I love thread painting but never dared try it. I’m from Canada and I love large landscapes with montains and forests, but also the cold tundra. But I also love a countryside, hilly landscape with fields and small barns and houses. Thank you for the suggestion!
What a wonderful book! I do landscape photography and would love to try stitching some of my shots! My favorite landscapes are moody & dramatic – fog, roiling clouds, low golden sun cutting across the scene, waves crashing on the rocks. Less about the location (though Scottish landscapes hold a special place in my heart) and more about the feel of it. Mother Nature is a marvel in all her forms
Very inspiring! I would conjure up a beach scene with tropical fruit and spice trees framing a warmly lit ocean tipped with light frill waves.
My favorite scene is the one with the mountain in the background and a huge meadow in the foreground. I am a mountain person. I grew up in a little valley out west near the Rockies and mountains always take my breath away. In this scene I am captivated by the wildflower filled meadow. This takes me back to my childhood. The colors show up so clear and vibrant I had to spend some time imagining myself walking through the wildflowers.
I am in love with what Mother Nature provides the stitcher as a possible template- it is simply not possible for me to state which bit is my favourite – I love them all whether they are seascapes, pr scenes with mountains, trees, plants, flowers, fish or fowl …..I am inspired about what my senses experience and am known in watching a slide show tracing a hike into the wilderness to ask for specific pictures be sent so I can put them in stitch 🙂 BTW – listened to your talk with EGA and love getting your message into my email in box.
Deborah
I’m much more a mountain-forest-stream-lake person but I do enjoy looking at the ocean, especially in the tropics. So I guess every landscape is my favorite!
My favorite landscape is my native East Tennessee mountains – soft, rolling, ancient and wild. Every season has its beauty with layers of color and texture. A cabin tucked into a remote “holler” is the best place to be!
What an amazing book! I think the wooded hillside would be my first choice to stitch. Or no, maybe the seaside. – I love the beach, too! Okay, I think, like Mary, I’ll have to stitch them all! Thank you for this glowing review, it’s a book I definitely need!
My most favorite place in the world with my toes in the sand and surf at Kalaloch in the Olympic National Forest on the Washington coast. I go every year for a week and walk barefoot on the beach as much as possible. Even in the rain.
This book is beautiful.
I think my favorite landscape is the sky, mountains and lakes of Bariloche, Argentina. I went there as a child and was recently able to return after 60 years, and my memory hadn’t failed about it’s beauty.
Jane
I love waterscapes, and both the rocky cliff one and the grassy shore are stunning I’m usually a counted stitcher rather than surface but with this book I could maybe learn to enjoy it
I love all kinds of landscapes. Each fills my heart with rich emotion–peaceful ocean views, exciting mountain waterfalls, breathless wide open spaces, cozy forest streams. I think this book will be just the instruction I need to be able to embroider some beautiful places.
As a water-colourist and stitcher, the landscapes in the book really spoke to me! The composition of each picture is beautiful and, yes, one can imagine oneself in each of them. Having traveled and lived in many parts of his world, I found that even in the most barren places beauty exists. Nature has a way to show us much variety, if only we really look. In my ideal place I find myself on a green meadow surrounded by a plethora of wild flowers and a brook babbling down below with a dense pine woods framing the surroundings. I hear the birds chirping and get an occasional glimpse of a rabbit or deer or, if I am really lucky, a fox or a hedgehog. The sky above is a deep blue and there is a constant hum of insects all around. Aaah! Tranquility, Peace and Bliss.
My fav landscape is Culver Lake, NJ. It’s a large beaver-dam-made lake along the mountains near the Appalachian Trail in northern NJ. It is SO beautiful. I long to be there, paint it, stitch it, walk around it, to never leave it. Everything about it is heavenly. I’m sure our Good Lord has plans to make Culver Lake in the New Heavens and the New Earth!!
And as for my question/comment … This book looks beautiful! As we move into the dreaded “age of AI”, I can’t help but wonder whether any portion of her books: text, layout, art, etc were AI generated at any level. Do you know?
No, it’s not.
Love the to see a landscape of flowers blooming with different degrees of color.
I love all landscapes, but probably my favourite is the rolling foothills of southern Alberta, when there is a patchwork of farming fields (especially when the canola is in bloom), with the Rocky Mountains in the distance
I love nothing more than snow capped mountains and a snow filled lake as my landscape of choice.
Enjoyed your book review and many comments on fantastic and beautiful embroidery.
The scene of the vineyard valley was my favourite. Reminds me of my family growing grapes in the Niagara region for almost a 100 years on the slopes and in the valleys of the moraines of the Niagara region.
Love it.
I love a lakeshore in a mountain forest.
My favourite landscape was set as a 15-year old when I first visited the Lake District. I’ve never fallen out of love with the breath-taking combination of towering mountains and lakes nestled at the bottom of them, even though I now live 300 miles away.
Oh this book sounds like so much fun. I would like to pursue this type of embroidery!
Thanks for letting me put my name in the hat!
I love all landscape scenes, so I don’t really have a favorite. Fields of flowers, country cottage, farm fields, mountains, oceans, forests.. Love them all. But the place I go to in my daydreams is a little brook running through a wooded area that I would often go to when I was a kid, just to think and pray. The sunlight would filter through the trees, hitting the water to make it sparkle like a thousand tiny diamonds.
My favorite landscape features ocean waves on a sandy beach. I grew up near the shore and crave the salty scent whenever I have been away for long. These designs look wonderful.
I love beautiful richly green trees with some flowers on them, like cherry blossoms or magnolia trees. I also love tall evergreen trees that have a long history standing in the forest before we even were on these lands. It combines my love for history and ancient civilizations with the beauty of our environment.
Thank you so much for bringing this fabulous book to us. I always love reading your newsletter articles and have expanded my knowledge 100-fold.
I love a sunrise or sunset scene anywhere, but probably my favorite landscape is the sea. Thanks for the chance to win Mary!
I live by the seashore and am in the process of stitching a scene of the shore framed by our nearby mountains. I need to expand my vocabulary of stitches to render the scene beautifully. The scene also happens to be our EGA chapter logo. What timing!
The forest scene, it looks so realistic and so tantalizingly challenging!
winning would be a dream come true – what a book!
Hi Mary, Rénia here from the NL’s Rotterdam.
I live on the Noordereiland (island) here in the New Meuse river between two bridges, the Willemsbridge and the Erasmusbridge.
I like/love cities when a river runs through it and how usually the north and south parts would develop because of the river and how the river would give and bring activiteis and keep having an influence on the city.
As it did for how Rotterdam originated because of the river Rotte.
Anyway, I also like the combo of mountains near the sea and to sail along side the coastline is what I try to do when I’m near a coastline like Spain, Portugal or Italy.
To see the landscape and villages from that point of view while sailing past is so wonderful.
Also from high buildings from the rooftop like we can here during the rooftop days event is great to see your city from a different perspective.
https://rotterdamsedakendagen.nl/daken/
Keeping fingers crossed and also thank you for your weekly newsletter with all the lovely tips and book reviews.
Rénia
Water, and large amounts of it. I grew up about 3 miles from the Hudson River which would have been the Atlantic Ocean if that pesky island of Manhattan hadn’t gotten in the way. I love to swim and spent many summer days in the ocean. When I got married, I moved to Ohio where there is no ocean but a huge lake – about three blocks north of me. It’s the smallest of the 5 Great Lakes, but it will do!
Wow this book looks incredible! I am sort of an Omni-natural landscape lover/all natural world is good etc but I was in Kauai a few years ago and would love to be able to embroider the Napali coast! I suspect with this book I could. Have a great day.
I live at the seaside but I prefer a mountain landscape. The colors of the mountain flora and fauna speak to me.
I’m a tree and mountain girl. The scenes are gorgeous for being only three inches. Amazing talent and the book would be a lovely resource.
Favorite landscape? Well, that varies. I live fairly close to the beach, and I very much enjoy watching the water as it curves and splashes onto the sand. I love waterfalls and canals, green forests, old buildings, unique buildings, brightly colored flowers – pretty much anything that is unique and colorful!
I love misty, rolling mountains! The blue haze, the fade as they get further away. It reminds me of visiting the Smokey Mountains when I was a kid.
My favorite place to visit is Yosemite. It is just awesome and has lots of different landscapes. Of course, there is the falls, but there is also the big meadow, the river, the mountains, it just has lots of landscapes to visit. There’s nothing better than to just relax, smell the outdoors and stitch in the wilderness. It’s my happy place!
I’ve always wanted to stitch a landscape. I think I have to have this book.
This book sounds wonderful. I really would like to know how stitch painting is done and the book seems to introduce it a “do-able” manner for a beginner. I’m a beach girl-even though I go to SC and GA beaches most often, nothing beats the gorgeous sunsets at Mexico Beach Florida-I can just imagine the view in a stitched hoop frame.
Inspiring landscapes, just beautiful
Seaside views for sure and marshes (which I find harder to do) but for a get-away it is always a stream in a forest – different seasons but spring and fall are the best.
What an amazing book, Mary thank you for sharing so much detail from the book!!
My vote is for the seaside picture, all my favourite holidays have been by the beach
A walk in my local park – beside the river, with overarching trees and over a small wooden bridge under which a tributary runs. Following this through the seasons is my daily delight.
I love the seaside view! But I like them all.
I enjoy trees. Stitching them in forest settings is always a peaceful experience for me. Thanks for the giveaway Mary!
Definitely a mountains girl. Specifically the Smokies, with hazy peaks in the distance and rich tree-covered foregrounds.
I was fortunate to take a class with Cassandra, and love the small landscape I created with her thoughtful guidance. Excited to see her book.
Please suggest other places to get this book, and anything, aside from Amazon. Our communities have wonderful Indie bookshops who will order books for us.
Thank you.
Hi, Ali, yes… the Amazon problem! Most people, I’m afraid, don’t have access to local bookstores. And I don’t have the time or ability to chase down every independent store that carries a specific book. Keep in mind that it is the publisher (and therefore also the author) who chooses to stock the book on Amazon. That’s part of their business model. Authors know this when they go into partnership with a publisher. It’s the exchange they make for reaching a much wider audience.
Living in Minnesota, I empathize the most with forests and streams, but one of my bathrooms has seashells. So I also love the seashore.
landscapes of water… fluid and colourfull…. and different every day
The book looks lovely! Thread painting is something I’ve wanted to try. I am a mountain person, grew up in the mountains near Lake Tahoe.
Colorado girl, born and raised. I love my mountains, but seascapes draw my heart strings like nothing else. I love the clouds and colors, especially sunrise and sunsets.
I love florest , all the landscapes of the book are fabulous, but my favorit is the sea, i love the ocean and water,sunset etc… I am a recent stitcher and this book is a dream …i could learne so much, thank you for shou me….
The savannas of east Africa, with fever trees and mountains on the horizon, where I grew up!
I love landscapes, but the ones that make my heart go pitter pat are any that contain trees. They’re my go to motif.
My favorite landscape is a mountain reflected in a lake in the foreground with wild flowers. Pacific Northwest girl here. The book looks wonderful.
What’s your favorite landscape? I tend to lean towards open vista and mountains I was raised in the mountains of Eastern Oregon and the high desert areas. The spring wild flower are amazing and the desert cactus with cliff faces are intriguing.
What type of ideal scenic setting do you escape to in your favorite daydreams, that would want to stitch? I day dream about big pines with deer and elk walking through. We do a great deal of camping and I embroidery what I see and hear.
What a beautiful book! And I love that the project are not too big, makes them a lot less daunting 😉
My favourite landscape is woodland, with lots of large gnarly trees and copious amounts of moss and lichen.
Thank you for the opportunity to enter this giveaway 🙂
What a great review on a superb book
I love mountains, seashores, prairies, woodlands. I think as an embroiderer, prairies and woodlands offer wonderful opportunities to create wonderful, colorful, textured pieces.
I enjoy Seaside designs. Sunset or story seas interest me!
I love scenes of the New Zealand bush
My favourite landscape is anything that shows the beach and the ocean. I dream of going to sleep with the sound of lapping water, a musical lullaby.
While I love a good mountain scene my heart belongs to the beach
The loveliest stitching I have seen in ages!
The landscape of the Appalachians is my favorite
What a lovely book, full of help and inspiration throughout. I think I am drawn to beach with it’s isolation and sense of noise, but then again the serenity of the river scene, and the peaceful walk amongst the trees. Any or all. Thank you for reviewing it, I can safely say it is on my wish list.
my favorite landscape is mountains, especially the Blue Ridge mountains of Western NC
My favorite landscapes are of gardens. They always look so lush and beautiful and I wish my garden looked that way. My escape would be a beautiful garden.
Roberta
I especially love your seascape. We live in coastal Georgia and we’re out on the boat yesterday. I saw live areas of your images and your color choices are so realistic. I would love to learn to do that.
My favorite landscape has lots of trees, beautiful rolling hills and a river.
Living in Idaho, there are lots of stunning landscapes all around me, but I’ve always wanted to travel to the sea, specifically and see the white cliffs of Dover! Every landscape has its charm, even if it’s the quiet, rustic, hobbity feel of rolling plains. I can’t pick a favorite!
I love open skies and rolling hills. This is a beautiful book!
I live in the mountains of Virginia, and there is no place I would rather be (or stitch).
Gosh, these are exquisite! I have to say that I’m a forest person. Walking among trees is the most serene space that I can imagine.
Thanks, Mary C. 🙂
I’m definitely a seaside and mountains person — ideally both together! Living in southeastern Brazil, I’m surrounded by the Serra da Mantiqueira mountains, but the Atlantic coast is never far. The combination of green hills meeting the ocean is the kind of scene I’d love to stitch. The variety of textures alone — rocks, water, forest — makes it a perfect challenge for thread painting.
Oooh. Mountains and forests for me… deep shadowy forests. And moonlight across mountains and lakes. Though Very Small Me also had a dream of embroidering an underwater… landscape? seafloorscape? reefscape? Not sure what to call that, and I’ve never actually been in that kind of place myself, but it would also be lovely…
I am a mountain and a seaside person. I grew up in Colorado, loving and hiking the Rockies, but I moved to Maine because I love the ocean and seafood (can’t get it really fresh in Denver). I guess that I do not know which to really pick — I love them both!
My favorite landscape, the one I escape to in my daydreams, is the seaside on a slightly cloudy day – reminiscent of beaches of the Pacific Northwest.
I like the flower garden or homestead landscapes.
Hills or mountains with mixed forest and open areas. Ideally there’s a lake or river.
I’m a forest guy. Redwoods, aspens, Douglas firs, live oak… I like being around trees. An orchard of fruit trees works too.
Thank you for your enticing review of Cassandra Dias’s lovely book. And thank you both for the chance to win a digital copy of Landscape Embroidery. I’ve often pondered how to stitch the roadsides in spring with the bright green grass and weeds dotted with yellow, purple, and white flowers. Studying this book might help me finally achieve that!
Today, I would say my favorite landscape would have green, rolling hills covered with wildflowers and with mountains in the distance. Tomorrow could be a different story!
Mary, I’m sorry you’ve had to have surgery. I do hope your hand heals well and quickly!
I love autumn mountain landscapes of New England..also seascapes along the east coast..
I can’t believe the realistic look of these stitcheries. Not sure I would be up to stitching these but would love to try. Thanks for the wonderfully generous contest.
I’m a beach girl but since my hubby is a mountain guy I’ve learned there is a beauty there as well!
Becky
I would stitch mountain scenes.
I love all the outdoors. I don’t think I could pick any one as my favorite landscape type. Of the designs that you show from the book, I really like them all, but I think I’m drawn a bit more to the woodland path.
But what I’m most drawn to is the possibility of learning to stitch my own designs from my own pictures. It sounds like that’s what she is ultimately teaching in the book. (But please let me know if I read more into what you said than you intended.) I’m neither a great photographer nor a good draw-er, but nonetheless I think it would be delightful to take the part of a photograph or drawing that’s not too bad and make it into it’s own image (not having to share with the not-so-great parts). I also think my son would be more interested in having something like that when I’m gone, than a typical sampler or a design that many others have also stitched–especially if it’s tied to family history.