Cover Image Property of PUBLISHER
This image was scanned courtesy of Carolyn Kotlas' private collection

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Introduction
  • BOOK 1:
    • Embroidery Stitches
    • Appliqué
    • Assisi
    • Beadwork
    • Blackwork
    • Braiding
    • Broderie Anglaise
    • Chenille Embroidery
    • Cross-stitch
    • Drawn Thread Work
    • Ecclesiastical Embroidery
    • Faggoting and Insertion Stitches
    • Hardanger Embroidery
    • Hedebo Embroidery
    • Huckaback Darning
    • Hungarian Point or Florentine Stitch
    • Initials
    • Ivory Embroidery
    • Laid Work
    • Mountmellick Work
    • Needleweaving
    • Needlework Tapestry
    • Net Embroidery
    • Old English Crewel Embroidery
    • Patchwork
    • Punch Work
    • Quilting
    • Reticella or Cut Linen Work
    • Ribbon Work
    • Richelieu Embroidery
    • Shirring or Italian Smocking
    • Silk Shading
    • Smocking
    • Tambour Work
    • Venetian Embroidery
    • White Work
  • BOOK 2:
    • Plain Sewing and Dressmaking
    • Machining
    • Mending
  • BOOK 3:
    • Knitting
  • BOOK 4:
    • Crochet
    • Hairpin Work
    • Tatting
  • BOOK 5:
    • Soft Furnishings
    • Rugmaking
  • BOOK 6:
    • Lacemaking
    • Index

Title: Encyclopedia of Needlework
Author/Designer: Hearthside Press
Format/Publication Date: HC:1963
Publisher: Hearthside Press, Inc., NY
Page Count: 876
Book Dimensions(ht. x w.): 9 1/4" x 5 3/4"
ISBN: None

SUMMARY- Beginner's lesson has illustrations for the slower traditional method of tatting(the one I learned from books when I was a teenager). It covers the basic ring, tatting with two threads, and Josephine knots - the bare minimum they could get away with. Samples are photos of unblocked work, so they don't show at their best(a pet peeve of mine). You get a few traditional patterns in written instructions that weren't standard(completely written out so they didn't have to provide a legend of terms). I was pretty underwhelmed with this book, despite the compendium thickness and number of subjects covered. It's all black-and-white photos and illustration. The copy I got to see has browned, so it feels dingy overall, and I got the feeling from the tatting chapter that the writer just wanted to get done with it - I wasn't feeling the love...