I received a copy of The Hand Embroidered Haven by Megan Frock to review, and I fell in love. One of the first things I look at in any craft book is the tutorial section. I want to see how they’ve illustrated how to do stitches or any other special skills necessary. To me, this is one of the most important parts of a craft book, great patterns and designs mean nothing if you can’t teach the reader how to do them. Megan Frock’s basic stitches and techniques section is spot on, it is illustrated really well and is very clear and concise.

The book covers hand embroidery, twilling, and appliqué. I had no idea what twilling was before I read this book, but I love the effect, it has such beautiful texture. I really look forward to trying it out.

The embroidery patterns are amazing and really varied. There are sections for the living rooms and kitchen, adult bedrooms, nurseries, and older kid bedrooms. Despite the wide range of project target ages, everything feels very connected.

The baby projects feel just as modern and sophisticated as the ones for adults. You’ll find projects for everything from kitchen towels to baby mobiles to robes. There’s also some really gorgeous quilt patterns in the book which have a wonderful texture to them. Megan also has an excellent eye for color, and I love just looking at her different color combinations, they are fantastic.

Another thing I look for in a craft book is if it can be used for inspiration and to spark ideas, or if there isn’t much beyond what is actually printed on the pages. The Hand Embroidered Haven is definitely a book that you can flip through and be inspired to take one of Megan’s projects and make it your own. There are an amazing variety of sewing projects combined with all of the different embroidery patterns, you can create so many different things using the components from this book.

The Hand Embroidered Haven is published by KP Books and available on Amazon

The Amazon link in this review is an affiliate link.