Since the pandemic forced everyone to spend more time at home, I have pulled out my embroidery supplies and have been stitching away. While initially, the layout of the How to Embroider Almost Every Animal: A Sourcebook of 400+ Motifs + Beginner Stitch Tutorials book appeared slightly confusing. After having spent some time reading it, I now think this book is great!

This book is exactly what it says it is. It is a sourcebook, with hundreds of animal motifs to use or to riff off of. While admittedly not all of the animals are exactly my cup of tea, I appreciate the breadth and variety. The book includes zoo animals, farm animals, astrological animals, mythological animals, birds, fish, as well as alphabets featuring various animals.

Being that it is a sourcebook, it is a jumping-off point for executing your own stitching project. Stitching being the art that it is, no two people will re-create anything in the same way but this book can serve as a guide for using animals in whatever way your project needs. Sometimes the photography is lacking (white stitching on a white background) but I feel that the ideas still make it through. For the person looking for embroidery inspiration, I think this is a great book!

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher, and the author in exchange for an honest review.

Received a copy of this book for a honest review from NetGalley.com

I have spent sometime teaching myself to embroider. I love it and feel complete relaxation. I was super excited to receive a copy of this book but was a little disappointed to find that the designs were not very fluid and you could see the differences between each set of patterns.

My favourite patterns were - in the forest and pretty parakeets.

My least favourite - the dogs and cats. This made me disappointed because they were too much like caricatures.

You could tell different artists completed these designs.

This book has tons of animal embroidery ideas in it, which will look lovely on so many projects! I think that it will be well-liked by older students who are interested in crafts, too.

With nearly half of a thousand animals, clear instructions, and helpful tips this How To book will be just what an embroiderer needs!

An interesting book full of different birds and animals to embroider. I do more quilting, so was hoping for more additions to add to that. Not sure how these would work, as they are small. May just be me, but several animals seemed have really big butts too. I was also a little confused with the start or prep of the fabric. Would recommend though, as a lot of variety is shown here.

This is a nice simple guidebook to all kinds of animals to embroider. Each type has a page or three filled with that type of animal (zoo, dogs, etc.). First there is a page of color depictions of the finished animals and later on there is a page of B&W sketches of the animals with little guidelines next to each about what stitches to use and such, and then there is a page of just the sketches so you can trace or photocopy it. Each one is true to size but they are meant to be small, about an inch to two on average, sometimes smaller. At the end there are several pages of examples of projects using the animals in all sorts of ways like hats, potholders and shirts.

Some of the assortments are zoo animals, zoological signs, animals with letters, dogs, cats and birds. There are more birds than any other group, one assortment just for parakeet types. They are average in cuteness and realism, not overly twee or authentic. I wouldn't say almost every animal is depicted by a long shot (perhaps they are being literal and only mean mammals and a few others?) but it's a nice assortment.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

not the best guide. would be good I'm guessing for an experienced pattern user but not beginner friendly at all.
Cute animals!!

I like the format and the variety of animals. I'm not such a big fan of the style, they're kind of thin and anxious looking rather than either totally cute or realistic. I wish they were a tiny bit more appealing, that would make it just what I'm looking for to add to the library collection.

Filled with simple patterns perfect for customizing and a variety of projects, How to Embroider Almost Every Animal has a multitude of adorable and fun little patterns. Each stich is explained in a way that makes this perfect for a beginner or someone who is returning to their craft after awhile and needs a little refresher. I can already see several pages that would be really fun to make as gifts, and others that will be good to try simply for my own enjoyment. Thank you to Netgalley and Quarto for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

A plentiful selection of embroidery designs for animals and birds, including several sets of alphabets. The book has a very clear section on getting started and I particularly liked the way the different stitches were explained.
The designs were grouped in sections, including one on mythical beasts. The presentation of the designs was very cluttered. I would have liked to have seen them better spaced out. The schematic diagram for each design was poor. There was no helpful step by step guide for beginners and no close up photos.
The project section merely consisted of a few photos rather than offering a structured guide to using and adapting the patterns.
Overall, it is an interesting book with many fun ideas which I'm sure will appeal to many embroiderers.

So many beautiful, embroidered animals, cute. Great visual pictures, great step by step instructions, overall, I thought this was really easy to follow. I had an advance copy of the kindle version, but for me I would prefer a book version if I were to use it.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Some great designs & plenty of variety to choose from.
However this is a little cluttered & slightly overwhelming.
I'm looking forward to giving some of these a go & getting a better feel for it.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was around 3.5 stars for me.

There's a lot of different animals in this book, but I didn't love all of the patterns. There's also a lot of focus on birds which is nice but means other animals are left out. I like that the book is a helpful guide for learning to embroider! There's information on how to get started and pictures of what each stitch should look like. The pattern shows the completed embroidery, the pattern, and which stitches to use for the pattern. All of the how-to information is at the beginning of the book so you may have to do some flipping back and forth to get everything you need.

Overall it's a helpful starter guide!

This was a fun book that inspires a lot of creativity. I really enjoyed the patterns and the visuals on how the amount of thread you use changes the stitch. Very informative and cute