If your last experience of embroidery involved patterns of Sunbonnet Sue or dancing vegetables, it's time to give decorative stitchery another try. The DIY movement has embraced the needle arts, and Aunt Martha's iron-on transfers are a thing of the past. Leanne Prain, author of Yarn Bombing, offers a wonderful introduction to the subversive new world of embroidery in Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery.
Hoopla combines a basic introduction to embroidery techniques with edgy patterns and heavily illustrated interviews with unconventional needle artists. The how-to section is well done; the illustrations of basic stitches are clear and the discussion of tools and materials is so informative that even an experienced needleworker may learn a thing or two. (Don't lick the end of your thread before you stick it in your needle--over time the eye will rust.) Prain's philosophy of needlework--"stitch like you mean it!"--is an inspired call to slow down, discover the power of silence and remember how to play.
For the most part, the patterns share an urban, DIY sensibility: knuckle tattoos on ladylike white gloves, needlepoint breasts set in vintage doilies, hankies decorated with microbes. The instructions are clear enough for a beginner to follow, and experienced embroiderers will find the interviews more exciting than the projects. Prain talks to conceptual artists, guerilla stitchers, mixed media artists, a self-proclaimed "manbroiderer" and a member of the Royal School of Needlework about how and why they stitch. Both the answers and the needlework are, well, unexpected. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins