Thank you to all the crocheters and people who love them who have bought my book, Crochet Bouquet! As of June 30, 2017, over 50,000 copies of Crochet Bouquet have been sold since its publication in 2008. I am honored by your support.
The book started with a trip to the mall in 2006. While my husband shopped at the big and tall store, our daughters and I sashayed in and out of clothing shops. Oh yes, you can sashay with a stroller. We studied the fashions and gave our considered opinions to each other.
Quite a few clothes had crochet flower appliques. I thought that was so cool! It was inspiring to consider that any crochet could customize clothing and accessories by adding a crocheted flower. But after seeing slight variations of one basic flower, over and over, I became sadly disillusioned. “I could do better than that,” I told myself.
Back at home, I searched the internet for crocheted flower patterns. At the time, there were some pattern leaflets, a couple of German and French crochet flower books, and quite a few single patterns. There was no book of crocheted floral motifs. This was before Nicky Epstein’s crochet flower book was published.
The absence of a flower motif book for crocheters was so glaring, even I couldn’t miss it!
I designed and crocheted some flowers and leaves, photographed them, and sent them out to a publisher. The proposal was rejected, so off it went to the next publisher on the list. That was Lark Crafts, and they accepted the proposal in the summer of 2006.
Designing, crocheting, and writing instructions for the flowers, leaves, and projects for Crochet Bouquet took about ten months.
Halfway through the process, we had some drama. Sterling Publishing, the parent company of Lark Crafts, was publishing another crochet flower book with one of their other subsidiaries. It was Nicky Epstein’s book that I mentioned earlier. She was (and is) such a well-known and loved designer, it seemed silly to publish a competing book by a mostly unknown author.
Luckily, we were able to convince those in charge that the books would have very little overlap. In fact, we thought the books would be different enough that customers might buy both of them. Thank goodness we were allowed to continue with the project.
In May 2008, Crochet Bouquet hit the bookstores, and has been selling steadily ever since. The book has also been translated into Spanish and Russian. Very exciting!
Thank you very much for your part in the success of Crochet Bouquet!
