The Thirtieth Annual Hardanger Embroidery Design Contest brought entries from all over the world. The eleven winning designs are featured in this new book, "Award Winning Designs in Hardanger Embroidery 2008". The winners this year are from the United States, Australia, Canada, Monaco, New Zealand and Japan and include eight runners, two square pieces and a stunning Christening gown. Each design is accompanied by an autobiography and photo of the designer, a close-up photo, and detailed charts with written instructions. This book does not include actual stitch instructions and is not a beginner's book of Hardanger embroidery designs. The designs in this book are for the intermediate to advanced Hardanger stitchers. If you need help with unfamiliar stitches, we recommend you purchase a separate book covering many of the advanced stitches for this needleart. One of the reasons we can share so many stunning designs is that we do not use space on pages for stitch instructions.