the one with Embroidery 101

I recently began embroidering. I love it. I love how many cute little projects you can make with it. Currently, I am no good at the craft. I am teaching myself stitch by stitch. Its going well and Im having a lot of fun planning projects I am going to make once I am confident with my embroidery skills.
I have been using this book:

I love, love, love the pictures that they show and the variety of stitches; it’s the largest amount of compiled stitches than any other book I have looked through. The only problem is that the book does not explain how to complete the stitches well at all.

I also use this book at times:

This book has a lot less stitches, but the ones that they do show are pictured very well and are explained decently well.

I think I just have a hard time reading instructions and would much rather see it done in front of me. So the way I have been learning stitches:
I go through the books I have
find stitches I want to learn
read the information provided
get online and either look up a video (which there are few of) or find a website that explains the stitch more thoroughly.

I have been practicing on felt. This seemed like a great idea at first, its cheap and who cares if you decide to throw it away afterwards, right? BUT, its actually really difficult to embroider on felt. Felt makes large holes easily and the fibers catch all the time leaving your stitch surrounded by a fuzzy felt mess!
Here are my felt practice sheets:

I would recommend that you go to the thrift store or dollar store and find really cheap material, old cloth napkins, table cloths, scrap fabric. DON’T start out with tee shirts, tee shirts stretch when they are in the hoop and then when you take the material off the hoop, your creation will be warped.

Alrighty, so thats my embroidery adventure thus far!

Fact:
In the mid 1800s, embroidered samplers were a sign of affluence in America. Even the poorly made samplers were hung with pride in a very prominent spot in the home.