The weather in September is always perfect so I think it’s a good time to return to the Brooklyn Bridge Park. We’ll meet on the “great lawn” so to speak. That’s behind the kids playground and North of the big steps. You should bring a blanket and your latest project.

When: Sunday, September 12th at 3:00pm
Where: “Great Lawn” of the new Pier 1 @ Brooklyn Bridge Park
Getting There: The nearest subway stations are the High Street A/C and Clark Street 2/3. But its not too far of a walk from the York Street F. View on a map.

Note: The park does not allow lawn chairs or dogs on the lawn.

Just in time to wear before summer ends, I finished my Dia de los Muertos skirt. The pattern is an arrangement of pattern pieces from the book Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart.

The skirt is made up of four panels, the design goes the whole way around the edge. This is the first thing I’ve made for myself since I started embroidering and it was almost like four projects in one.

I used DMC thread, here are the colors…

• #160 (light purple)
• #915 (deep pink)
• #728 (yellow)
• #470 (green)
• #3834 (purple)
• #3809 (teal)

For the flower stem I was attempting to do a feather stitch, but I didn’t bother to read about it before starting. So I ended up with a kind of stemmed feather stitch which I actually quite like.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Group Stitch on Sunday. I had a great time. Our next event will be Sunday, September 12th. Stay tuned for details.

Lately I feel my interests pulling in a million directions. The more I stitch, the more I realize I need to learn. Should I take a class in Sashiko, Crewel, or ribbon embroidery? Should I learn blackwork or redwork? Or should I expand my stitch vocabulary before learning a new type of embroidery? Should I learn to draw so I can make my own patterns? Should I learn how to use a sewing machine so I can make my own materials on which to stitch? Will I be a novice until I finally stop knotting my thread on the backside? Do I want to be an artist or a crafter?

I don’t have any answers, but I suppose I’ll just take it one day at a time.

So, along the lines of learning new things. I thought I’d share something cool I learned about this week. I thought I knew about all the ways there were for transferring embroidery patterns to fabric, but this week I learned about stamping. Stamped fabrics come pre-transferred with the embroidery pattern to stitch. It seems they quite often come in kits that include thread and stitch suggestions. I learned about stamped embroidery from the comments in this interesting post at Needle ‘n Thread. (If you don’t read Needle ‘n Thread, you should. Mary Corbet is such an inspiration in terms of her range of knowledge and skill. She’s probably a major reason I feel inspired to expand my knowledge.) In reading the comments to this post I found out about a couple of places online to order stamped embroidery: Herrschner’s and Plaid Online. And a search for “stamped embroidery” at Amazon reveals hundreds of results.

I’ll be sure to let you know if I try out one of these kits how it goes. In the meantime I’m almost done with my current project, a Dia de los Muertos linen skirt.

And don’t forget the next group stitch is a week away. I hope you can make it. Visit the Events page for info.

Saturday I made it up to The City Quilter in Chelsea. I’d heard lots of good things about this store even though their primary focus is obviously quilting. I wasn’t disappointed. They had a good selection of Aunt Martha’s iron on embroidery patterns ($1.75), Sublime Stitching iron on embroidery patterns ($5.75), Presencia floss ($1.10), lots of transfer pens and paper, needles, hoops, and embroidery books including specialty topics like African embroidery and red work. They also had a large selection of Sashiko patterns and floss. All of the staff was very nice and helpful.

The City Quilter also offers an incredible selection of classes. This Fall they are offering classes in Sashiko, Intermediate Sashiko, Wool Embroidery, Silk Ribbon Embroidery, and Simple Embroidered Gifts as well as a huge selection of machine sewing and quilting classes. I hope to take a class this fall, I just have to decide which one.

In an effort to entice some new faces to join us this month, the August Group Stitch will be held in Park Slope. The location will be The Gate at 321 5th Avenue at 3rd Street. (If it turns out The Gate is too crowded that day to get a table for all of us, check across the street at the JJ Byrne Park.)

As always, all skill levels are welcome. All you need to bring is yourself and your latest project.

When: Sunday, August 29th 3pm to 6pm
Where: The Gate – 321 5th Avenue @ 3rd Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn

My husband and I picked up this wooden tree in Puebla, Mexico. We both loved the colors, the simplicity and the puzzle-like fit of the pieces. When we got home it was displayed on our bookshelf for a few weeks before it inevitably fell over and onto the floor. Because it is made of very lightweight wood the pieces cracked and broke apart, ruining the puzzle-like fit. Since the tree can no longer be displayed I thought I’d transfer it onto a t-shirt so my husband can still enjoy it.

I started by tracing the pieces onto paper using just a normal pen. I filled in the spaces so I could better see what was tree and what wasn’t. I also wrote ‘Y’ or ‘O’ for yellow or orange onto the tree-tops (those aren’t leaves or fruits, just color reminders.)

The next step was to transfer the pattern onto the t-shirt. I used carbon transfer paper from Sublime Stitching which comes with both black and white sheets… very useful.

Last, but not least, I stitched it up using the split stitch. I chose the split stitch because I haven’t worked with it much. At the beginning of the tree it was pretty slow going, but by the end I think I got a lot better (and quicker) at the split stitch. It’s not the best for going around corners, but how else could I learn that if I didn’t just try it?

I gave it to Paul a couple of nights ago and he put it on right away. I think he looks great!

Just for fun I thought I’d create a reusable embroidery PDF pattern from the tree design. You can download it for free. Please upload photos of anything you make to the Brooklyn Embroidery Flickr Group, I’d love to see them.

Thanks everyone who came out to the July Group Stitch last weekend. It was hot, but Red Hook was lovely. I hope to see you all as well as some new faces at the August Group Stitch. The date and time is still TBD. Any suggestions?

Sorry for the teaser post last week and no final picture. I’ve learned a lot in the last week. Primarily that once you sew your last stitch you are not done. It takes a lot to get a piece like this into a presentable format. I thought I’d share with you all my lessons learned. Hopefully they can help you out if you ever need to frame or mount a piece of embroidery.

The entire time I was stitching Chet I planned to put him into a simple black frame that I bought for $20 from Target. I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to get him into there, but I figured I’d wrap the fabric around some mat board, secure it with a couple of stitches and voila. Turns out it’s a bit more complicated to frame needlework in this way. Needle’n'Thread has an excellently detailed post if you are interested.

I ended up not framing my piece because at the last minute I noticed on the Okie Stitch Along website that they actually wanted them mounted. My first question was what does mounting mean? Luckily Sara Cowan, who is organizing the stitch along, is very kind and patient and answered my questions. She said mounting was…

Just like a painting you’d see without a frame – the way painters stretch their fabric over a rectangle of cheap wood. You could even buy a blank canvas and staple your pressed embroidery piece onto it, exactly where the blank canvas is stapled. You want it to be stretched as tight as possible so there are no wrinkles.

I really dislike dealing with frame shops (because it always seems to cost an arm and a leg) and I didn’t think I could make a frame myself. So I called up my in-laws who do lots of wordworking. I thought maybe they could make me a simple frame and I could staple the fabric on myself. My mother-in-law did have some experience framing needlework and she recommended leaving it to the professionals. She said they have special stretchers they use to stretch the fabric evenly while stapling and that it is just one of those things that is better not to do yourself.

So, the next day I went to my nearest frame shop, Jubilee Gallery, their website advertised familiarity with needlework. Jack, who was working at the time, was really exited by my project and had lots of ideas for nicely mounting my piece. We discussed taking some simple wood frames, painting them white, then placing a white mat board over the frame, because my fabric was so sheer. But when I went to pick up the piece he’d done an even nicer and more thorough job that we’d discussed. He backed the whole thing with some mat board to hide the staples and placed a hanging wire on the top.

I wasn’t wrong though about it costing an arm and a leg. The entire framing job cost me $96.90. This is a LOT for a hobby I usually refer to as inexpensive. But there was no turning back, I had taken months to stitch Chet and promised him to Deluxe OK. Not to mention the attentive, thorough, and quality work that Jubilee did for me. So all in all, I guess that was a price I was willing to pay. Although I will think differently next time before I start a piece that I plan to hang. Probably I will do an embroidery hoop frame as described in this awesome tutorial.

My Aunt is lucky enough to live in Northern Arkansas near the Ozarks, one of my favorite outdoor destinations. For her birthday I thought a tote bag stitched with Sublime Stitching’s Camp Out patterns would be the perfect gift.

I plan to stuff the bag with some hiking snacks from my favorite local market, Sahadi’s. I picked up dried apricot, mango and strawberry, mixed nuts and cinnamon almonds.