We renovated our bathroom last year and I had an idea to hang some embroidered pin-ups in the new bathroom. It took me a while, but I finally finished this 4-piece project. Here is a shot of the final bathroom and wall hanging.

This one is my favorite. It’s from the Pinups by Gil Elvgren pattern available from Sublime Stitching.

The other three are from the Pin-ups pattern from Sew Lovely Embroidery.

This weekend we celebrated my brother-in-law’s birthday. For his gift I found a set of 6 handkerchiefs and embroidered each one with a unique pattern.

Simple initial

Simple initial

A car that kind of looks like their mini-cooper

A dog that kind of looks like their dog

The police call box from Doctor Who

Wonder Mom

These last two are references to books written by my brother-in-law. He has written a fan’s guide to Doctor Who and a novel titled The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl.

I’ve visited Annie & Company twice now and I really shouldn’t have waited so long to write them up. This is a great store. Located at 1325 Madison Avenue, Manhattan they have a complete knitting store downstairs and a complete needlepoint shop upstairs. The needlepoint shop is definitely geared towards needlepoint, but you can find pretty much all of your basic embroidery supplies there as well.

They carry needles, hoops, frames, books, and a complete selection of DMC and Anchor floss. The DMC floss is 75 cents each. (Perle 5 for $1.70 each.)

They also host classes on occasion and also offer private lessons. I was quoted $45/hour for privates.

Paul tried his hand at wood-working last month when he travelled to North Carolina and built this awesome coat rack with his dad.

We bought the hooks at a place on 5th Avenue in Park Slope, but the rest was made from scratch. The hooks are a little narrow and I didn’t want the handle of my purse to get worn, so I devised and sewed this little fabric loop to protect it.

Here is the loop in action…

A good friend of mine just had her second baby boy. His name is Derek and I stitched him up a little onesie and a bib using the Monkey Love pattern from Sublime Stitching.

Dark Brown – DMC 898
Light Brown – Anchor 372
Dark Green – DMC 520
Red – DMC 816

I’ve decided to make a last minute venue change. It’s Becky’s birthday and she’s hosting a BBQ in Prospect Park the same day as our stitch. So we’re going to make it a joint Birthday/Group Stitch event!

Becky will be setting up the BBQ in one of 2 locations… Either at the Grand Army Plaza side of the Long Meadow, near the 911 grove, or near the Bandshell, around12 th street and Prospect Park West.

A final decision may not be made until the day of due to crowds or weather or other factors, so check back to the event page and we’ll try to update where we’re at, or just cruise by both locations and look for us. I’ll also try to tweet from @SarahHaskins when I find the location.

Check out this map of the 2 locations…

I hope everyone can make it! It should be really fun. Becky says all you need to bring is something to sit on and maybe ice or drinks or anything special you’d like to have. She plans to be cooking up lots of food!

I picked up this cute flower pattern from Feeling Sitchy for the February Vintage Pattern Stitchalong, but I didn’t finish it until this weekend. Mostly because I wasn’t focused, but also those lazy daisy’s are more work than they seem.

I stitched each of the four corners and kept to a simple color palette.

pink – DMC 3687
green – DMC 987
light blue – DMC 3753
dark blue – DMC 334

I’m back to my old habits not announcing the stitch very far in advance. Sorry about that! However, I hope lots of you can make it to the June stitch on Saturday, June 25th. Hopefully the weather will finally cooperate.

The June Group Stitch will be held on Pier 1 of the Brooklyn Bridge Park. You should bring a blanket and your latest project. We’ll meet on the “great lawn” so to speak. That’s behind the kids playground and North of the big steps.

When: Saturday, June 25th at 2:00pm
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.
Alternate Rain Location:Floyd’s on Atlantic Avenue

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

Paul asked me if I could sew a little something onto a pair of his shorts. I thought a sugar skull would look great. The piece only took about 3 hours total to complete. I’m really happy with how the satin stitch came out.

Because it was for a guy I kept the color palette pretty simple. I think he looked pretty cool when he wore them out longboarding with Milo.

Oh no! It looks like it is going to rain tomorrow, so I’m going to go ahead and call for a move to the alternate rain location. Floyd’s on Atlantic Avenue. See you there!