Last Friday’s opening of “Forget Me-Not” at gallery hanahou was absolutely packed!

It was no surprise, since everybody was talking about this show, including Time Out, Poppytalk, Craft, Whipup, and tons of other websites and blogs.

The marvelous hand-stitched artwork is now all online for all to see and purchase at the gallery website.

A few more photos from the opening:

You can see more photos from the opening and last Saturday’s embroidery workshop on the gallery Flickr page.

The show is up through February 27th, so if you’re in NY, try to go see it!

gallery hanahou
611 Broadway, Suite 730, NYC
[7th Floor of the Cable Building, NW corner of Broadway + Houston]
Mon-Fri noon-6 pm, Sat by appt only
646-486-6586
info@galleryhanahou.com

I also had a great time hanging out with curator Kristen Rask of Schmancy and Jenny Harada earlier in the week. You both did an amazing job!

Last week I finally finished the cross-stitch that I started over Thanksgiving!

It was very exciting to complete it, but the photo isn’t so exciting because it just looks like a wrinkled version of the photo that the pattern came with. But I still like it and it was surprisingly very fun to make.

Almost immediately after finishing the little children and flowers, I got out some graph paper and colored pencils that I bought a couple weeks ago and started sketching out gridded versions of my Stackable Cats.

I very rarely sit down and work on drawing something, and after a few hours, I realized that the process was extremely relaxing and enjoyable. Then, because I’ve just started taking a class in Illustrator, I fiddled around with grids in Illustrator and started making a real-live chart. I like the way it looks on screen, but I’ll have to get supplies and actually stitch it up to see if I like it as cross-stitch. That’ll probably take a long time, but I’m eager to get started.

If I like how it turns out, I’m totally going to make a bunch of designs with my characters!

By the way, since I’m getting into this new medium right at the very time that we’re opening an embroidery show at gallery hanahou, I have no illusions about the skill level I’m at with needle and thread. But that’s OK, I’ll just be happy if I can make simple cute things that make me smile.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been thinking a bit about creating my own cross stitch designs. I don’t know if it’s something I’ll get around to anytime soon, but I’m inspired by these charming samplers that my mother-in-law Bonney made back in the ’90s, substituting their original wording with her own favorite sayings.

And this was way before Subversive Cross Stitch, of course. I like the way that they look so quaint at first glance, but take another look and you get the joke. Even with the humorous words, it’s obvious that Bonney put a lot of time into them and they are something that her family will always treasure.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend both of the plush-making workshops that we recently held at gallery hanahou in conjunction with Luv-able + Hug-able!

The first workshop was led by the Ossu! Syugeibu “crafting club” from Tokyo, who encourage people to craft without patterns or any skill whatsoever. We made funny creatures out of socks, somewhat a la Sock and Glove but without stuffing and with a mouth opening. Mine turned out to be a type of bear with a bow tie.

Here he is gagging on his hand.

The idea is that the toy will change shape depending on what kinds of objects you put in its mouth, but I kind of like my guy floppy.

The second workshop was the Jenny Harada workshop last Saturday, in which Jenny led us in making silly Elf Chums! This is the second workshop I’ve taken with Jenny. She’s a very patient teacher, especially when I’m attempting to sew things on the inside of my toy.

Here you see my Elf Chum (on the left) next to two of Jenny’s. (Her furry brown one is still my favorite.)

And here you see it with his cousin Bjornzi, a plush in Luv-able + Hug-able that I bought at the opening and have yet to bring home:

Both my red bear and my little elf have moved in with me, but neither of them have names. Any suggestions?

Update: Jenny’s Elf Chum pattern is now available in PDF form in her Etsy shop. So go make your own!