Stitchers of San Quentin
​Stitchers of San Quentin is a needle arts program founded and run by civilian and incarcerated staff of the San Quentin Library and sponsored by the Friends of the San Quentin Library.
Cohorts & Participants
We have two cohorts of thirty participants—and a waiting list of more than two hundred! Our members have the opportunity to learn and engage in needlepoint, embroidery, crocheting, and knitting. Crochet is taught exclusively by our team of incarcerated facilitators, and the other arts are taught by outside volunteers and civilian San Quentin staff members.
Skills & Service with Therapeutic Benefits
Stitchers of San Quentin was designed to offer participants the chance to learn new skills, experience the therapeutic benefits of handwork, and give back to society by donating items they have made to those who might benefit from them. Now that we are up and running, and our members have honed their skills, we are reaching out to local organizations to identify groups that we can donate our crafts to.
Materials & Support
We provide all materials, free of cost, to our stitchers. If you would like to support this program, you can donate funds to help us source supplies, or you can mail donations of materials directly to us. We can put almost anything to use, and what we can’t use, we will donate to someone who can.
Wish Lists & Mailing Supplies
Donations of supplies can be mailed to:
Friends of the San Quentin Library
651 Eastwood Way
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Here are our wish lists for each craft:
Needlepoint: Silk & Ivory thread, all colors; any needlepoint canvas, any size; kits of all kinds; Stitch-n-Zip Blank Eyeglass Cases
Embroidery: DMC and Anchor Six-Strand Embroidery Floss, all colors; DMC Pearl Cotton, all colors; DMC Metallic Pearl, all colors; DMC Metallic Embroidery Thread, all colors; DMC Diamant Metals, all colors; embroidery kits with pre-printed linen, with or without thread; plain linen; stick-n-stitch stickers; Nurge beechwood embroidery hoops, all sizes
Crochet & Knitting: crochet hooks, any size, but only wood, bamboo, or plastic; knitting needles, any size, but only wood, bamboo, or plastic; yarn, yarn, yarn—worsted, chunky, Superwash, Aran; all colors but green; we’ll take anything, but natural fibers are a real treat for our advanced participants to work with.
Here are some of our favorite places to source materials:
Thank you for
your support!
KC Needlepoint is a fantastic source for all needlepoint supplies, and we always have a wish list up on their site.
Stitch and Zip has the bank eyeglass cases our participants love to needlepoint on.
​
Yarn Soup is a wonderful website where we keep the list of yarns our advanced participants literally stay up nights wishing for. These yarns are on the pricey side, but a stitcher can dream…
​
WEBS often runs spectacular sales on some of our favorite yarns. We especially LOVE “Stacy Charles Fine Yarns, Gwen” in all colors but green.
Everything Cross Stitch is an amazing resource for great prices on DMC and Anchor embroidery products.
Avlea Folk Embroidery has gorgeous embroidery kits and stunning fabrics and has been an incredibly generous supporter of our program.
DMC may not have the best prices on thread, but they have some wonderful embroidery kits, and they run 25% sales on all major holidays.
The Stitchery is a gorgeous online shop full of English-style embroidery kits where we sometimes splurge for our stitchers. Their mini-kits are especially good for our beginners, and they made an incredibly generous donation of supplies that helped us get started.
Brooklyn Haberdashery is our favorite place to source our Nurge beechwood embroidery hoops, and they also have lovely embroidery kits and incredible tools our stitchers aren’t allowed to have. They made a lovely donation of supplies to us early on.
Tamar Nahir-Yanai has a huge selection of beautiful embroidery kits, with or without thread, that our stitchers love to work on.
Cream Tea and Lace has truly stunning embroidery kits, with or without thread, for our advanced embroiderers.
LiliPopo Embroidery has a wonderful selection of whimsical embroidery designs preprinted on linen.