I was so flattered when Cindy asked me to contribute to her Summer Craft Camp.  She has compiled one great list of kids' crafts!

One of my kids' favorite crafts is embroidery.  They have both been stitching for a few years. This time, Kate was my very willing assistant and got to work on a cute flower embroidery from a drawing she did.  You can find our project here.

Kate and I made her flower into a sweet pillow with a rick racktrim.  You could also add it to a quilt or a bag.  Another great idea isto have your child embroider on flour sack tea towel for a gift. Whatever you choose, it's sure to be treasured by you and your childalike.

call for embroidery.  Some back stitching for Kate.  Split stitching for Jane.  Lots of needle re-threading by me.  All in all, nice way to spend a rainy, summer afternoon.

Both of the girls embroidery transfers came from the Sublime Stitching Craft Pad.

Back tomorrow with the winner of Vintage Baby Knits.  I haven't forgotten - just been busy watching my nephews and cleaning out the studio!  Scrap bags coming soon!

Jane's friend Annabel had her birthday party this weekend.  On Saturday morning, Jane and I set about making her present.

This fabric that I bought from Leslie is a lightweight canvas, perfect for a tote.  Jane and I thought that Annabel might need a bag to carry her ballet stuff in, or to fill with things to do while waiting at rehearsal for The Nutcracker.  Jane wanted to embroider ballet slippers or something dance related on the pocket, but crazy enough, we didn't have the right thing.  She settled on Annabel's initials.

Jane drew the letters on the polka dot fabric with a pencil and embroidered them herself while I was cutting out the bag and making the handles.  When she was finished stitching, I made the pocket and sewed it all together.

Inside, we put a sweet bundle of embroidery supplies:  hoop, needles, lots of floss, three fat quarters of fabric and Hillary's Peppermint Fairy Stitchettes.  I told her mother, who shares her daughter's birthday, that she was going to love me or hate me.  I know from experience that this requires lots of adult supervision and help.  I think Suzanne was just fine with it - after all, she's one of my craft swap peeps.

Happy Birthday friends!

The girls and I just came home from meeting our new nephew and cousin.  The little guy is so sweet - it was great to finally see him and hold him.

This morning I whipped up some cuteness for the new baby.  I made him some burp cloths like the ones I did for Declan and Augie.  I also got out my embroidery machine and put his name on some onesies and a hat.  Sweet things for a sweet babe.

And in case you were counting, that is 7 nephews and 0 nieces.  Lucky me!

I love my train case, made for me by my friend, the super talented Meg.  It came last week when I was feeling down in the dumps about running.  The timing was perfect and I adore it, especially because it is yellow and has houses and the illustrations are embroidered.  Thanks Meg!

And I have found a craft that I can do with the wrist brace on.  This is one of Hillary's Stitchettes...I finished the summer, fall and winter ones last year.  On to spring!

There was no way I could make just one.  This time I got all crazy and made my own bias tape.

I am in love with the brown and white gingham on the bias.  Crazy in love.

This time, I remember to take a photo of the back, too.

In case you were wondering, there will be more.  I can't stop.  And I don't want to either.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for my mom.  I think she had a great day.  My dad flew all the adults in the family out to Telluride to surprise her.  It was a quick trip....22 hours door to door which is a bit shorter than my last journey out West.  It was great being able to celebrate with her.  All that eating and drinking and not enough sleep has left me completely worn out.

Moving on....craft swap was on Monday night and, as always, was just great!  One of our group is recovering from major surgery and decided to sit this swap out.  Well, we really couldn't let that happen!  We all made an extra craft for her and, with her husband's approval, held a surprise craft swap at her house.   We swooped in with food and drink and handmade goodies.  What isn't there to like about that?

Inspired by Amy and Courtney, I made coffee cozies.  My original intent was to make them patchwork using fun fabrics from my stash, but when I found the chocolate brown linen on sale, I decided that it was better.  This way all little coffee drips will blend right in.

I embroidered everyone's name with a running stitch and chose fabrics to compliment the floss.  There is one layer of batting sandwiched in the middle.  I wanted to quilt each one differently, but in the end decide that less is more and went with two simple lines.  Each cozy closes with little fabric loops and two buttons.

My friend Laura pointed out that these would make great teacher gifts....sew up a cozy and pop a gift card in the cup.  I think she's right.

Every one made such wonderful items at this swap.  I haven't had time to photo them all, but I will in the next day or two.  I am also working on the pillow zipper tutorial....I had hoped to have it up this week, but it may be a bit longer.   After our quick trip, groceries, laundry and rest are at the top of the agenda.   Back soon.

With all the alphabet posts finished and the kids in school, I actually managed to make something.  This is a craft blog, after all.

It's my first quilted bib and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  What is there not to love about patchwork and bias tape after all?

I scooped up that chocolate brown linen on sale about a month ago and I am just crazy for it.  It is a pain in the you-know-what to embroider on, though.  I have a white pencil, but it doesn't show up too well.  Anyone have other suggestions for transferring images or text onto dark fabric?  I have a fairly large embroidery project in mind that I want to use dark blue linen for, but don't want to start unless I know I can transfer it successfully.

Thanks for all the back to school love - both girls had great first and second days.  We all love school.  Phew!  OK, the craft swap is on Monday.  I am about 75% finished...better get cracking.  Have a great weekend.  I will be back next week with some lovely show and tell.  The mailman has brought me some lovely packages in the past few weeks.  Oh yeah.