a little embroidery, souvenir of the summer

Summer vacations seem like distant memories,

the kids are back in high school,

and fall is in the air, especially with all the rain we have right now.

To remind me of our summer adventures,

I embroidered a little Amsterdam "postcard"

from "les brodeuses parisiennes".

It goes some well with the little blue houses I brought back.

It was nicely packages and there was no breakage.

The embroidery was fun and easy,

I think it captures well the feeling of the town:

bikes everywhere, pretty buildings, and water.

Miss C enjoying a canal boat ride,

Brick Master taking a break from visiting museums.

And now,
I have this sweet vignette to dream
of our next adventure....
finding Brick Master future college!

Happy sewing!

a new set of mug rugs in linen and Liberty of London

After almost a month of no sewing,

I started back up with an easy project: mug rugs.

I used patterns from "sew illustrated" as I previously did for these cute macarons mug rug:

and of course the cutest pin cushions:

One is for a coffee drinking friend: 

the other is for a tea lover:

Both were sewed in linen and Liberty of London lawns,

new ones that I just brought back from our summer trip.

A couple of them are brand new prints, other are new color ways:

These 2 mug rugs were the perfect homemade presents for girlfriends!

Happy sewing!

a book of colors for a sweet baby

We are back from our family vacations,

where I was able to meet my new niece.

Since she was 6 months old,

it was time for me to make her a soft book:

I previously made books for my American niece and nephew:

 Baby K's book Part I and Part II

Baby S's book,

they were older at the time so for this one, I went with a simple concept: colors

I was inspired by these 2 tutorials from

EmmmyLizzzy and Homegrown Happy.

Each page has its own color,

I tried to find interesting fabric with animals or flowers.

Miss C. was in charge of color order, she is truly an artist,

I am merely a crafter!

I used squares on iron-on batting, and crazy quilted the different fabrics.

the book ended up a little thick so I had to hand stitch the cover to the pages.

This does not seem to bother her:

I managed to put some science in them.....

it is never too early to start!

She is a very happy baby ,

it was so much fun to hang out with her!

Happy sewing!

a cool take on tomato cages

This weekend I built some tomato cages for Mon Cheri,

as a father's day present.

If it does not sound like a cool present,

it is for this weekend gardener!

Because we have so much shade in our backyard (and dogs)

we have a small area in the front yard for some gardening,

and because it is very present, it needs to not be too ugly! 

Here is my second cage, very simply made out of exterieur grade 1x2,

I used 4 of these (~$1.50 a piece), and followed this tutorial from Ella Claire Inspired.

Of course I changed it a little but it is the same idea.

It is a very easy and fast built,

but I thought the raw wood stood out a little too much,

so I stained it with some blue stain (old navy or something like that)

that goes with the navy chair by the front door.

It holds the tomato very nicely and looks like it belongs in the front yard. And more importantly Mon Cheri was surprised and happy! Now we need to cover everything with a net, the neighborhood deer think it is a salad bar!
Happy crafting!

the perfect pie carrier for a picnic

I love baking, and especially pies and tarts,

the more fruit, the merrier.

(apple, peach, lemon, plum, strawberry: click on the fruit for the recipe)

It is no surprise that I usually bring one to parties,

but it is not always easy to carry them to gatherings.

So I sewed this neat pie carrier, that wraps all around the pie, protecting and making it easy to carry:

I followed this tutorial by la chouette,

it is in French but google does a good translation!

it is pretty easy, I used a laminated cotton for the inside for easy cleaning.

I changed the way the long handles is attached,

but everything else is the same.

It has been very convenient so far,

and it works with all my different pie pan sizes.

On the puppy side, Bosco is growing well, bugging and biting everybody, especially Lou, who seems to handle it pretty well:

 we are looking forward to the end of puppy teeth...

Happy sewing!