The next project is a bib for Baby Elizabeth Jane...who is due in the next few weeks to arrive! This is the outline of the embroidery and bib shape traced on to linen. But, before I get started on this project...let me show you a couple of photos from yesterday's Baby Shower for "Ellie".The mom-to-be (again) is my niece, Shannon. My youngest sister Jan arranged the shower for her yesterday, including some games (they are not in the photos). The funniest game was a race...between two teams. Here they are, my grand-daughter Aidan and my younger sister Anna racing against my niece Melissa (Shannon's sister) and Jean (Shannon's MIL). 

 You can also see Tracy, my youngest brother's wife...whom lives next door in the photo.The teams were a pretend Mom and Baby...and the idea of the game is for the Mom to "diaper" the Baby. Each team was given a paper bag with secret contents and told that ALL of the contents had to be used. What was in the bag? ...well...one full roll of toilet tissue!

Anna and Aidan won...but only because Anna "stuffed" Aidan and the tissue into the bag so it would stay up...along with half of the TP roll ...unused...as Anna announced that Aidan was now a boy...and the TP Roll was her &*^%$ (I'm sure you can fill in this blank)! This was Aidan's first shower to attend...and she had a great time! We all enjoyed tons of food and Shannon got loads of baby clothes and needed items. And, everyone loved the little dresses and blankets that I've been working on these past couple of weeks...thankfully! Do you international ladies have Baby Showers in your country? Just wondering if they are as "crazy" as some of ones my family plans. We always have tons of food of course, and the new Mom gets tons of baby things as gifts, and we play GAMES. Some games are pencil/paper types...like taking the baby's proposed name and determining how many words can be made with the letters...that represent baby items. Or, perhaps a BABY CROSSWORD puzzle to complete within a given amount of time. Oh, I could give a long list of "pencil games". But, the real fun is the "race style" games.The last baby shower in the family was for my nephew and his wife...and I decided on the games.My teams of Mothers had to Feed the Baby...and were given a choice of two bags. One bag contained a jar of baby food...peas or prunes; the other bag contained a jar of applesauce. Each team was lucky...and chose the applesauce. They had to feed those "babies" the entire jar...with a baby spoon. Each team was given a bib (dish towel) to also go around the baby's neck. My sister Anna was one of the babies...and my sister Jan was her "Mom". Jan stuffed that spoon into Anna's mouth as fast as she could...and Anna promptly "spit up" into that bib! They were so funny...and this story probably tells MORE about how my family works and plays that you should know!! Ha! I'm working on a bib pattern with shadow applique embroidery motif, generic in style for ya'll, and will get that posted this week (hopefully)...as soon as I get it done in Illustrator.Hope all are having a glorious weekend!

Quick Gifts

Cyber friends are such treasures to me. And, this week I was reminded more than once of how much more fun my stitching has been since going "on-line". It was also the week to complete a few things for friends, so I thought I'd share those with you all. Hope you get some inspiration to stitch!

Here is a flannel blanket and some bibs for Miss Mikol, who (after 3 girls) is having a boy! Woot! Woot! I think that is just great. So, when I saw this super fast pattern for baby bibs I immediately thought of her. It took only about 3 hours to whip up nine bibs...from selecting the fabric to sealing the box I mailed them in! Now, that is a great project to work on!

If you would like to stitch some of your own the Nested Bib Pattern is free! It's found under Things to Make and is their Basic Bib Pattern. I changed the assembly instructions to suit me. The original instructions had velcro as the closure...and that is good; but I don't like sewing velcro. So, I used little covered elastic pony tail holders as the "loops" and big buttons (extra securely stitched) for the closures. The original pattern also had a little pocket across the bottom, but I did not see the need of that, and just made reversable bibs instead.

To accompany the bibs, I stitched up a baby blanket super quick! A square piece of fleece with "slits" cut in the edge (about 1/2 inch from the outside edge) creates a great "soft as a cloud" blanket. The edging is a hand crochet shell stitch and single crochet (alternating) all the way around. The stitching is done with all-cotton yarn so it is really soft as well. It takes about 30 minutes to cut the blanket out of the fleece and make the holes. And, another 45 minutes to crochet the edging. If you want to do your own blankets, the rotary cutter blades used to make the holes can be found at Skipstitch, and the yarn I got at Walmart.

This eyeglass case was great fun to do for a friend to present to her Secret Friend. It has a simple embroidery center and has a closure (similiar to the bibs) to keep the glasses from slipping out. The embroidery is straight stitch, french knots, and lazy daisy stitches...and ya'll know by now that I can do those in my sleep! If you don't believe me, just check out the Two Dozen in Twelve Months (TDITM) posts!

And, for you TDITM fans...no I have not given up! I will be posting more soon!

Lastly, the next little giftee is a Mug Rug for Jill. It has embroidery on it as well. And a little pieced block on the opposite side.

The pumpkins and the center eyeglass case embroidery patterns come from a Flickr site I belong to that posts hundreds, if not thousands, of free embroidery patterns for sharing. So check them out sometime at Hooplove. I know that I've recommended them before...but it never gets old to support good sites!