How cute, and you're right, it has been hot. I just moved down from Oregon, where they're also having a hot summer. I've been thinking about doing some hand embroidery too. I think it was the first kind of hand work I learned as a child, and like you I haven't done any in a very long time. And I think I still have some of those very old embroidery skeins - yikes! I wonder if they're any good now.