Anticipation

Have you ever gotten to the point where you are stitching a piece and dreaming about what to stitch next?  Have you gotten down to the last stitches and started auditioning the next piece to stitch as you are putting those last stitches in?  Poor Freelove was an experience like that for me.  As I was stitching the last leafy motif in the bottom right hand corner, I started putting pics up on my computer of each Scarlet Letter piece I was thinking of stitching.  As each was considered for a while, I was feeling that anticipation of starting a new project.  But none of the pieces was totally grabbing me, and I felt I needed that kind of enthusiasm to get me going.  Finally I thought of -- 

But hey, I'm getting ahead of myself here.  I did get those last stitches put into Freelove Hazard.  Here she is.

Freelove Hazard by the Scarlet Letter

45ct Vintage Examplar

AVAS fibers

I must mention that the blue I used wasn't the blue called for on the chart.  It was the blue that was sent to me so I used it.  I must say I like the brightness of it.  I also used a different red for the border around Freelove's age.  I used a brighter red since that was what was used in the picture and I liked that bright red.  Not sure why the bright red wasn't charted.

 

Ok, now back to the story at hand.  As I was putting those last stitches into Freelove, I thought about the fact that I really wanted to stitch more A&E samplers.  And I also decided that even though huge samplers always take such a long time to stitch, I have so many huge samplers I really really want to stitch.  So I started thinking about huge A&E samplers.  And came up with this.

Ah yes!  The lovely Jane Atkinson, from the Scarlet Letter.  Sigh.  I'd forgotten exactly what the border looked like, and looking at it anew, I realized it really didn't look that terrible to stitch.  :D   And I started drooling all over the gorgeous reds in the piece.  So last stitches taken in Freelove, I immediately jumped up with great enthusiasm and pulled Jane from my stash.  I didn't even mind having to audition fabrics for her (which I usually hate).   I was happily stitching away on Jane by the evening.

Jane Atkinson by the Scarlett Letter

40ct Sugared Coffee by Sassy's Fabrics

AVAS fibers

Not much done, but I'm a happy camper!  I think I needed some enthusiasm for what I was stitching.  I'm hoping the enthusiasm stays!

In the past few weeks, I've won a few prizes from other lovely blogging ladies.  One hasn't arrived yet, but the other two are shown here.  First, from Barbara of Mainely Stitching, I won this chart.

 

I love Mary Garry, so I was thrilled to win!  Thanks, Barbara!

Next, I won the quilt prize from Jackie's blog, Jackie's Stitches.  

As you can see, I won a charm pack of the Blessings line from Brannock and Patek -- which I love!   And also a lovely pattern for using charms, which is perfect!  Thank you, Jackie!

Finally, Sherry of Blog It is having a chart giveaway, so go on over and visit her blog.

In other news, the dreaded NYSSMA audition is over and done with.   Found the audition location with no problems and the boy child had plenty of time to warm up and get all psyched for the big audition.  We think the audition went well.  The boy child's piece sounded wonderful and his pianist was great.  There may have been a stumble or two in the scales and the sight reading, but hopefully not majorly so.  And the nice thing -- for once, the adjudicator was friendly, happy, and seemed to be enjoying the whole process.  I'm hoping that means he's not one of those tough judges.  lol!   

Of course, the best part of NYSSMA being done for the boy child is ----   no practicing for a whole week!!  :D   He didn't have lessons this past weekend because of a mock AP exam, so nothing to practice!  He deserves the rest, that's for sure!  And truth to tell, after NYSSMA is over, his teacher usually goes easy on him for a few weeks anyway.  Yay!   We should get the scores back from his audition in a week or two.  From that we might be able to guess whether he made All State or Area All State or nothing at all.  We won't know for sure until the fall -- which is when the actual announcements are made.  Fingers crossed!  

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope you have a great week!