A repro -- yay! Plus other stitching, prizes, and a meerkat

What repro, you say?  Yes, a beautiful repro!  All I've worked on so far is the border, so I won't bother showing a picture of my progress yet.  But I did get permission from the designer to show off what I'm stitching now.  I love her!  Mary Roe by The Scarlett House, a new reproduction.

Isn't she gorgeous?  I can't wait to get to the insides of the piece!  The colors are so beautiful!

I did finish the next Toy Chest Etui page for the SAL I'm doing with Loraine.  It's a scissor fob/crayon box.

So cute!

And I got page one done and started page 2 on And They Sinned.  Yay!

The tree is really pretty with all its foliage and fruit.

And I couldn't resist starting the next section.

I was lucky enough to win a couple of prizes recently.  First, from Patty C. of Hanging on by a Thread, I won a needlebook she made -- it's so pretty!  She also included some Bohin needles which I've been wanting to try out, plus some Mill Hill glass beads.  Thank you so much, Patty!!!

Isn't that rose amazing?

And from Annie of Annie Bebop's Coloring Book, I won a chart, which I've been wanting forever.  Go to the link, and you'll see Annie's finished piece of this design.  It's gorgeous!

Thank you for the chart, Annie!

The boy child has been needing a haircut for quite a while now.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of him at his shaggy worst.  Such long hair!!  We determined that the last time he cut his hair was probably around May of last year.  lol!  But it was an extremely short haircut that time.  Well, I guess the boy child likes the idea of annual haircuts.  He got it cut very short once again.  Sorry for the blurry pic, but you get the idea.

Whenever he cuts his hair this short, I'm sad -- I miss his pretty hair.  lol!  Well, as he says, it'll grow back.  And then I'll be bothering him to get a haircut again.  :D

Mia has a favorite toy, which lives on the top of a high chest of drawers in the bedroom.  She periodically looks up lovingly at the spot where she knows it's hiding.  The other day, Mia went through a long period of looking longingly up at her toy.  This involved getting up into what we call her meerkat position, then getting back down into sitting, then up into her meerkat pose, over and over again.  I caught her at it to show you her meerkat pose.

Isn't she cute?

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

Can I have my toy, please?

Quick ETA:  The toy that lives on top of the chest of drawers is this "bird" thing made of feathers in a very clever way.  It dangles off a long, thin stick.  When the owner (DS, father type etc) rushes the toy through the air, it makes a fascinating whirring sound and spins in the air.  Mia is endlessly fascinated and tries to catch it etc.  BUT she can't play with it on her own -- if she does, she'll break the feathers on the "bird."  (The replacement birds are expensive!)  Thus, the toy lives up on the chest of drawers for those  times we play with her.  She loves it so much!  Poor thing -- I promise, I don't torture her on purpose.  lol!

Stitching, TUSAL, and Mia's funniest sleeping pose

First off here's my stitching.  The Quaker Winders Keepers is all done stitching wise.  Just have to finish the backstitching and basting around most of the small pieces.

And I got last week's assignment done for the Toy Chest Etui as well.  Plus the satin stitching on that girl doll.  Yay!

The above piece is a button box. Which of course is also a playing block.  B is for bee, bunny, bird, and button.  The button top is stitched later on.

I'm so ready for my good old repros.  After the SAL assignment for this week (are you ready, Loraine?), I think I might spoil myself and start a new little something.  :D

It's time for a TUSAL report as well.  If you're interested in joining in, go to Daffycat's blog for all the details here.  Here's mine for this month.

I took a pic of it next to my lovely scissors holder which I use all the time.  It's made by Betsy Krieg Salm.  I love her work.  If you look on my scissors, you'll see my little Mia cat fob which Melanie of Moonraker Lampwerks made especially for me.  I love having little Mia attached to my scissors, so to speak.  :D

Finally, Nicola of Stitching by a Cornish Sea Shore is having a competition I just couldn't resist.  It's for the funniest sleeping position of a human or a pet.  Well, I immediately thought of some pics I'd taken of Mia once when she'd fallen asleep in the middle of grooming.  I think at least one of them was on my blog before, but this is worth looking at again.

Don't you love it?  Wow, she's a lot smaller, isn't she?

It was just so cute how she fell asleep mid groom.  And yes, she fell asleep on top of her sleeping mate.

My cute babies!  So that's my entry for Nicola's competition.

The boy child has a 4 day weekend for President's Day.  Up until last year, the schools gave the kids a whole week off, which would have been this week.  I actually prefer the 4 day weekend.  lol!  So no school today (Friday was the other day off).  The father type has today off too, which is nice.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week.  And yes, I hate the new word verification system too.  I think I'm getting the hang of it, but I still don't like it.

ETA:  I am embarrassed to say I thought I had turned off that dratted WV system, but hadn't.  It's gone now, thanks to the help of friends.

I miss repros......

The title of this post says it all.  I'm not good at this switching from project to project.  And I'm missing just sitting down with a good repro and stitching away.  But on the other hand, I do love the projects I'm working on.  Like this one.

I've gotten the main part of the Amy Mitten Quaker Winders Keepers done.  Pretty, huh?  Here are all 4 corners.

I love the flowers in the bottom right hand corner.

I also worked on the Toy Chest Etui from Betsy Morgan to catch up with Loraine.  We're working on this as an SAL together -- which is good.  I know I would have given up on it already otherwise.

This is the little Amish doll.  I obviously haven't finished the girl doll yet.  lol!  I'm dreading figuring out that satin stitch on her dress!  Loraine is ahead of me and already has the doll stitched up and has started the next part of our SAL.  I'd better hurry up!

I'm feeling exhausted and very out of shape this morning.  That sweet girl child of mine has been exhorting me to get exercising again.  She has picked up her exercise routine (the lucky girl has a nice gym right on campus of course) and wants to motivate me to do the same.  Well, I admit shamefacedly I haven't exercised since Hurricane Irene hit and threw me for a loop bigtime.  So I'm very out of shape.  I went ahead and did the exercise routine (a beginner routine) that my girl child recommended.  But I tell you, I'm blowed.  lol!  It's going to be tough getting back into the routine!

The boy child had pit orchestra duty for the mid season high school musical Nunsense this weekend.  As he says, it was his last time doing the pit as a high school student.  Another last.  So weird!  Now for the last high school musical he will be in -- rehearsals for Oklahoma will start soon.

Here is something I end up doing a lot with my little girl cat Mia.  She is always jumping into my sink and wanting a drink.  So I spend lots of time waiting for her to be done drinking.  lol!  I need to buy one of those faucets that turns on and off with a touch and teach Mia how to use it.

Oh, and yes, I have a little ceramic fountain for her to drink water from.  She does use it, but she still insists on drinking straight from the tap as well.  Silly girl!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!

A model is stitched......

I don't usually post on Fridays, but I just had to make an exception this time.  Remember back around the turn of the year when I said I was doing some model stitching?  One of the models was for Paulette of Plum Street Samplers.

You already know I love Paulette's designs, right?  After all, she is the most represented designer on my A&E wall.  (There are 3 out of 12 A&E designs that are hers!)  Well, I was thrilled to take over the model stitching for Nicole on this design.  I did the majority of the stitching after Nicole's start, and Paulette finished it up.  And I just loved stitching on this piece!!!

May I present Brother's Keeper.

Isn't it just gorgeous??  The picture is from Paulette's blog, who takes much better pictures than I do.  Paulette is releasing this one at Nashville market, which isn't too far away now!

If you're interested in details on this design, just go to Paulette's blog.  She has all the low down there.  And take a look at the other design she's releasing too -- love it!!

Thanks so much, Paulette, for trusting me to stitch this piece for you.  I still want to stitch it up for myself too!

Ahem. Who said anything about WIPs?

Um yeah.  So I knew the WIP thing wouldn't last.  lol!  First off, I had to sit down and do some model stitching -- which of course I can't show.  Then I knew that this was coming in the mail.  And it did.  And so I started it.  Who could resist?

What is this, you ask?  Well, it's an online class being given by the wonderful  Amy Mitten.  It's the Winders' Keepers class.  I chose the Quaker version.  There's also a Vierlande version (which I also love) and a Friesland version (which was my third choice).  Here is a link if you're interested in seeing what the piece looks like.  I provided links to all three if you click on their names.

I love the colors on the Quaker version, so that was the final decision maker for me.  Plus the fact that the father type and I used to attend Quaker meeting once upon a time, and the girl child attended a Quaker summer camp in her younger years as well.

Anyway, I still say model stitching is very bad for keeping on task with one's stitching.  lol!

I also managed to pick up a framed piece from my LNS.  As I've said before, I rely on my talented framer to pick out the frames -- I just stand there and oohh and ahh until we are both satisfied.  It's always amazing how fast Don comes up with the perfect choice for a frame.  Like this one, for example.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the frame is just perfect -- the colors in the frame compliment the piece to a T!  This is Ann Sandles of course.  Here's a detail of the frame.

Love it!

On the college front, the boy child has been accepted to three schools so far.  He probably won't hear from the rest until more like April.  No news on the audition front yet, but that's also to be expected.  Fingers crossed!

Mia was doing her ballet exercises this morning.

Actually, she was begging for a good scratch, but it does look rather ballet like, right?  Especially this pic.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi!  I hope everyone has a fantastic week.