A milestone

First off, here is my progress on my A Needleworker's Sampler Huswif.  I'm loving stitching this!

I always seem to be working on the large flower bands when I take progress pics!

In the past couple of weeks, I have received a couple of prizes I won.  First, I won a beautiful pack of luscious wool squares from Heirlooms by Ashton House.

So many pretty colors and so yummy!  Thank you so much!

Next, I won a copy of the Just Cross Stitch Annual Christmas Ornament Preview magazine from Jan of Tree of Life Samplings.

Jan has a lovely design inside, and she signed the page for me too!  So special!  Thank you, Jan!  I love your designs!

Now for the milestone.  All summer since the boy child got home, he and I (and the father type on weekends) have been going out driving.  Boy child driving.  Both my kids got late starts on getting their driver's licenses -- neither was in a hurry to get one, and we didn't push for it either.  But this, we decided, was the summer for the boy child to get his license.  So driving every day was the routine.

Last Thursday, the boy child went for his road test.  And he passed!!!  Hooray!  Now here in NY, the tester gives the successful test-ee something that is basically a receipt that serves as a temporary license (along with the test-ee's driver's permit) until the real thing is mailed to the person.  So I couldn't take a picture of the boy child with his new license yet.  But I did take a picture of the boy child as he was about to leave on his first ever solo drive.

Congratulations, kid!  You are an official driver now!

Our elusive girl child came home this past weekend as a surprise belated birthday gift to me.  She also gave me a lovely, delicate little bracelet, which I love!

She's back to her own home and work now, but it was so nice to have her visit.

Here are a few pictures of the boy child and his companion.  I love this series.

And yes, I was watching all the royal baby news last week!  lol!

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

Mia's current position on my lap

I'm so spoiled

As I said I would, I started the A Needleworker's Sampler Huswif straight away.  Here is my progress so far.  I am so enjoying stitching this!

Last week was my birthday.  And I was so spoiled!  Which was very nice, since the day before my birthday, I got my colonoscopy done.  lol!   I'm good for another 10 years and it's done now.  Anyway, like I said, I got spoiled!

First, my lovely friend Laurie of Corgi Cottage sent me all of this!

Which when opened, looked like this!

Here are two pictures of the above, so you can see all the goodies.

Fabrics!!!  Prince Charming fabrics from Tula Pink (OOP!), and lovely Batik fabrics, which I love!

And then look at all this!  More fabric, two notebooks (I love stationery!) -- one with my Mary Mccallester on the cover, a thread holder fob from Marly of Samplers and Santas,  a beeswax lovely from Country Stitches Brenda Gervais (which I had been wishing for!), two Keep Calm and Stitch On needleminders (I'm obsessed with the Keep Calm thing), a cat thread holder (Mia approves!), a Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries holder with goodies inside, and some Mary Ellen's Best Prest -- which will come in handy for my future quilting.  Wow!  Thank you sooooo much, Laurie!  You know me so well!

Then Paula from Kelmscott Designs sent me a present as well.  I love her needlework accessories!!

Look!  She sent me some note paper, a pair of beautiful Vintage Scissors (I'd been eyeing those!), some  MOP Ewe thread winders, and a MOP ruler!  Thank you so much, Paula!!!  I think I forgot to email you -- whoops.....

And finally, dear Nicola of Stitching by a Cornish Sea Shore and of course the famed Scarlet Letter Year blogs sent me a present as well.

Look at what she gave me!

A beautiful sewing caddy!

I didn't realize until later that the bottom drawer comes with dividers you can put in -- I put a couple in so I could put my sewing needfuls inside in an organized fashion.  I have my WIP stored in the top section, and I have other sewing needfuls in that little piece at the top, which can slide from side to side.

I debated what to put into the panels on the top of the caddy (it actually comes with the charts to stitch a couple of designs), and then I remembered a piece I had stitched years ago but never had a use for.

It fit perfectly!  It's Amy Mitten's With the Same MO Victim #4.  I have With the Same MO Victim #1 waiting in my stash, so it will go in the other panel.  I can't wait!  Thank you sooooo much, Nicola!  I love my new sewing caddy so much!

Mia wasn't very happy with all the new stuff around.  lol!  She got especially freaked out by what came with these.

My wonderful father type gave me flowers!  But they came with a mylar balloon that said Happy Birthday, along with a huge box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.  Mia didn't mind the box of chocolates -- she can sit on those.  lol!  But the balloon -- oh my!  She was totally freaked by it!  I mean big time.  She was so spooked, the poor thing.  I finally hid the balloon away in the basement where she never goes.  She slept with the boy child for comfort that night -- it's been too hot for her to sleep with the boy child, but she didn't care!  She needed some reassurance!  She's been sleeping with him since that balloon came, so she still might be afraid it might show up again.  She looks up at the ceiling periodically.  lol!

We did other birthday things.  Father type baked me a peach pie!

My next door neighbor and good friend Kathy (no blog) came to the rescue when it turned out our oven was broken.  Despite the hot weather (hottest day at 97 and very humid), she let the father type use her oven to bake my pie.  Thank you, Kathy!!  You're a life saver once again!

We also went out to dinner for one of my favorite meals.

And over the weekend, we went to that mall across the river to have some Johnny Rockets.  Yum!!

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

A wonderful gift

I don't have much to show this week.  I had some secret stitching to do (not model stitching), which took most of the week.  And then I just knitted, adding some more rows to my Wearwithall Stole.  Not enough to show, so I won't.  Boring post, huh?

But I did receive a wonderful gift from a dear friend.  Out of the blue, because she knew how desperate I was to take this class with Ellen Chester, but have never had the chance, she gifted me with her class kit for that wished for class!

It's the Needleworker's Sampler Huswif.  It even has my friend's needlebook piece that she started in class!   She also gifted me a couple of Quiltmania magazines that I didn't have.  I was bowled over by my friend's generosity!  Thank you so much, dear friend!  I know I already said it, but I just had to say it again!  I'm going to start this asap!

I'm still hoping Ellen Chester comes to my area to teach sometime.  The one time she was teaching somewhat close to me, DS was having surgery so I couldn't go.

My friend also seemed to know just what to get for Mia.

See that green thing?  It's a little toy bird that makes a tweety sound and has catnip in it and feathers on it.  Mia loves it!

The girl child came home for a short visit this weekend, which was nice.  She got to visit with her friends in the neighborhood as well.

Mia and the boy child:

Yes, the boy child is using Mia for a pillow.  (Don't worry, he wasn't really.  Mia wouldn't have allowed it!)

Mia was back to one of her usual perches this week.

You'd think she would be too hot with this weather.  But she still loves the sun.  And yes, she has her two little paws on the window.

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

Knitting along to Wimbledon

The knitting won out.

I'm up to the third color, a pretty blue.

I spent a lot of time watching Wimbledon.

Hooray for Andy Murray!  Also for Marian Bartoli, and the Bryan brothers.  But yeah, Andy Murray had me stressing out on Sunday.  lol!

I read somewhere that the superstitious said it was in the stars that Murray would win.  Seventy-seven years since a Briton had won Wimbledon, Virginia Wade, the last woman Brit to win, won in '77, and yesterday was the 7th day of the 7th month.  :D

Mia has been busy as usual.

(That's a mostly empty Poland Spring water bottle pack she's in.)

Mia's new favorite bed is a bunch of fabric and clothing my father sent from his house cleaning.  I have yet to get a good look through what's in the box.

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

little x's or knit purl knit?

I started a new project last week.  She's a beauty -- you've probably seen her around the blogging world.

Dorothy Walpole by Scarlet Letter

40ct Heritage by Picture This Plus (Colorscapes)

AVAS called for, plus 2 Belle Soie

Just a note: the lighter color in the strawberry in the border was too close to the darker color, so I substituted BS Pink Quartz.  I also didn't have AVAS 4241, so I substituted BS Biscotti.

I'm loving this one, although it took a while to get back into doing eyelet letters.  

And then I got totally distracted by KwiltyKim's knitting.  I had to look up that pattern to see what she was doing with those pretty colors.  And I fell in love.  

See what I mean?  I even got started on the knitting -- 360 stitches to a row.

I'm in love.  It's the Wearwithall Stole from the Wearwithall book.  Gorgeous!  And perfect for knitting during Wimbledon!

Mia has been putting herself in wherever possible.  I washed a quilt, and the next thing I know, 

Yes, she did that herself.  She's also been hanging out a lot.  And playing.

(The tunnel is from the kids' childhood.  We're not sure if Mia likes it or not.)

Great day at Wimbledon today!  All men and women out to play the round of 16!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week, and for those in the US, a great July 4!  Happy Canada Day to those in Canada!