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!

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.