A small start

I finally finished the model I was working on yesterday, so last night I treated myself to a Halloween design start. I'm actually going to stitch up both of these JBW Designs charts, as they are pretty small, and should go quickly; then I plan to finish them as one ornament:

I'm going to start a model for Tempting Tangles in a couple of days, so probably won't have much stitching to share for a while again. Today I received the chart for a reproduction sampler that I stitched for Karen Kluba last year:

I've never stitched a reproduction piece before, and it was kind of neat to think about the original stitcher as I worked. I'm not sure what the two little things are above the house, but they sure look like flying turtles to me (and the larger motif to the right of these might be a space alien!):

These were stitched over one thread on 40ct, which was not an easy feat at my age; the entire verse was also worked over-1:

This one definitely felt like a big accomplishment when it was done! Karen said that she would be sending some more of my finished models back to me soon, so I'm anxious to see which ones they are. Of course, I don't have much more room to hang anything--this is the sight that still greets me when I sit down in my craft room:

On the new kitten front, we had to have a name change. When I took Sophie in for her rabies vaccination, the vet informed me that "she" was actually a "he"! Now that the shock has worn off, I'm happy to finally have a male cat, as I've never had one in the past 19 years of cat ownership. He is really affectionate, sweet and yet still pretty ornery; here he is (now named Bobby, as Sophie just wouldn't do!), laying on top of his sister Scout earlier today:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Two framed, one finished

Last Tuesday I got the call that I had been waiting for, letting me know that my framed pieces were ready to pick up; within half an hour I was at the gallery!

First I'll share Wherefore Art Thou, which I absolutely love! When I chose the fabric for this, I wanted it to look like a stone balcony in the moonlight, and I tried to keep to that look for the framing. I chose a suede outer mat in a darker shade than the fabric, to maintain the texture in the fabric and make it look like darkened stone in the background, and a silver inner mat to highlight Juliet, almost like a spotlight in a stage production. The frame was chosen to complement the colors and give the feel of a carved balcony:

It's almost anticlimactic to share The Blossom Collector, which I had framed without mats because the fabric provided enough interest by itself:

This past Saturday I received my Curtis Boehringer Happy Halloween piece finished by Sue Hillis, and she did an amazing job with it:

Both Gracie and Sophie approve of it (though I have to make sure to put it somewhere they can't get to it and rip those ribbons to shreds!):

To those in the US, hope you have a relaxing Labor Day, and to everyone a great stitchy week!