Jill Rensel Framing - Alhambra and Mira Mermaid RR

This was my first time getting anything framed by Jill - and I know it won't be the last - she did an awesome job and I am so pleased. And she wasn't anymore expensive than going somewhere locally, even with factoring in the shipping!

Here are some close ups so you can see the detail.

I took this picture next to the accent wall so you can see that the mat matches pretty good. It actually hangs here over the fireplace on a cream colored wall, but I think the colors will play nicely off of the opposite accent wall color.

Mira RR finished

This came home to me probably over a year ago now and I finally got around to finishing it off. I stitched the baby in the lower left corner when it came home and the girl with the knitting needles before she left. I had lots of help from several other ladies who stitched all the other designs. I designed this layout to fit in a standard 11 x 14 frame, so as soon as I find one I like at the store I'll get this framed up. Might be awhile though, so I thought I'd share the happy dance now. :)

Heirloom Stitching Sampler Progress

This one is just flying by - I think I should finish it by summerish time with no trouble at all. :) Unfortunately I'm probably gonna have to skip the fair this year though. :( We are planning on going to Disney one last time before Alex moves up and outta here, and the only week that works out for the special booking dates for our deal and around the kids extra-curriculars, and my boss's vacation schedule is the same week that the fair judging is. *sigh* Ah well, maybe next year. I can hardly complain about going on a nice vacation.

1843 Catherine Eleanor Blain

Not the clearest of pictures this time. I finally lept into the 21st century and updated my phone to a Motorola Grasp complete with QWERTY keyboard and camera. I took these with the camera - the 1.3MP is obviously not as good as my usual camera, but I wanted to try it out and was too lazy to retake them.

I finished another name on Mother's Tree and started St. Basil's Cathedral. Katie really, really wanted me to start on "her castle" so I caved and started it for her.

I'm planning to change some of the backstitching on the cathedral to make it stand out better against the white opalescent fabric.