Gift received

I was the winner of Catherine's giveaway and kept forgetting to take a picture of what she sent me.  Every single time I remembered, the camera was in another room, or it was an awful time of day with horrible lighting.  Finally, almost a week later, I got a snap.  I thought I was getting just the Chessie & Me chart, but there was a fantastic bonus in the envelope, overdyed floss needed to stitch the design!  Catherine, not only do I thank you, but my mother thanks you, and my own summer-time designs thank you since this means they get to stay with me and not migrate to mom's house.

It goes like this.
Mom:  Oh, that's a nice piece you're working on.
Me: Yep, I really like this one.
Mom:  I know the perfect place to hang it.
Me:  But, I was going to keep this for myself.
Mom:  But, I like it.
Me:  Just because you like it means I'm supposed to give it to you?
Mom:  Yes.

For 3 years I kept my Celtic Noel out of her hands.  Guess where it is now?  Its been on "loan" for 5 years.

This year mom spent a good portion of time at my house, helping me out after an ankle surgery (I couldn't walk for 7 weeks, and didn't drive for 8 weeks).  During that time she had a great time snooping exploring my house.  Is it really a hint when she dumps a stack of 20 charts on my bed next to me and says "I like these"?  And then adds, she doesn't have any patriotic stitched items, and she'd happily borrow one of mine until I got something stitched for her.  Borrow?  Yeah right.  To finally get to the end of the rambling, she's going to get this, and I get to keep my stuff.

I feel the need to add, she also tried to say she didn't have any autumn type stitched designs, then I had to remind her of at least 4 items I'd given her, either Halloween or Thanksgiving related.  I wonder which piece up in the loft she had her eye on.

This might sound like complaining, but I swear it isn't.  Its nice knowing she loves my work, and has a great appreciation of what goes into it.  If I gift her with a stitched piece, I know it won't end up in a garage sale or in a dumpster.  In fact, it took me over a year to convince her that yes, the biscournu really is meant to be used as a pincushion and she won't hurt it.

Despite what it may seem, I actually have been doing some stitching, just not really taking pictures.  However, Carol's iStitch SAL forces me to take pictures if I want the next part.  Here's my part 5.

iStitch Mystery SAL stitched on 35 ct WDW Grape Ice
with HDF Old Maid of the Vineyard

I still have no clue what I'm going to do with this, since its too big for the original intent, since the linen was mis-labeled.  Oh well, I'll figure it out later.  Hopefully I can take some more stitchy pictures later today, since I leave on a road trip tomorrow.