GG, TUSAL, IHSW, EIEIO

I don't blog for a week and suddenly I'm behind on three SAL check-ins.  But first some news on the guest cats.  Molly and Olivia are now in the care of the wonderful folks at Feline Foundation of Greater Washington.  One of the first rescues I contacted back at the beginning of this saga texted me with their information and suggested very strongly that I call them, so I did.  Forty-five minutes and  several emails with pictures, etc. later, they tell me that there is someone very interested in Molly and a waiting list of people wanting long-hairs and/or Maine Coon cats so they don't expect that Olivia will have to wait too long for a home.  I dropped them off Friday and sniffed and had watery eyes the whole way home, my brain knew my part in their story was going to be short but my heart didn't get the message - I don't think I'm cut out to be a foster, but I know this is an amazing chance for them to find wonderful homes.  So onto SALs....

 is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  It is a way for us to thank the generous people that have gifted us with stitching things, or to show things we're stitching as gifts or anything we can shoehorn into that criteria.  Two of my pieces are perfect fits for this SAL as they are gifts, but they are also part of  my  post.  IHSW is hosted by Joysze at Random Ramblings or on Facebook by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching.  IHSW takes place on the third full weekend of each month and is a wonderful excuse if you need one to sit and stitch for the weekend.  I worked on three pieces this weekend and as I mentioned two of them fit with Gifted Gorgeousness.

My main focus this weekend was Goldie.  In the last few minutes of Sunday I had a page finish.  It went from here:

to here

This is the fastest I have ever stitched a Heaven and Earth Design page.  Fingers crossed that I can keep it up.

Japanese Zen Garden went on the frame this morning.  When I showed it last, it was here:

And right now, it's here:

The majority of this was done last weekend, I have only stitched one rock and the blue stitches on the outside there.  The open areas will be filled with beads and specialty stitches.  I want to finish the cross stitches in the next section out before I start adding all the bling and fussy stuff. 

I had a bit more progress on By the Full Moon.  Not sure if I will finish it before the Smalls SAL deadline, but will give it a try.

 
And finally TUSAL.

TUSAL is hosted by Sharon at It's Daffycat. Another no stress SAL - just save all those bits that you'd normally throw away in some sort of container and post a photo each new moon.  Mine are accumulating nicely.  I'm pretty stingy with my thread, so it always amazes me how many ORTs I collect every year.

I'll be working on Zen for the rest of the evening - gotta love long weekends.