Exchanges sent and received, plus a finish

Phew, I've been busy since I came back from Cape Cod!

First, I finished this little basket for Edgar, as part of the ABC Exchange over at HOE.

This is "Eliza's Pyn Pillow," a freebie from With My Needle.  I stitched it over-one on a 28-ct. linen from my stash, using my own choices of over-dyed flosses (I'm pretty sure the blue was my old stand-by favorite, The Dye is Cast's "Bluebells").  I finished it as a basket top.  To give you an idea of how big it is, that basket lid is about 3 inches in diameter.  I put a little cushion inside, so it could be used for pins (or other things!).

(Muriel wanted to pose with it....I'm afraid she ended up hogging most of the pic!)

Over the weekend I received my exchange piece from Mylene.  I don't have the card she sent with me right now, but I believe she said this is a freebie.  You can't see the back, but there is a scissor pocket there, and hanging from my sewing machine is a matching fob.  Everything is lovely!  Thank you, Mylene!

(Muriel: perhaps if I sit here on the sewing machine, I can convince my hostess to do a bit more sewing.  Look, she is coming over to move everything!  Wait, she's carrying the cover for the machine.  Drat.)

 And finally, I finished the Mermaid Sampler.  I really love this - and you should have seen my daughter's eyes light up when she saw this picture.

The glass mermaid was one of my purchases in Cape Cod, at the Heritage Museum's gift shop.  She is just so delicate - the stitching she is posed with is no more than 3 inches wide, to give you an idea of her size.  The sampler is stitched with the kit materials, although I DID make one tiny personalization.  I added an aquamarine bead to the center of the mermaid's crown...