New Things

We have a new kitty!  We got her exactly one month ago today, and she was about 6 weeks old when we got her.  Her name's Curious George Eliot and she's absolutely wonderful and crazy and a pain in the butt.  I adore her.  This was her on day one:

 And these are her yesterday:

 She's grown so much.  She's not that little fluff ball we adopted anymore.  She's getting all sleek and shiny and already seems so big.  She's such a crazy little thing too though.  She bounces off every surface and attacks the carpet or a bit of fuzz.  She chases her tail and jumps and flips.  When she's been in her cage for the night or when we're not home and she's let out again, she'll follow you everywhere.  Sometimes I think she's afraid of her own shadow.  She's wonderful.  Oh George. :)

I'm participating in Feeling Stitchy's contest for embroidered book covers.  It's inspired by Penguin's new book covers for Emma, The Secret Garden, and Black Beauty.  So far I've done this one from Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies:

I'm really proud of this.  I actually had traced this cover weeks ago because I think it's just an awesome cover, and then there's this contest that ties in perfectly.  I'm definitely a book person though, so it's not such a stretch for me. :)  I tried to use a bunch of different stitches, and it's *all* stitched.  The hair is raised stem stitch, the jewellery and top of the dress is satin stitch, the skin and bottom of the skirt are chain stitch.  The black around the jewellery and in the picture is all back stitch and the whole thing is outlined in stem stitch.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It's really cool. :)  I have a few more ideas ready to go that will have bits of applique and stitching combined.  Hopefully they'll turn out as well as this one.