I started the challenge!!

Hi All, thanks to those of you that took the time to read through my l*o*n*g inaugural post of 2013! I promise not to be so wordy in the future. Just a quick note to let you know about the 2013 Challenge offered by The Scarlet Letter Blog that I follow. We are doing a "stitch along" (SAL) and we have the year to complete it. We each will be sharing our choice of samplers and will post our progress. I'm a little late in starting but I'm now officially on the way! I decided to stitch two smaller samplers instead of one big one. This evening the first stitch will be in place! YAY! The first sampler is a miniature sampler and is stitched all in one color thread and will be mounted on a claret-colored cotton piece of velvet. The finished size will be about 2 1/2" X 3". Miniature samplers are a rare find according to the information on the chart. This is c1805 and comes from a private American collection. There is speculation that the miniatures were done on "childish whims" to decorate their dollhouses. The second one I will stitch is The Antique Alphabet Sampler and it is an original design by The Scarlet Letter based on alphabets of 18th and 19th century samplers. I absolutely love the colors in this sampler. The finished size will be approximately 4 1/2" X 7". More about this one later as I get going on it.