Hello! My name is Ann, and since there seem to be so many of us I go as Ann70821. I live in the United States, in Louisiana to be exact, and I've been stitching since I was a little girl. I love needlepoint and cross stitch, and I'm hoping to learn to crochet in 2009 so that I can finish an afghan my mother started years ago!

I'm nearly 50, married for 3 years now to a wonderful man (a first marriage for both of us in our 40s!) no children, but several cats. I work part-time helping out at the nearby Catholic school with the extended-day program for 3 hours, 3 days a week. Other than that I do research for political campaigns.

I'll be stitching the Beatrix Potter Sampler on 35 count linen from Vikki Clayton in either the white (which is really a lovely, soft, antique white) or Kodiak (a light, soft, golden beige color) using a varigated floss she made from several of her Fish Pepper shades. I've got to do a bit of test stitching on both fabrics to see which one I prefer for this project.

I like stitching Quakers, Christmas designs, primitives, fun little quick pieces like those by Lizzie Kate, and samplers in general. I'm also always on the lookout for Revolutionary War (Spanish Colonial soldiers especially) Civil War themed stitching (Confederate, naturally!) and Napoleon themes since my husband is a re-enactor (and a dead-ringer for Napoleon).

Some of my favorite designers include Prairie Schooler, My Big Toe, The Sampler Girl, Needleprint, Carriage House Samplings, 4 My Boys, Little House Needleworks, and too many others to list here!

I'm currently stitching a series of Name Trees from Nouveau Encore Designs to have made into ornaments for various family members as Christmas presents.

In addition to Beatrix Potter, my other big project for next year is The Summer Ball by Sandy Littlejohn. I've got the kit and I've started to grid the fabric so that it will be ready to start after Christmas.

I work on all types of fabric and I like to use both silk and cotton floss. My two favorites are the silk floss from Vikki Clayton and the wonderful vibrant colors from Carrie's Threads. (One note about Carrie's, I always rinse, rinse, rinse, and rinse again before using her threads because they are not color-fast! But they are so beautiful that I'm willing to go to the extra work! And actually, I rinse all my threads except for DMC just to be safe!)

And finally, thank you Hazel for organizing this SAL and inviting me to be a member of it. I'm really looking forward to sharing our love of stitching, and to seeing all the wonderful versions of Beatrix Potter that we create!