Rose and Butterfly Quilt block 11

Here's another update. I'm cruising along now that I've hit my stride with the piece. I hope I can keep it up!

And on to the good news! Matt got a job! The offer wasn't spectacular, but it's pretty good, and he really likes the place. He thinks he'll enjoy being their quality engineer. We're going to be moving to Austin as soon as we can sell the house. Of course that means we need to work on the house first. Ugh. I'll keep my current job, but I can't be a supervisor or get a promotion if I'm not in the office (I telecommute). Bummer. I need to figure out what I want to do with my career now.

Matt has a competition in Albuquerque next week, and then he has two killer weeks of school and finals left. It will be nice to see my husband again someday soon. Imagine me married to an engineer. I've joked that the engineer is the natural enemy of the technical writer. We do tend to think of things a little differently, but we also have complementing strengths. He's a good writer, but he's not artsy like I am (finally something he's not good at). And me...while my brain has to be able to organize information logically, etc., in order to be a technical writer, science and math have not been my strong points for a long time (yes, I used to be good at math a long, long time ago). Let's just say we make the perfect team. I know I couldn't imagine a better partner.

(Might be nice if he cross stitched with me...but at least he gets it.)

Framed pieces

My two Jill Rensel masterpieces are in the house! And they are huge! I'll try to take some photos when I have them on the wall to show scale.

Rose and Butterfly Quilt block 10

Here's the latest installment of my monster Chatelaine. The initials were a little tricky to figure out because you need to center the letters, not their little swirls. Martina had charted the M (because it's her initial, of course), but I had to figure out where to put the B. An added irritation was that I goofed on the placement of an eyelet at the bottom, which threw off the letter placement. That's right, I had to rip out over-one stitching--always a pain in the backside. But hey, it's done, and I like it!

My framed pieces from Jill Rensel should be coming in any day now....

Diet: I've been working on getting my Lap-Band to the right fullness. Unfortunately, during this last round I got overfilled. Ouch. I could hardly eat anything, and I woke up many, many times at night choking on acid reflux. Yesterday the doctor removed some of the fill, and it's such a relief. I'm also getting better restriction, so we'll see if this works.

Framed pieces from Jill Rensel

Jill sent me some photos of the pieces she's framed for me. They should ship out Monday. I am so excited!

The first piece is my biggie, The Awakening by Heaven and Earth Designs. Click to get a bigger pic so you can see Jill's amazing painting on the mats. She's a true artist.

The second piece is Castle Sampler by Teresa Wentzler. This is the piece I stitched on before and after Logan was born. I actually took it to the hospital but didn't get to stitch on it (drat). I remember stealing a few minutes here and there while recovering in bed. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Jill has certainly done the pieces justice, and I can't wait to see them in person. If they're this gorgeous in photos, they'll be even better in person!

Easter cushion

I made my little Chatelaine freebie into a cushion, the first one I've made of this type. You can see more pics of the sides and back. I'm pretty pleased with it, though it took longer than I thought it would. I was a little tired of stitching quite so many pink flowers! You can't see the sparklies in the fabric well, but I definitely like the effect here.

My floss finally came in, so I can work on my Halloween pieces again. No photos of those because I'm planning them for a giveaway in October. Muahaha!

Jill Rensel has a blog!

For those that don't know, Jill Rensel is an amazing framer. She's currently working on two pieces of mine. I recently found out the URL for her blog where she posts pics of pieces she's done. So beautiful.

Rose and Butterfly Quilt block 9

Here's the latest block. I figure that I can finish a block every two weeks if I stick to it. That's the plan anyway. My threads for my other small projects have shipped at long last, and I'm looking forward to working on them too.

Diet: Good news on that front. I figured out that my 25-year class reunion would be in 2012, and in order to be thin for it, I'm going to have to hustle. I seem to work well with a deadline, so it's really motivated me. I've begun walking on the treadmill again (20 minutes a day at the moment). I've also stuck to the diet fairly well. Eight pounds lost in the first week, so I'm finally encouraged. Your comments also helped; they were very touching. I know I'm not the only one daunted by weight loss. Thanks for the support. :-)