My fall pin keep exchange

Sandra was my partner for the fall pin keep exchange. I mailed this piece, Just a Little Autumn by San-Man Originals, back in August. I was really worried that it had gotten lost. Whew! So glad it made it to Barbados safely.

Halloween exchange

Amy was my partner for the Halloween scissor fob exchange, and she let me know that she received it (and liked it!). I stitched By the Full Moon by Ink Circles from last year's JCS Halloween issue. I stitched it over one and used some DMC Light Effects for the cording (more pics). I kept a pair of those Steweb scissors for myself too!

I'm currently working on Skeleton Crew again. I'm reminded why I hate Wichelt fabric--the fibers are too thin, and the weave is too loose. You can see through the thing like it's cheese cloth.

Chatelaine Rose and Butterfly Quilt pics

We finally managed to take pics of this humongous piece today. As you can see, there's a little wave to the fabric, but it's the best we could do. I have photos of the individual blocks too (graphics-intensive page).

Halloween giveaways on their way

I've selected winners for my Halloween giveaway and will be mailing those out tomorrow. I'll link to photos of the prizes so the winners can decide if they want to be surprised.

Giovanna won the spider cupcake giveaway.

Zeb, Tatyana, and Katri won the Blue Ribbon Designs giveaway. I say won, but they were the only ones to enter. Rather a letdown that so few entered, but I hope they like the piece and enjoy the package. They each get one of the packages pictured, and they'll have to be surprised about which one they get. The little lampwork beads are so neat to me, but I couldn't figure out a good use for them. Can you?

Thanks to all those who entered and read my blog regularly. It makes me happy that someone is interested in the little things I write here, and I appreciate it more than you know. Happy Halloween!

Gingerbread Tree Etui HD

I finished the Victoria Sampler tree, and I just love it. Can you believe it only took a month, start to finish? I can spot flaws, of course, but overall it came out well. You can see more pics on my website. I have the chart for the church, but I'm going to do a little Halloween stitching first. Don't forget to sign up for my Halloween giveaway of a stitched piece and goodies!

Halloween giveaway

Inspired by Annette and Melissa's giveaways last year, I'm doing one myself this year. Or rather a few. So that they make it to the winners in time, I'll do them all at once. One batch is from a Blue Ribbon Designs piece, and one is my spider cupcake I posted about a while back. I'll also include some goodies. If you'd like to enter, please email me at charmingtails@hotmail.com, put "Halloween giveaway" in the subject line, and tell me which drawing you'd like to enter (you can enter both but can only win one). You have through Monday. Comments will not be considered an entry but are welcome. :)

And happy Halloween!

Pincushion HD

I finished the pincushion that goes with my Victoria Sampler Gingerbread Tree Etui. I think I stuffed it a bit too much, but I'm happy with it. I just have the scissor case to stitch, and then I can start on the assembly of the tree. The page I linked to above has photos of the tree before assembly and a closeup of the roses.

The move: We've gotten the house in pretty good shape, and it's going on the market tonight. After the fires in Bastrop, the housing market has seen an upsurge, so now is the time for us to sell, even though we didn't fix everything we had planned to. We'd like to move to Austin to be closer to work. Mixed emotions about selling our first house together.

Roses from the Gingerbread Tree

I've been diligently stitching on my Gingerbread Tree Etui, a cyberclass from the Victoria Sampler. I love seeing Thea and watching her complete the stitches. Unfortunately I had to watch them after the live class since we went to the Hyatt on the first weekend and Sea World on the second weekend. Still, it's been a lot of fun, and I've finished stitching the four tree sides. Here you can see the roses on the four sides, each made with a different kind of stitch. I still need to bead the tree and stitch the scissor pocket before I can start assembling it. There's also a little pincushion I need to stitch.

I'm so looking forward to having this one sit next to my Gingerbread House. My chart for the church came in today too! They use a black linen for the roof, but I'm thinking of switching that to a dark brown.

Oh hey, and I think I finally found the magic button on my camera to make my closeups actually look clear!

Fall pin keep received from Sandra

I received this beautiful pin keep from Sandra. It's Fall Motif from Measure of a Year by Prairie Schooler, stitched on 28-count beige Jobelan. I love the way she finished it, with some of the cute backing fabric on the front too.

Gingerbread House HD

I finally finished putting together my Victoria Sampler Gingerbread House! See more pics of the house, biscornu, fob, and scissor case. I've had it stitched for a while, but I put off the finishing until I had completed Rose and Butterfly Quilt--I didn't have enough room to have both of them out at the same time. The finishing was very time consuming and had a lot of steps, but it wasn't that hard. The instructions were good, and there wasn't anything terribly tricky (much better than the Just Nan Trick-or-Treat box I put together). I'm very pleased with the results--so cute! I also redid the scissor fob that I wasn't happy with. I figured out what I had done wrong--I assumed the outline was over four threads like on the house--wrong. I also special-ordered some two-ply matboard, which made the piece thinner. Much better!

I finished this just in time to start working on the Victoria Sampler Gingerbread Tree Etui. The class for that is tomorrow, and I've been scrambling to get some preparatory stitching done on it. I'm looking forward to it. We had a trial run this morning, and Thea Dueck is great. I'm also planning to get the Gingerbread Church, but I figure I'll order it after I finish the tree.

I had planned to take a photo of Rose and Butterfly Quilt by now, but I need to get the other two adults to help me. On the day I was about to do it, the wind really picked up. That was also the day the fires started.

Texas fires: In case you hadn't heard, much of Bastrop burned. We were very worried for a while, but we look safe now. I had all my finished cross stitch pieces boxed up and waiting to evacuate. Logan's daycare hasn't reopened, so we're having to work with him at home. Not easy, I can tell you!

Anniversary: Matt and I have been married for eight years today. Best decision ever!

Diet: At long last, I'm back on track. As much as I hate eating protein, I decided to go on the South Beach Diet. It has really worked. My appetite is down to nothing, and I stuck to the diet even through all the stress of the fires. I've tried South Beach before and had mixed success. I don't remember it cutting the hunger this much. It could be the combination of the diet and the Lap-Band, I guess. I've lost 53 pounds total now. Though I have a long way to go, I'm dreaming of skinny days!

Band Sampler Round Robin - Sweetheart Tree

This is Karen's piece. She chose Sweetheart Tree as her theme for the band sampler. I loved stitching on this with all the pinks and green. (Excuse the poor photo. I don't know why I can't get my expensive camera to actually focus.)

I also finished Rose and Butterfly Quilt! The beading took forever and wasn't my favorite. I need to get some helpers to help me take the piece outside and try to get a decent picture.

Still going

I'm still working on the beading of Rose and Butterfly Quilt. There's a lot of it, probably more than in any piece I've stitched. Oh, and after I had beaded the middle block, the one with my initials, I realized that the designer didn't center the motif. It should have been moved to the right one or two stitches. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it looks odd once you notice it. And of course now that I've noticed it, I can't NOT see it. Argh! That will teach me to look objectively at a design before I stitch it.

Linda's round robin

Here's the section I stitched on Linda's Drawn Thread piece for our Band Sampler round robin. I took sections from Summer Arbor. Fun!

I also finished the stitching on Rose and Butterfly Quilt. I'm working on the beading, but I ran out of Nymo. The beading is rather annoying to me, but I can't wait to have the piece finished so I can move on to something else. I enjoyed working on it, but enough already.

The health thing: So I got an ear infection and couldn't hear for more than two weeks. I also had to go to the ER because of severe abdominal pain (think almost passing out) and bleeding. They didn't find anything seriously wrong with me, so I guess I'm OK. No food poisoning or infections. Oh, and it was fun trying to explain to everyone that in addition to being sick, I couldn't hear what they were telling me very well. That's what you want when you have needles stuck in you and have to do things for the tests. Huh, what?!

On the weight front, the doc has put me on Wellbutrin in an attempt to treat the carb addiction. It works for smokers, so why not? I'm not eating a lot, but I'm eating junk and can't seem to stop. It's worked pretty well for the month I've been on it. If nothing else, it's giving me enough energy to work on the house. Working your butt off makes you lose weight too!

Autumn RR

Here's the piece I did for our autumn round robin. (If you're interested in doing a future RR, check the bulletin board.) The other five members will each add about 1.5 inches worth of bands following the autumn theme. My bands are from the Trilogy's Autumn Line Up. I will add bands to the other members' pieces too. Their themes are Teresa Wentzler's borders, Just Nan, Sweetheart Tree, the Drawn Thread, and the rainbow. Our first mail date is July 5. I'm looking forward to stitching on everyone's pieces!

Rose Quilt block 15

The end is in sight! One square left, and then it's on to the beading. I'm not looking forward to the beading, I must admit, though it will be nice to see the effect.

Matt and I are working on the house so we can put it on the market. This has been cutting into my stitching time, unfortunately, not to mention the fact that all my craft supplies are boxed up while we move furniture around in my bedroom.

Gingher Elena scissors

I went to Ginger's in Austin today. I found a pair of Gingher Elena scissors, which I've been looking for for a a while. I'm so excited about this! If you need a pair, you can call Monday to get one: (512) 454-5344. She had three left. Let me know if you plan buy to one. If no one's interested, I'll post to the bulletin boards to get them sold.

So the rest of the haul... I was there ostensibly to pick up the two-ply mat board I need to finish my Victoria Sampler gingerbread house. I also picked up some beige Jobelan for a fall band sampler (sign up for the band sampler round robin here by June 15), the Trilogy's Autumn Line Up chart to go with the round robin for inspiration, and two JBW Designs Christmas ornament charts. Now I'm not much into stitching Christmas ornaments, but Ginger's had a JBW Designs trunk show, and the ornaments stitched over one are just adorable. I couldn't pass them up.

Matt and Logan played with the toys Ginger's has brilliantly put aside for that purpose, and I had myself a blast. I had so much fun knowing that I could buy what I wanted within reason. We still have tons of debt, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. It makes a world of difference. Now to not add too much to that debt...

I'm famous!

I showed off my ladybug adaptation in a comment on the DMC site, and they reposted it. I'm famous! :)

Rose and Butterfly Quilt block 14

This block took a little longer because of vacation and my addiction to Laurell K. Hamilton (more on that later). The basket didn't have any backstitching in the chart, like the instructions and the other three baskets prove that it should. I asked Martina, and she said to just use the other baskets as a reference if I wanted to backstitch it. I wasn't quite happy with that answer (which is also what she said to do about the antenna for the third butterfly) -- I felt the chart should be corrected -- but I got it done. I did restitch the butterfly's antennae, and I like them better now.

Laurell K. Hamilton: I read her Merry Gentry series first, and there's sex all over the place. I then read her Anita Blake series, which began much more tame, though still violent. Then eventually this series began to be about sex all over the place, with multiple men. They say that what you write reveals more about yourself than about the characters. If so, then wow. The strange thing is that I can find many flaws in the books and really would like more story than sex, but I really want to know what happens to her characters. They're fascinating. I guess that's the proof of a good author. One more book from the library and then I have to wait on her to come out with new ones.

Cupcake critters

I made the spider pincushion recently from a DMC pattern. It was the first time I had used memory thread (basically thick thread with a copper wire inside). I like it! (Matt had to point out that this is not a spider but a harvestman since it doesn't have a separate head and abdomen.) Oh, and I'll be giving away a spider pincushion in October, along with some other goodies.

I adapted the pattern to make the ladybug pincushion for my mom's friend, who's crazy about ladybugs. I think the trickiest part is finding a ribbon or cording to go around the piece. The surface is uneven -- the top is taller than the bottom, so a ribbon with no stretch just kind of hangs there unattractively.

Vacation: We recently went to Galveston and stayed at a nice (but expensive) hotel on the beach for the weekend. We finally found a vacation Logan enjoyed! We went to the Rainforest Cafe. For those of you who have never been, the restaurant is jungle themed and has animatronic animals that go off at set times. The first time the monkeys started moving, Logan clapped his hands over his eyes and refused to remove them. I was very disappointed because I love this kind of thing and hoped he would too. He eventually watched the show and even enjoyed it. Outside, a volcano spit flames and smoke, which was awesome. The food's mediocre and overpriced, but you go there for the show, not the food. We also went to Moody Gardens and saw the aquarium, which Logan actually paid attention to (unlike Sea World the previous year when he was two and a half). We took a paddlewheel ride around the bay; that took too long to hold his attention. He really enjoyed the beach and playing in the sand with his toys, even though he had to wear a jacket because it was cold -- yes, Texas in May. Weird. He didn't want to go in the water, so I carried him and waded into the waves up to mid-thigh. He clung to me like a monkey so he could watch the waves. I wish we could have stayed longer.

My husband the engineer: Matt finished his last class and is now an electrical engineer. He starts his new job tomorrow. I am so proud of him. It's not easy going back to school. I can see why he couldn't manage working 60+ hours a week and going to school. School alone took all of his time. It's nice to have my husband back. Even doing housework together is fun.

Promotion for me: I'm getting a promotion at work and will be a supervisor again. I haven't been a supervisor for about eight years because I'm a full-time telecommuter. Work is going to try to get me an office in Austin, but it's still not the same city as the people I supervise. Challenging but not impossible!

Rose Quilt block 13

Not far now! I went back and added the antennae to the last butterfly I did. Martina said she had forgotten to give him any.

We're going on vacation this weekend to Galveston. I've been agonizing about what stitching to take with me. I don't want to take anything I can't wash, and I don't have anything like that ongoing right now. I don't really want to start anything new -- the desire isn't even there, which is weird. I'm on a mission to get my WIPs out of the way. But it's either start a new small or have nothing to stitch on (unthinkable). Decisions, decisions....