March YOTA = Two Finishes!

Hello Friends!  I am actually a bit early for this months YOTA post.  You can check out what YOTA is all about and what other stitchers have been up to in this SAL here.

 

Well I continued working on Diamond Avenue by Bucilla and I actually finished it on February 7th just as the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics was finishing up on US TV!

 

Here is the overall pic of the finished piece.  Sorry it is sideways but I can't figure out how to change it... :(

 

And here is a closer image of the last house with the backstitching completed and my initials.

 



I am so happy to have finished this project up finally and it is my 2nd finish of 2014 and it's only February!!

 

My second YOTA finish that is actually my 3rd finish of 2014 is a more recent WIP Mill Hill's Post Office.  I started this project back on September 18th as a retirement gift for my Dad who retired from the US Postal Service after over 30 years of service.  You can see earlier pictures of my progress here, and below is the blurry finished image from my phone.

 



                              

I finished this piece last Saturday February 22nd!  The beading on this piece really slowed me down until I tried out my Beadalon Tacky Bead Mat.  The ability to dump out a small amount of beads from the bag onto the mat and not worry that they would fall or get lost in the folds of my sofa was so great.  Also they were much easier to stab and get onto my needle. 

 





                              

 

I customized  this design a bit by stopping the design short of the snow and pavement in front of the building so that I would have room to add my Dad's name and the years he served with the United States Postal Service.  Also before finishing this one I had a small mix up with not reading the directions and completing all of the green curved garland with red beads.  I'm sure no one would have noticed but I thought that green garland made more sense so I went back and fixed it.  My Dad was very pleased with his gift so it made all of the long hours spent beading on it worth it. 

 

I am so happy with both of these finishes as I now have TWO less projects in my WIP pile!! 

 

 I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and Happy Stitching!