Mill Hill's Post Office Status Update

After finishing my two WOCS pieces I wanted to work on another small project that I can hopefully finish in a timely manner.  So I started the Mill Hill Post Office that is on my list of goals to complete this year as a Retirement/Birthday present for my Dad.  I think I started this one on September 18th and below is some of my progress on it so far...

I am almost getting to the point where I can start stitching some of the beads but for now I think I might go back to Birds SAL.  Thanks for following my progress and Happy Stitching to you!

Back with TWO finishes!

Hello Dear Stitching Friends,

It has been quite some time since I last updated this blog!  It was a busy almost month but the good news is that I have two finishes to share with you :)

They are both World of Charity Stitching pieces that I signed up to stitch.

The first is R is for Redwork it is a freebie from http://www.brookesbooks.com and there is a letter for each letter in the alphabet that will be turned into a beautiful quilt for a deserving person.  Here is my finished piece...

 
It is actually very small piece so I thought it would go a lot quicker than it did.  Filling in the cream color in the center seemed to drag on and take forever!  But once I was done the backstitching went very fast.  This may be the first time in history that I was looking forward to backstitching haha.

The second piece is for a Veggie themed quilt and I chose my favorite veggie...avocado!  I found the pattern at http://www.happy-stitch.net/2012/avocado-pillow-chart/.  I thought that this one would take longer but I think I might have stitched it in a shorter period of time than the first piece.  I stitched it on 28 count evenweave two over two.  Here is my first progress picture...

I meant to take a picture after every color but that didn't quite happen...Here is my next image about halfway done.

And here she is all finished!

This design stitched up rather quickly but I had a few small issues.  First the chart had symbols that weren't on the color legend so I had to look at the image and kind of guess on some of the colors where they went.  The colors of green and yellow are really not my favorite so I am actually looking forward to stitching the pinks and purples on Birds as soon as I can now.  Overall I think it turned out pretty good and I was able to get both of these sent away in the mail today so they can reach their destination in time!

Thank you all for reading.  I have been a very bad commenter lately.  I have been using the Bloglovin app on my phone so I have been viewing all of your posts and work but it makes it too easy for me to be lazy and not comment on your posts.  I'm sorry I will try to be more active with the comments again soon.

Happy Stitching,

Lulu :)

Birds Part 5 Finally Finished!

Well I know I have missed my weekly Friday posts but I have been trying like mad to finish up Part 5 of Birds by the due date of August 10th.

Here is where I was last time...

And yesterday on August 12th only two days after the next deadline I finally finished Part 5!!

Now there are only two parts left and the next one is very large and time consuming.  It is the large rose and leaf pattern in the bottom left corner above flipped and located in the upper right corner.  But I am taking a small break since I signed up for two small quilt squares for the World of Charity Stitching group I am part of and they need to be done by the end of August so I can send them back to the US in time.  Hopefully they will provide a nice break from working on this big piece also.  I am hoping to have some progress to show you on Friday, but until then...Happy Stitching!

Birds SAL Part 5 Progress

I am a bit late for my usual Friday update...but here is my progress.  I started Part 5 this week and last time I had finally completed all of the birds.

And yesterday I finally got in a small stitching session and was able to finish the first "bracelet" like I had hoped for.

Stitching this part has been slow going since lately when my daughter is taking her nap I decide to try to get a little sleep in too instead of stitching!  I am not sure how far I will get this week but the next part comes out August 10th so the clock is ticking...Anyways Happy Stitching Everyone!

Birds SAL Part 4 Done!

Well I got to stitch a bit more than I thought I would this week and I not only finished one of the birds like the goal I set but I finished all of them!!

Here is where I started out last week...

And here is where I am now!

I finally decided to turn the design the right way to take photos since I have so much more of the design completed now.  I am hoping that by next week's progress update I will have at least one of the "bracelet" pieces finished but we shall see :)

I also received some stitchy mail this week.  I ordered a ton of floss to get started on my first ever Heaven and Earth Design Mom and Baby Turtle and a few other designs for World of Charity Stitching.  Here is all of the beautiful floss...

And I also purchased some fabric from Hand Dyed Fabrics from Stephanie so that I can start one the Norway cross stitch on my yearly goals list.  Here is my new fabric!

It is so beautiful!  I picked this Enchanted color because it has both blue and green colors which I thought would look great with the blue ocean and green land part of the design here.  I was also pleasantly surprised when I found out that Stephanie is a Michigan based business so I am supporting someone from my home state.  

I can't wait to finish up Birds so that I can get started on some other projects.  Well I am off to start Part 5.  

Happy Weekend everyone!

Birds SAL Part 4 Week 3?

So I think this is the 3rd week I have been stuck on Part 4 but I'm not quite sure.  I'll admit it I was a little burned out on this design after my big placement error on starting the Birds part of this design.  It seemed like ripping out all of the stitches took forever!  It got a bit better when I found my seamripper tool from my sewing machine to help with the job though :)

Anyways here is where I was last week...

I hadn't quite finished ripping out all of the stitches.

And here is where I am now!

I really don't know how I did it but I think I had set a goal for myself to complete 2 of the 5 birds and I did it!!!  I was dreading starting on this WIP again but once I got started my needle seemed to fly and the birds materialized so quickly.  I am hoping that by next week I can maybe have one bird finished.  I am not sure though because my wonderful Mother In Law will be staying with us for a visit and I don't know how much stitching I will be able to accomplish.  I am very excited about her visit and am eagerly getting ready for her arrival :)

Thank you all for following my progress.  Hopefully at some point I will actually catch up with everyone else on this design.  But until then Happy Weekend and Happy Stitching!

July YOTA a tad late again...

Hello out there!  With all of my other stitching and my little girl skipping naps a few days I didn't get very much done on my Year of the Acronym SAL.

Here is where I was last month...

And I sort of went in reverse again.  I had got maybe 1/3rd of the border done in light yellow when I realized I wasn't going to have enough.  And I also realized that I liked the Chi and Omega sections better in light yellow than red.  So I took out the red in those sections and have started working the border in gold that I purchased locally in Oslo.  It is a bit thinner wool but if I do the same stitch 2 or 3 times it matches my other needlepoint stitches.

Anyways here is where I am currently...

Once again I am hoping to have this finished by next month!  It is such a quick and easy stitch compared to my other current projects I should just bite the bullet and devote some more time to it.  Well I hope that everyone else got more done than me this month :)