So I was frantic to try to get a couple pieces done before I did my post for the month.  I almost got both done – but a few missing Mill Hill Treasures are thwarting the second finish for another week.  Since I’m already late for the month, might as well get it up!

June was a good month for me stitch-wise.  I focused the entire month on a few pieces that were close to being finished.  I underestimated the amount of stitching required for one of them, but managed to get a long time UFO done, almost finished another, and rewarded myself with a new start that I probably didn’t need – but it’s been screaming since I bought the pattern.

So… the finish first!  This is Walk in the Woods by Cricket Collection.  Long-time readers of my blog (or friends of mine on Facebook) might recall that this is one of two unfinished piece I found in my mother-in-law’s stash after she passed away five years ago.  I vowed to finish both pieces.  Garden Sampler was finished in 2010.  I finished Walk in the Woods on July 6th.

It’s stitched on 18 ct Aida that’s a very, very light grey.  Colors are all DMC as instructed.  I freeformed the signature to include both of us.  I honestly don’t know when Debbie started this, sadly, so I couldn’t include a start date.  The chart was published in 1988.  I’m guessing it was after the dye change in DMC, though, because I didn’t have trouble matching new bobbins to what she had originally stitched.  When I found it, it only had the top border, the A, the B, and the E completed, including a counting error that even I didn’t catch.
I do have to thank Kris a lot for her help on this.  Last year we were involved in a UFO round robin together, and with only one rotation round left, one of my other pieces came home.  I had to scramble for something practical to send… and this was really the only thing at the time that I could come up with.  She did a tremendous amount of the work to get it going again.  When it’s framed, I’ll be adding her name to the description label I’ll place on the backing paper.

Very happy this one’s done.  I’m hoping to get it framed and give it to my husband to hang wherever he’d like it placed.

Next up is the almost finished Mirabilia round robin from last year.  With some input from fellow stitchers, I decided to swap out Venetian Opulence for Enchanted Mermaid in the bottom central square.  I’m glad I did – she looks great.  If you’re thinking she looks a bit different, you’re right.  I flipped her backwards so she’d be facing toward the left to balance the piece 4 and 4.

I know I ordered and received all of the treasures I needed to complete the piece, but sometime in the last couple weeks, three packs of treasures went wandering and I’ve searched everywhere.  So I’ll order again.  I have some other beading still to do, but it will be easier and more efficient to just string everything together, so I’ll wait until those treasures come back in to finish it up.  I imagine it’ll only take a couple hours at this point.

Of course, that means that the day after I finish the piece, those three packs will turn up, right?  :)

Next up is Smoky Mountain Cats from Pegasus Designs (aka “the field of blue”), which also went out for a round robin last year.  I thought I could finish this piece last month, but completely underestimated what was left to do.  Still, I did about 10 hours on it and got a decent amount done (the super dark colors on the bottom, plus a little extra).  As of right now, this is one of the three longest-running UFOs I have.  It’s an easy piece to work on the train, so I may start keeping it in my work bag for the train, and just working a little at a time.

It’s one of those pieces that’s a bit frustrating.  It came as a kit, and the thread quality is pretty bad.  In hindsight, I could have swapped out for DMC and probably would have had this thing done by now.  I think this piece is the reason I refuse to buy kits anymore.

Sooner or later, though, it will get done.

Hopefully!

The final piece I worked on in June is Witchy Washy, although I really didn’t do that much on it.  I finished the witch hat and started the basket that sits on the ground underneath the clothes line.  It’s may be a total of an hour of work.  But still – it’s progress, and I expect this piece to be done easily this year.  If it’s not done beforehand, I’ll probably bring it to Stitchers’ Hideaway in October, where the 10th anniversary retreat is themed as a Spooky Retreat to work on all things Halloween.  :)

This is one of the few pieces that I know where I’m hanging it once it’s completed… the door to the laundry room, of course.  :)

So that was it for June.  Since I’m a bit into July, I figured I’d also share the two pieces I’ve been working on:

The Inn at Fox Run Mill by Little House Needleworks is my current “travel” piece for my commutes. I’m stitching it on 36ct Shale linen from Picture This Plus with Sullivans threads.  It’s the first time I’ve worked on it since February, when it was my piece to kill time while stuck in Rhode Island’s jury duty lounge.

All week, I’ve just had this goofy “Happy Little Trees” going on in my head – in the style of Bob Ross – as I’ve been stitching those branches.  No idea why it popped in my head, but apparently Bob Ross influenced my psyche more than I thought during my childhood mornings!

Finally, my start from yesterday afternoon – Quaker Compass by Rosewood Manor.  This is the first Rosewood piece I’ve done, and I’m already loving how she does her designs.  The charts are great and clear, and there are so many little extras in the booklet, it’s insane.  I bought this in April at Celebration of Needlework after seeing the model on the wall (it’s STUNNING), but felt the need to play with color a bit.  I’m working this in Threadworx #1157 on Picture This Plus 36 ct Stirling, which is a gorgeous silver with the slightest blue and green tinge to it.  I know this photo’s a bit blurry… my cell phone is back on the charger.  Will get a better pic up next update.

Anyway, this is my progress since last night.  Thanks to the heat and the Game of Thrones marathon on HBO, I stitched most of the day today.  :)  My plan is to do all of the stitching except the sampler letters in the Threadworx.  I’m going to match the greens in the thread to solid DMC shades (one lighter, one darker) to do the letters, since the green is the least apparent color in my particular batch.

This is my first quaker piece, and I think I’m already hooked!

So that’s it for me for WIPocalypse updates.  Happy stitching everyone!