Just keep stitching

Thank you for all the good thoughts about DH's job. He actually had an interview last week, and is still feeling quite optimistic. I also spoke with our daycare provider, and she said we could pay half-rate for a few months and then "catch up" once DH is employed...this is good to know, however, I hope we don't have to take advantage of it.

On the stitching front - I was at a library conference last week, and spent a few evenings in a (VERRRRY uncomfortable!) dorm room in Plattsburgh, NY. With nothing else to do, I stitched! And I finished Prairie Moon's "Moon Dance." I posted last time that this was a 30-ct. linen -- I was wrong, it is actually 36-ct. So my little moon dancer is quite tiny! But I still love this piece. I substituted for almost every color - the only colors that I used as called for are the green vine (GAST Dried Thyme), the stars (GAST Copper), and the top - darkest - layer of the ground (GAST Maple Syrup). I have my full list of substitutions somewhere, but I doubt anyone is THAT interested...and besides, keeping it to myself means that this piece is entirely MINE. And every time I look at it, I think of my daughter the dancing girl, the three unsuccessful pregnancies I had prior to her birth, and sometimes (when I'm feeling quite self-important) me as the moon watching over them all.

With "Moon Dance" finished, and a bag of silk flosses sitting next to my chair calling my name, I didn't see a good reason not to start Just Nan's "Mermaid Heart." The fabric is a piece of Sugar Maple Fabrics' "Dolphin Dance" that I've been hoarding for years now...I think it is perfect. (There is a bit more blue/green mottling in the fabric that doesn't show very well in this picture, at least not on this computer.)Some of the aqua blues may blend a teeny bit, but I actually like the effect.

Oh, and I also have an idea for Stitch Bitch's challenge that I need to get started on......