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......

Moon Dance

My latest impulsive start - "Moon Dance" by Prairie Moon.I don't think my fabric is quite so yellow in person...it is a scrap of 30-ct. Meadow Lark linen from Birds of a Feather. And I've swapped out all but 2 or 3 of the flosses called for!! I just couldn't see buying more hand-dyeds, especially for the small amount needed. I was going to buy the floss for the dancing girl's dress (GAST "Deep Sea") but my LNS didn't have it, so I got some Crescent Colors' "Bejeweled" instead. It looks almost the same - as the picture, anyway, which is what I based my swaps on - and I like it!

I also need to rave for a minute about Vikki Clayton and Hand-Dyed Fibers silks. A week or so ago, I decided I wanted silks for Just Nan's "Mermaid Heart." So I sat down with the pattern and Vikki's conversion tables, and put together something that I thought/hoped would work. And then, 2 minutes AFTER I'd submitted my order, I saw that Vikki had a pre-done substitution package for that pattern. D'oh. So I set a quick and desperate email, hoping against hope that someone would be able to cancel my order...and Vikki replied, quick as a wink! I re-ordered the substitution pack, and assumed all would be right with the world....
WRONG.
Somehow, the ordering system did not use my updated address. And since the last time I ordered from Vikki was over 2 years ago, when we'd just moved and were living in an apartment, I was afraid my silks were lost forever (my mail forwarding order has long since expired). I felt so bad when I had to send Vikki ANOTHER email and explain this. But she promptly replied again, took full responsibility for the error, and sent out a second batch of flosses! What wonderful service. And beautiful flosses, too!