And I'm Back!

Well, after 5 days of the stomach flu and 3 days of stitch-ins and kids' birthday parties, I'm finally back to blogging.  I have lots of fun pictures to show!  First, most of my silks for Deep Blue Sea came in!  Yay!  There are still 4 or 5 back-ordered.  I've heard a little rumor saying that everyone is having problems getting Glorianas.  Even a certain website that sells the Chatelaine kits.  If your kit from them is running behind, it's probably a problem with Gloriana themselves.  I started mine on January 1st on 32 ct. Black Lugana.  But that was not the color I really wanted.  I really wanted a navy/royal blue, possibly an opalescent.  So I found a wonderful home for the black lugana (Thanks Cassie!) and I bought a half yard of 32 ct white opalescent linen and several blue dyes.  Last night I mixed a royal blue with a navy blue dye and I think the color I achieved is perfect!  Here it is after rinsing:

The lighting is kind of odd, but the bottom half is a more accurate picture of the color.  I like to bead with a color matching the fabric, so I dyed a skien of DMC white while I was at it.  Tomorrow, I'll soak it in retayne and hopefully, I'll be able to post a floss toss and progress picture later this week.

Friday, I went to my LNS for a stitch-in.  I drove all the way there (35 miles) just to realize that while I had brought Persephone with me, I had forgotten the pattern.  So I looked through my bags for fabric and I looked through the patterns that my friends had with them that I knew I had in my stash also and I decided to work on Pretty Peacock from the Joan Elliot Ultimate Collection.  This pattern is the main reason I got the book.  He's so handsome!  So I started him on 28 ct. Dusk by Zweigart.  It is a beautiful overdyed fabric with splotches of pink and blue.  I have decided that Zweigart's fabrics are my favorite to stitch on!

So this is about two days of stitching here and there on Pretty Peacock.  Since I cannot have a project without a name, I've decided to name him Argus.  Sounds odd, but hang with me.  You know I have a story behind the name!  In Greek mythology, Zeus was infatuated with a young woman named Io.  When Hera, Zeus's VERY jealous wife (and his sister, silly incestuous gods), found out about Io, she got very angy.  So Zeus turned Io into a beautiful white cow to protect her from Hera.  In an effort to make Zeus admit his adultry, Hera tricked Zeus into giving Io to her as a gift.  She put Io into a pasture under the protection of her most favored and faithful servant, Argus.  Argus was a cyclopes, but he was a very special cyclopes.  He had eyes all over his body: his hands, feet, 3 on his face, etc.  Zeus, in an effort to reignite his affair with Io, sent his demi-god son Hercules to slay Argus and return Io to him.  Hercules succeeded (this quest was one of the legendary Labors of Hercules) and Hera was heart broken over the death of her friend and servant.  To honor Argus, she placed his eyes into the feathers of her favored bird and sacred symbol, the Peacock.  That is how the peacock got the eyes on its feathers and how my Pretty Peacock got the name Argus.



Thursday night, when I was finally back to normal, I got back to stitching Persephone.  Here she is with her skin all done:

Now I get to start the fun part, her tail!  I've been looking forward to trying out all of the colors I've put together for her!  Hopefully they look great together.

And finally, I have a couple of non-stitchy finishes.  I've been working on Q-snap covers and I got a couple done before I ran out of elastic.  I sell them for $10 each which includes shipping.  I'm going to be posting pics of more over the next few weeks because I need to liquidate my inventory of them before our possible move.

Please feel free to email me if you're interested!  I have most colors of fabrics and can accomodate most size/color requests!  TTFN!