The last of the stash has arrived...

I know.  You were worried ;-)

My sterling silver from Silkweaver arrived yesterday.   As for the color variations on it, it is VERY subtle...so much so that when I first saw it, I wasn't sure if it was hand dyed at all LOL    Honestly, it's not that different from the confederate gray I recently got (although twice as expensive).   All in all though it's true to the color sample on Silkweaver's website and I think it will do nicely for the it's intended projects.

As always, I was compelled to do a floss toss, although it's a great neutral fabric that you could put just about anything on and have it look good.  The blue undertones in the grey make it a really nice alternative for mermaids to using a blue.   

Here's Queen Mermaid.   I think it's a better choice than the Amsterdam blue I was originally going to do her on.  My fat quarter of blue has been returned to stash and I'll pair it up with something else another time.  

There's a lot of bling on Queen Mermaid (which I haven't yet gotten) so I chose a cashel (28 count) instead of my usual belfast (32 count) so that it's not such a struggle to get the Mill Hills to sit straight on.   I am also considering switching over to using Delicata beads in the future, which are slightly smaller than Mill Hills and sit better on 32 count over 2 fabrics like my beloved belfast. 

She'll be the next in line for a Mirabilia start...can't wait!   I think she'll actually work up very quickly, as mermaids seem to do.

And here's her companion, Deepest Love.   There's more blues in the coloring than in Queen Mermaid (which has a lot of greens) which is another reason the gray background works well for both of them.   She has some beading but not quite as much as Queen Mermaid;  again, added bling is on the wish list but I haven't gotten it yet.   

I consider a project ready to start when I have pattern, fabric & floss...I can always buy the beads/metallics later.   So if you're keeping count, that's three Mira mermaids I have ready to go now.  Ack! 

The model for Deepest Love is actually on the Amsterdam Blue I nixed for Queen Mermaid, but I think she'll look lovely on the gray.

I'm not sure when I'll fit in doing Deepest Love, but I figured if I wanted to do her on the same fabric as Queen Mermaid, I needed to buy the fabric at the same time, especially as it's a hand-dyed.  

I'm really happy that I decided to do these two as "companion" pieces.   Having the same fabric really pulls them together I think, and eventually (when I hit the lottery and can catch up on my framing) I'll have them framed in the same frame, same size.   I may not ever hang them together but I like having that as an option.

So I performed surgery very carefully and split my fat half of fabric into two fat quarters and have packed away these lovely fish for now.