Progress - Peacock Embroidery Challenge Piece

I have just returned from a lovely camping trip in the Saguenay region of Quebec.   We saw whales, visited a lovely flower garden and an injured bird sanctuary, rowed in an athabaska canoe and we hiked the fjord.  We met some great people, sang around the campfire and stayed at the once home of the legendary Felix Leclerc.  We had great weather - not too hot, not too much rain (except for a giant thunderstorm one night).  I took lots of pictures....

Then I returned to an unbearably hot Ontario!!   What a week!  I have spent most of my time just trying to stay cool.   Not too surprising but since my return I have had a cough and congestion which seems to come and go with the amount of humidity in the air.

Before I left I posted about our latest Out of the Box/Canada Beading Supply challenge.  I brought it with me on my vacation and have made some progress.   Here is what I have done so far.  I'm working my way through the 'eyes'.

 

The 'eyes' will each have the caramel colour, then turquoise with a dark bead in the centre.  I still have to do the beak and real eyes.  The finished piece will be 10 x 20 so there will be more work along the two sides - probably need to keep it simple so as not to distract from the flamboyant peacock.   I still need to use a lot more white and turquoise thread and a bag of beads on this (part of the challenge rules).   I am really enjoying the embroidery and these silk threads and have more ideas perculating.

I also finished framing the floral piece for my friend Dyanne's birthday and gave it to her on thursday.   I think she likes it!

I am also starting another challenge piece with the them "From a Book".   I'm not sure I can manage to finish all of these but I will try.  If only the weather would co-operate.

Here are a few photos from my vacation.  More to follow once I edit them.  These were taken in Parc National du Fjord du Saguenay where we stayed for 5 days.  We loved it!   The first is our campsite where we were visited by chipmunks and a remarkably sociable hare.

We hiked over one of these peaks to see a statue - up one side, across a relatively flat area then down the other side.  then we had to do the whole thing over in reverse

We dipped our feet into this cool salmon pool