Subversive toile

After sitting through an incredibly dull Medieval Lit class on the Pastoral in grad school, I'm finding my latest craft project mighty satisfying.

Brian asked me to sew a dust cover for our keyboard and I couldn't think of anything that wasn't deadly dull, or too flashy, or something I'd get sick of after a week or two of living with it. But then I saw the toile creations on the blog Historically Inaccurate and knew there was the answer. At first glance this looks totally normal, if a bit twee for my taste:

but then you get a little closer...

and see that the piper is blowing bubbles

and the little dog is smoking a pipe.

It has been a while since I've done embroidery and I've had to pull out a few tangles, but it is coming back to me. I'm loving contemplating these pastoral scenes and figuring out how to corrupt them. My favorite so far is the viper lady (click on her for an up close view of her yellow eyes and forked tongue!):

I can't embroider while watching a movie on TV or reading, like I can with knitting, and the keyboard cover is pretty big so it'll be a work in progress for a while. But I'm getting pretty hooked on this craft and might have to make myself some matching pillows for the couch.