In my stash I have quite a few vintage threads that I have inherited or bought from yard/estate sales.  Included in these I have some perle cottons that are on wooden spools.  While Josie was here visiting I had the perle cotton organizer open on the floor while I was stitching.  She kept sniffing the older spools, I figured they must have really interesting smells and didn't think more about it until I reached down to pick up the pink thread that was on a rosewood colored spool.  It was wet, I guess the spool must have tasted good.  So in my collection I now have thread that has been kissed by Josie.

I only did one more variation of the herringbone stitch for TAST.  I also will be doing the Stitch Along with the Hand Embroidery group on Stitchin Fingers, so I will be able to experiment more with this stitch later on.  I'm posting a picture of the last herringbone variation along with my buttonhole stitch variations.  I have this week to work with the detached chain stitch then I will be caught up with the rest of the TAST group.

Other than finishing up the TAST stitches, I need to go shopping this week for a new blouse to wear when Kerry and I go see The Phantom of the Opera.  We will see the show on July 2 and then spend the next day together going to museums and just visiting, we also have to make a trip to Umberto's for calzone.  Since I will already be in the Tulsa area I'll go on up to Owasso and spend a couple of days with Steven and Jess.  That way I get to visit everyone and also save on the cost of gas.

I just received a phone call from Pam saying that she had received her package.  This started out to be a quick and easy little project.  Had planned to make a small boot shaped needlebook.  While I was drawing the details I decided that the sole and heel of the boot should be a different color, then the foot, toe and leg shaft should contrast.  The leg shaft looked bare so it needed some embellishing.  Do you see where I'm going with this?  The little boot took on a life of it's own and started telling me what it wanted to be.  Pam likes western things and whenever we have round robins or challenges, you can count on one of her "not wants" to be flowers.  So out of sheer orneriness, I had to embroider flowers on the boot.

The front of the needlebook.
 


Click on images to enlarge.

The inside back of the needlebook.

I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights which made for not feeling the greatest.  So in the midst of having a pity party for myself, I received this postcard in the mail from some special Skrappy Ladies.  

Cheered me right up.  Thank you!

When the creative muse pays a visit like this, the only thing I can do is just go along for the ride.  The current project was just supposed to be a small, quick, get it in the mail project.  But it has taken on a life of it's own.  Outside of the sewing room I think about all of the things I need and want to do, then the second I walk in the room this little project leaps into my hands and the channeling begins.  I'm amazed when I take a break to look at what I've stitched, because I'm not really planning the design, it has progressed far beyond what I initially envisioned.  I'm not saying that it's a "great" work of art, but it's not the simple little project it started out to be.  Still isn't finished, but below is a pic of the progress.

The leaves I had planned to do were a lazy daisy type, but that's not what I starting stitching, I like these better.  That's what I mean about channeling, my brain has one idea but my hands do something totally different, almost like they aren't my own.

Yesterday, instead of finishing the cleaning out of the guest room, I decided to spend the day in the den of good intentions doing some stitching.  Six hours later I emerged, never having picked up a needle. 

I started out looking for a certain thread and ended up sorting ALL of my threads.  All of the silks, overdyes, buttonhole twists, metallics, etc..... are grouped and stored together.  The only ones that are sorted, but still homeless, are the DMC cotton flosses and the hanks of perle cotton.  I'm going to look into getting a multi-drawered rolling cart or carts for storing them.  Due to my purchases and the kindness of friends, family, and strangers, I have enough cotton floss to last several lifetimes.

Hopefully there will be stitching over the weekend.

Most of Sunday afternoon was spent working on the new CQ project.  I really need to come up with a name for it, instead of always calling it the "world".  For as much time as I spent working on it, there's not a whole lot to show.  Between steroids and not breathing well, everything from thought process to execution proceeds like cold molasses.

I added some lazy daisies to the tops of the dk. blue chevron stitches.  On the wavy silk, I emphasized the waves with running stitches in a variegated perle cotton the same colors as the background.  Then attached a piece of  hand dyed rick rack left over from a seascape challenge with friend Marsha.  While rummaging through the bead boxes I came across the tiny lavender flowers and thought they would add a little more interest.

The blue satin was begging for something of interest in between the two feathery designs, so I added a glass fish bead.  Will probably add bubbles also, either in beads or french knots.

Also good news on Dad's recovery.  He is off of oxygen and will be moved to the rehab ward soon.