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!