I've had a busy day. To see what I've been up to you can read this.

Guess what? Reinaldo came home yesterday afternoon after a couple of days in the field with a package under his arm.















It was the purple package from Kaye Turner. WOW! That was super fast in getting here!

Apart from the lush purple pretties that were intended for me...















... Kaye has kindly included another pack of mixed fabric scraps for the group I'm planning to start shortly, as well as ribbons, beads, and threads and other bobs and pieces, as Nilo says :)

Thank you so much for your generosity Kaye! I love it all... but promise to part with at leasy half of it... and your package of pales and textures will be on it's way to you shortly (now that I have your mailing address again!).

This is fun! :)

I have a big headache. Too much sun. But I'm stitching the panels down on my latest creation, the "Leafing into Spring" bag, otherwise known as "Islamic rain". Arlee is one astute lady ;}















I have woven a single metallic white-gold thread through the buttonhole stitching. Adding a subtle sparkle. In Kaye's package there was a small wound of organza and satin white gold ribbon... it's very tempting!!!

Little stitches...

Little stitches are remarkable things... which, inspite of their smallness, can bring about huge changes.















I am just starting to over-stitch the black and gold artifact cloth that I made over the weekend, and said was probably going nowhere. Well... you never know!

I'm finding I like very much what these little metallic thread stitches do to cloth, (but definately not liking what the cloth does to the metallic thread! It strips it down and knots it up and it's a total pain in the arse to work with this stuff! Anyone got any wise counsel to offer about that?)

Seems I'm not the only one here who's busy working small right now.















I love these crazy spiders that set up camp all over my house, particularly around the kitchen and dining room. A long while back, I blogged about one of these spiders over at the Los Charcos de Osa blog page,(which has been static for over a year now, but has some interesting stuff on it about life here). You can catch that post here. Stitched heart and all! (Arlee, how are you with arachnids?)

This beautiful little spider... actually, it's not that little once it reaches adulthood!... has the most fabulous metallic silver(!) thorax, and just look at those gorgeous stripey legs. They remind me so much of Jude Hill's black and white magic thread, which I think she has used to great effect here (and if you're in the US, while you're at it, please use that text info to donate 10 bucks to the American Red Cross for relief to Haiti!)

Thinking about it, Jude Hill is quite the spider... as she goes about carefully and lovingly stitching her magic cloth(s). (Jude, everytime I try a new catagory link on your site, I am delighted to find many pieces/posts that I haven't come across previously!)

And while we're on the subject of magic threads... check this out. It's a fabulous blog by Embellisher who is a gorgeous looking Indian female textile designer, based in Bangalore, India - which is my favorite spot on the globe right now - electronically speaking!

And then there are these magical Artfabrik threads by Laura, which Arlee Barr blogged recently here. They are such delicious color ways and they all have such delicious names to match! Even if I could afford some of these fabulous threads, I'm not sure I could choose which ones I would like to have most. Hmmm....? Let me see...

Burnt Marshmallows
Snakeskin
Copper Queen
Oasis Twilight
Indigo
Shadows
Wild Rice

So, there's my wish list!
And it just so happens that today is my birthday! ;}