Embroidery update 1 -- running stitch

I've been asked to give a plug to In Stitches, the e-magazine published by Quilting Arts that featured an article about my daily embroidery project.  Since I jumped the gun and ran the post last week, I'll occupy my appointed day on the blog hop with an update on the project itself.  Meanwhile, do check out the magazine!

I'm still working on running stitch as the latest stop in my travels through the embroidery reportoire, trying to make it my own rather than just lifting the technique from a book or from somebody else's work.  I wrote earlier about the gorgeous running stitch technique of Julia Caprara, and I've kept up with it since the post.  But in the small confines of a 4-inch square there's not much I can do to develop a personal twist.  The doodles keep turning out faux Julia, but I'm still working on it.

Now I'm trying to do other things with running stitch.  Here are a couple of spirals, shamefully lifted from -- no, I mean inspired by -- a recent work by Christine Mauersberger.

And here are some plain lines.