Quickie

Good morning, my friends. I'm writing fast today because I need to leave in about two hours to meet up with Matthew. I'll tell you what we're doing in a minute, but I want to add that I'm also writing fast because not much happened here yesterday. My morning started as usual, taking the first stitches on Block 6 for "Home is Where My Flock Is." I neglected to take a picture before moving my hoop, and so some of the stitching is outside the hoop on the left.

In general, I stitch six lengths of thread at any one sitting (two lengths of 6-strand floss, separated into lengths of two strands). While I was stitching, the outer side of my stitching hand...the little finger side...started to hurt. I'm used to pain in the knuckle of my index finger, but I can't recall ever having my little finger knuckle hurt like that. I spent a good part of the day trying to determine what caused it. I think it had to be the topstitching on the Northern Wilderness blocks. Those are stitched very close to the edge, and with so many nooks and crannies on those blocks, possibly I had my hand in some sort of stress position that caused inflammation. In any case, it put a damper on my stitching for the day.

My hurting hand didn't stop me from getting out to hoe the garden, though. Smitty kept watch for invading forces, and so I was completely safe for my gardening tasks.

Mike was prompted to get outside and do the mowing too. It was our one day of sunshine interspersed with several days of rain. Oh yes, and the jays and crows would like to point out what a bad bird parent I am. See that peanut feeder? Empty. They'll empty that feeder in less than an hour, and so I make them wait for the next refill. Those peanuts are kind of expensive.

Okay, and so I sat around for a good part of the day. It was getting close to dinner time when I decided to try stitching some more on the quilt binding. My hand was still hurting, but stitching the binding didn't make it any worse. I was able to turn the third corner. I'm about two-thirds of the way around. It won't get finished today, but maybe tomorrow.

Okay, and so there probably won't be much time for sewing today. As I mentioned, I'm leaving in a couple of hours to meet up with Matthew. We're going to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) to take in their current exhibit, Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. For some reason, I've always had a fascination with the Titanic disaster. Possibly it was a movie I saw as a youngster, entitled "A Night to Remember." The film was made in 1958. Sheesh...dating myself, I guess. In high school, a history teacher gave us an assignment to write a paper about something "historical." We could write about anything we wanted...anything at all. I chose the Titanic. And, of course, I saw the more modern version of the movie with the Jack and Rose characters as well.

So with my titanic obsession to the shipwreck, it was an easy choice for our rainy-day meet-up to decide to see the exhibit at OMSI. It should be interesting. OMSI is a Portland favorite destination, and there's always something interesting going on there. In fact, the Portland Astronomy Club we joined recently is affiliated with OMSI somehow. The museum also features a planetarium, and so it makes sense.

So, that's our outing for the day. I'll take pictures if I can. For now, I'm going to try to get in some slow-stitching before I need to get ready. My hand is feeling quite a bit better today, but still a little bit achy. I'm hoping whatever happened is on the mend. It's my stitching hand, and so my life practically depends on it. Fingers crossed it continues to improve...but maybe on the other hand.