I wised up with my book purchases some time ago. I realized I liked looking at craft books more than I liked owning them; I have a small-but-growing stack, and a realization that I don't actually need to keep many books. Keeping books leads them to eventually be part of cataloging and Keeping Up With and then sadly part of Clean ALL The Things. Those just aren't as fun.

My rationale: save my book-purchase money for the books that I just can't get through interlibrary loan, or books where $book->value > $cleanALLthethings->time.

I've had a couple of projects on my mind today, projects I haven't added to my quilt list or spoken much about, but which have been difficult to stop thinking about. One has been brewing behind the scenes for a while, and another I just committed to today.

I mentioned recently that I'd been holding off on Adam and Brenda's quilt until I had my skills up, and that it was time to get started, because I had the skills. I picked up the very soothing English paper piecing, and the last thing left to do was master foundation piecing. If that last sentence didn't make any sense to you, the short version is that if I take my intended finished block design, break it into component parts, and print it onto some easy-to-tear paper, I can use the paper as a direct template to sew complicated patterns with dead-on accuracy.

I've been putting it off because...

1. I didn't know how to do it
2. I needed skills I didn't have
3. The prospect of trying this terrified me
4. That's a lot of damned appliqué

But here I am. It's been over a year since I've touched this project ... it's time to get started. I've had a design in mind for some time, but it took a while to articulate it into even a simplified design -- each time I drew it, it got simpler and simpler and simpler.

This has been going on -- for four stinking months:

The infamous thumb brace
by domesticat.

If you're curious, it's De Quervain's tendonitis. If you put your left hand in the position shown in the photo, and pull your thumb in tight against your hand, then you've just made a silly gesture with your hand because someone on a blog told you to do so.

*sheep!*

If you then extend your thumb out to form an 'L' shape, and you want to scream with pain when you do so, you have De Quervain's tendonitis. Congratulations. Now quit doing things that hurt yourself.