This is what I'm sporting for a little while.  And, yes it is my right hand and yes, I'm right handed.  Recently I went into the doctor for swelling of my knee and wrist.  They took xrays.  Don't know what's wrong with the knee yet but they discovered a recent fracture to the triquetral bone in my wrist.  It's one of those small bones at at the base of your finger bones right above the wrist joint.  The docs said it had to have happened from a fall or a sudden bracing of myself.  Well, guess what?  I haven't fallen nor braced myself from falling. My hubby can't recall either happening either.  I asked if it could be a stress fracture since I had been doing a lot more cutting with the rotary cutter but they assured me that could not be the cause.  So, once again I remain a mystery.  When the injury first happened I thought it was tennis elbow as all the muscles in my lower armed really hurt.  Oh well.  Two weeks of wearing a cast isn't the end of the world but it is the end of cutting and sewing during that time.  Sorry for the blurry photo but trying to take a photo with my left hand was a challenge.

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LITTLE FACT OF THE DAY

Bones

I bet you're not surprised that my facts today are on human bones.  I thought I might learn a few things since one of mine decided to fail:

* The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately .11 inches (.28 cm) long.

* Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete, the Femur bone as it’s called – the biggest and strongest bone in our body. It is easily capable of lifting or supporting 30 times its own volume and weight

* There are about 206 bones in a grown-up’s body. But more than half of them are located just in our hands and feet

* There are around 14 bones are in the face, 8 bones are in each wrist, 27 bones in each hand, 23 bones are in each foot including the ankle and 30 bones in the skull.

*  Adult human bones account for 14% of the body’s total weight.

* Bones consist of 50% water and 50% solid matter. They are hard, strong and very much alive like muscle tissue.

* We have somewhere around 300 to 350 bones that we are born with. As we grow up, the number reduces to 206. Sometime around the age between 12 and 14, some of our smaller bones, fuse into larger, big and stronger bones

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THE WINNER IS......

Thank you all for entering the Beam N Read giveaway!  It was a lot of fun reading who you give the Beam N Read to if you were the lucky winner.  With the help of random.org, the winner is.....

Joanne Leandro

"Thanks for your giveaway...I think I would gift the light to my son who loves to read. It would make a great direct light source for those late nights curled up with a book."

Congratulations, Joanne!  I have sent her an email and she will be receiving her Beam N Read directly from the sponsor.  

And a big thank you to Bob at ASF Lightware Solutions for sponsoring this giveaway!

Don't forget that there are still Beam N Read giveaways being held.  Just go HERE to see a list of the current giveaways.

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Since the piece is on a frame, I can use the stick and stab method with very little trouble.  This is a new piece I started working on about two weeks ago.  The photo shows only half of the top row and some corner work.

Name:  Herbularius (available only as an online class so far)

Designer:  Chatelaine Designs - Martina Rosenberg

Fabric:  32 Count Antique White Linen

Threads Used:  DMC cotton floss, Needlepoint Inc, Silk, Caron Waterlillies Silk, Caron Wildflowers, Gloriana stranded Silk, Gloriana Florimell Silk, Dinky Dyes Silk, The Gentle Art "Simply Wool" and Rainbow Gallery Petite Treausre Braids.

Approximate Finished Size: 23 inches square

Start Date:  October 30, 2012

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SIDE NOTE

The wrist cast really makes it a challenge to type so I will be taking a brief vacation from blogging.  I will hopefully return on Friday, November 30.

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Tarantula

I decided to keep with the spooky, creepy again - this time Tarantulas.  Do these fuzzy spiders make your skin crawl.  I'm usually not afraid of spiders, but this one is a bit over the top for me.  Here are a few interesting facts about this large, hairy creature:

* Tarantulas were named after Taranto, a town in Southern Italy

* Tarantulas can only drink their food, meaning that they must liquefy anything before they try to eat it (the mouth is shaped like a straw)

* Tarantulas can grow to be 1 foot long (that's including their legs)

* The hairs on a tarantulas body have the power to kill small rodents

* Tarantulas having a bite that is deadly to humans is a myth (in fact, scientists are still trying to discern the effects of a tarantula bite)

* The oldest tarantula lived to be 49 years old

* Female tarantulas can live 30 years or longer in the wild.

* Tarantulas are quite docile and rarely bite people. And it wouldn't do a tarantula much good defensively to bite you, since its venom doesn't pack much of a punch. A tarantula bite is no worse than a bee sting in terms of toxicity.

* Tarantulas have retractable claws on each leg, like cats.

* Tarantulas can regenerate lost legs.

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A LITTLE QUILT

I made and turned in my latest little Loving Hands quilt last week.

I used the same pattern I've used before, Squares Upon Squares, but explored a bit with the quilting.  I did the normal anchor of stitching in the ditch and then added a large petal design.  This was quick and easy and helped me renew the feeling for free motion quilting.  The fabrics were some I had in my stash.  The green I've had for ages and it just happened to blend with the persimmon fabric from Connecting Threads that I bought awhile back.  It's hard to find a good place in my yard to take photos in the sunshine this time of year so please excuse the shadows.

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BIG FINISH

I finished my big stitchery project!!  And in plenty of time to get it framed before Christmas.

This piece was fun to stitch with the challenge of different stitches and using some metallic threads.  I'm ready to start another Chatelaine Design pattern.  It will be another Christmas gift but this time for 2013.  I feel so good to be getting such a head start.  

Design:  Desert Mandala

Designer:  Martina Weber / Chatelaine Designs

Fabric:  Antique White Belfast (linen - for those of you who do not stitch)

Stitched:  2 strands of DMC floss over 2 threads

1 strand of Treasure Braid over 2 threads

Started April 2012 - Finished October 2012

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FINAL THOUGHT