Excuse

Pain--has an element of blank--
It cannot recollect
When it begun--or if there were
A time when it was not--

It has no future--but itself--
Its infinite contain
Its Past--enlightened to perceive
New Periods--of Pain.

Emily Dickinson was right on, as she usually is.  I have just completed several days of pain, thanks to an unenlightened orthodontist from my youth who left me with reasonably straight teeth and a jaw vulnerable to all sorts of problems as the years went by.  I am hoping it's under control at this point, but I now know why the dentist said,  "You don't want that muscle to start spasming."  Indeed I don't.

Needless to say, I have not spent much time at my sewing machine.  Tensing any muscles was not a good idea and so, I am now several more days behind schedule on my goal of completing fourteen small quilts by the end of February.  But I did do a little pearl-cotton quilting by hand and today I finished the machine quilting on a larger piece, decided it needed a binding, not facing, and finished the machine part of the binding.  So I am getting back up to speed, if things keep progressing in the right direction, and may soon have a picture of an actual quilt to add to my blog.   I am, however, officially postponing my quilting marathon until I have a possibility of success.

And I am turning my thoughts to other things:

Don't you think this picture would look better with some snow in it?  I am ready to play with snow dyeing again, but the snow keeps missing us.