Wahoo Wednesday

Well, something like that. :)  It's two "W"s so it sounds good, right?

Quilt-y stuff:  The MOST Wahoo! part of today, was that my learning-to-quilt student and I were finally able to resume our lessons.  She is such a dear, sweet young woman, and eager to learn.  She homeschools three young ones, so there are some interruptions, and I have to say "Better her than me."  The kids are good, and she's very good with them, and I'm sitting there trying to stifle laughs because of the dialog at times.  

She is starting with a very simple structure of just 5" squares pieced end to end in rows, with no specific pattern - scrappy.  She got pre-cuts for most of the blocks, but also cut some of her own because she found a fabric she really liked.  (Isn't that how a stash is born?) And I was amused as she showed me the tools she used with which to cut them.  She had a cutting mat and a rotary cutter - all good though the blade seemed a bit dull.  However, she didn't have an acrylic ruler, so she laid her fabric along the marked lines on the mat and using those and a metal ruler (like an engineer? might have) was able to cut her fabric.  I think she will be purchasing an acrylic ruler in the near future!  I suppose she could have gone completely retro and used scissors :)

I also showed her a few gizmos that I personally like to use, and a few tips to sew an accurate 1/4" seam.  She has a basic machine but doesn't yet have the 1/4" foot, nor does her machine allow her to change needle position and the feed dogs extend well beyond 1/4" to the right of the needle.  It does have a small indented mark that reads 1/4" about an inch or two in front of the needle.  I placed blue painters tape in a line along the front of her machine as a guide - the machine also has the top loading, visible bobbin, so the tape couldn't be placed over that unless she wanted to remove it every time she needed to change the bobbin. 

Health stuff :  I'm praising God that my health is returning, though there's still just a little yuckiness feeling in my chest.  The back pain is back to 'normal' - note, I did not say gone for it is never gone, just better than the days (weeks) it flares up.  The yuckiest part of today, is I think I'm going through medication withdrawals.  Over the last few weeks/couple of months, I've had rounds of antibiotics, Vicodin, codeine cough syrup, and six consecutive days of a Prednisone (steroid) treatment.  The steroid has been the most recent having finished up the night before last, and this morning I woke up feeling very much equivalent of 'medicine head' or jittery and shaky, very weird and not something I'm acquainted with.  It didn't dawn on me that that was what it could be until I was on my way to my PT appointment and confirmed as likely after talking with a friend who was on steroids awhile back for an even longer period of time who had experienced the exact same feelings.   I am feeling much better now.

I'm having PT 3x / week, and was assigned stretching exercises today to do before I get out of bed and after I go to bed...and anytime during the day I feel I want to lay down and do them, hehe.  The part I enjoy about PT the most is having the electrodes attached to my lower back and then I get to lay on this giganto moist heat pad with my knees bent for 15 minutes.  Today, she didn't hear the timer go off and left me there for about 30 minutes...aaahhhhh :)