So What's Up Doc?

Thank you everyone for your well wishes on my last post. It must have worked because when I went to see the ortho it was both good and bad news. The bad news is it is still broken. LOL. The good news is he put me in a walking cast and said I could go back to work starting Saturday. WOOHOO!!!! I was so worried about how I was going to pay my bills if I was going to be off for 6 weeks. I have to go back in 3 weeks to have it re xrayed to be sure it's healing. Right now my foot and ankle and lower leg are all swelled up and purple and my toes look like little Vienna sausages. I over did it yesterday I think, but staying home was killing me. LOL.

My NEW best friend... sigh... it goes where I go. It makes it difficult to drive, but I'm getting the hang of it. I walk weird in it and it is beginning to hurt my back but it's better than having a real cast that when they take it off your leg is a puny little hairy thing right?



I did short little trips yesterday driving around town practicing my left foot driving. I went to the Goodwill, bank, a prim shop (they were having a sale I couldn't not go lol), and to the flea market. I got some great stuff at the Goodwill, but I digress. I went to the flea market mainly to pay my fee for next month. But to my surprise the lady said she was going to make room for me to expand. WHAT???? SWEEEET!!!!! I heard through the grape vine that she was telling customers that she was trying to find the room for me to expand because I had other ladies who make prim crafts too. Of course I do my bestest friends ever!!!! So this is going to be a joint venture with my friends. Obviously I don't have a lot of time to make everything myself so I think this will be awesome. With the bigger booth we will now have room to hang shelves and cabinets and signs!!!! It won't be for a week or two as she has to make the person next to me condense their stuff. LOL.

I have a big day ahead of me of painting and going to the Restore because last week Steve and I saw something there that would be a great wall for our booth. We didn't buy it because we had no where to store it and at that point we were still in our little booth. Now we have to see if it's still there. I hope it is. It was really cheap and it would be really sturdy. I have a whole bunch of ideas swirling around my head of new items I want to make, but we'll see. So have a great day my friends.

OH I forgot to answer the question was my freezer running or not???? NO...... LOL It had come unplugged. GGGRRRRR

Stupid Stupid Stupid

I'm sure some of you realize that I am a busy body. Well, that all came to a screeching halt Sunday morning. This is where the stupid part comes in. As if you didn't guess right? LOL. Let me create the picture for you...

I had just helped my daughter find something in the garage and we were walking up the basement steps. At the bottom of the steps to the right is my extra freezer. Well, I have been having problems with the stupid cord coming out of the outlet. So I had a really good way to make sure it is plugged in every time I look. I have a clothes iron that if plugged in has a red light that lights up even though it's not on. You see where I'm going??? Well, I had used my iron for my quilt on Saturday and hadn't put it away and it was facing away from me so I couldn't see the light and I couldn't hear the freezer running. So my daughter was in almost upstairs when I decided to come back down the stairs to check the freezer. I stepped and totally missed the last basement step. Next thing I know my ankle rolls toward the outside of my foot almost touching the cement, I hear a crack, and down I go. And being the big baby I am I screamed and started crying my eyes out. My poor daughter panicked and didn't know what to do so I told her just to go upstairs that I'd be ok in a few minutes. Next thing I know Steve is running down the steps and wondering what happened. My ankle and foot instantly swelled and bruised. I figured ahhhh it's just a sprain so I told Steve I'd be OK. I've rolled my ankle before. He picks me up and carried me upstairs to the couch. Poor guy prolly has a hernia from me. LOL. So for the rest of Sunday I kept it up and iced it. I didn't want it to get stiff so I walked as gingerly as I could all day and figured I'd call my doctor in the morning. I thought something was wrong later when I uhhhh could feel a pointy protrusion coming out of the side of my foot. So being the paramedic I am I told Steve to feel and continued to push on it. LOL. Don't worry I then wrapped my foot and went to bed. Are ya bored yet??? Anyway, so I called my doctor and of course he was booked all day. I asked the office staff to please ask him if he could fit me in and order an xray so I could get it done before he fit me in. I worked for him a few years back so he knows I don't just come in for nothing. He said OK but couldn't see me until 8pm last night. Mind you I had 2 CPR classes to teach during the day so I was on my feet all day. Boot on my good foot and a slipper on the foot that is now the size of a watermelon. Anyway, I hobble over to the hospital get my x ray and was told to wait and not go anywhere. They were going to let my doctor know the results. Needless, to say I was told I had to be on crutches when I came into the doctor's office later. Dang it!!!!! So of course I busted out crying. All I could say was I need to be able to work. I've always been told "if you're going to do it, do it well" I don't think they meant this. I have a broken foot in the bones before my little toe called the metatarsal. It is a spiral displaced break. Uhhhh yeah that pointy thing was a bone sticking out on Sunday night. LOL. Then the even better news was I have a high 3rd degree sprained ankle that he says takes a very long time to heal and I don't have much tendon and ligament strength in my ankle. I have an appointment with the ortho doctor today to decide if I have to have my foot pinned or if I can get away with a walking boot. That brings me to since I'm off work indefinitely with no pay, you and me are going to get real close. LOL. Heck I'll be getting lots of crafts done right? So that means I have to post more often.

So my sob story is over. I thought I'd show how busy Steve has been. He is just whipping stuff out. LOL. Most of this isn't painted yet. That'll be my job while I'm off. LOL. We went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore and got all kinds of goodies to work with. Saturday I had to teach all day so again I came home to this...

Magazine toilet paper holder.





We found this green colored board on Friday at the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Wooster. AWESOME!!!! spoon rack



I think this would look awesome outside with plants in both shelves.



The skinny table/ crock bench in the back is for me!!!! I will put in my dining room between my shelves Steve built me. He doesn't like the look of my old ironing board there. Though he just says I needed more options to choose from. LOL.



He LOVES making the candle holders can you tell? The spoon rack is cool too. Can't wait to paint it.





Of course I've been quilting A LOT the past few days. So I'll show you the progress soon. Now I have the time to get caught up with all of my blogging friends too! Steve says this time off is a sign that I needed to slow down a little. Maybe so I guess I'll see this afternoon when I go to the specialist.

Disappearing 9 Patch Part 3

I know long time no post on this quilt. I apologize. I have just been so busy. But fear not I have completed the next step. This post is a lot of do as I say not as I do. I screwed up. There I put it out there. LOL... So follow along and pay close attention.

Where we ended was sewing together the blocks to make a top.



The next part is very important. You must square up your top. I will warn you this can be frustrating if your seams are off a little. What I do is the best I can. I pick a seam that seams to be straight and measure off of there. (If you click on the picture you can see where I tried to measure from by the red arrows.) This is important if you are using a border. Basically you want to make each side is even. I will warn you my seams weren't always exact and some of my blocks look off. I tried to repair one before I squared it up.



You with me so far? LOL.

I decided I wanted a border. So I ran to my local fabric store and proceeded to be overwhelmed. I couldn't find what I wanted to use. sigh... I took my quilt top with me of course so that I could lay it next to anything I found to see if it tickled my fancy. Originally I thought I wanted two borders, but finally decided on one border. I had my crap er um quilt top thrown on the cutting table with the fabric next to it. I kept walking around it and stalking it to make sure I liked it. I looked at the sales lady and asked her thoughts. Then I couldn't decide if it was black or blue. So the lady went over grabbed some black fabric and laid it next to it. Uh that didn't help. It still looked black. I was hoping for blue. They had used the fabric in a display quilt and it looked blue. GRRRRR... now what??? I said to heck with it and bought it. Then the tough question... how much do you need??? UGGGHHH I forgot to measure it DOH!!!!!! Ummmmmmm well uhhhh I uhhh don't know. She just smiled and proceeded to measure it for me. What a nice lady!!!! So for you
I will show you what I should have done prior to buying my border fabric. I guess I didn't take a picture on how to measure your quilt top. Soooo...

When measuring your quilt measure your seams in the middle of your quilt. There should be one down the middle vertically and one horizontally. These are your most accurate seams. The further away you go the more distorted the seams become. Mine measured like 38 1/2 inches or something close to that.



So I decided I wanted a 3 in. border and that I would bind my quilt with the same fabric. That'll look good right? So I told the nice lady what I wanted and she helped me decide I needed 7/8 of a yard. So I told her give me a yard just in case. Listen to me carefully... If I were you I'd go a tad smaller border here's why. When you cut your border add 1/2 in. to the measurement. So I would need to cut my strips 3 1/2 in. so that I have 1/4 in seam allowances. Ok... so I squared off one of my edges to be sure I had a straight side....



I cut two strips of 3 1/2 in fabric the length of the fabric which is normally 43 to 44 inches wide. I then took one of the measurements (normally your vertical measurement) and cut the strips to match. Sew those two strips on the sides of your quilt top. Sew then press your seams.



So now we have to cut the top and bottom strips. Remeasure your horizontal middle seams. THIS is where I screwed up!!!! The three inch border now makes it impossible to cut a length of fabric to fit these two sides. GRRRRR... The horizontal measurement I got with the borders was just a tad bigger than the width of the fabric and if I would have cut the selvage edges off it would have been to short. So I left them on and decided I may have to make my binding a tad wider to cover those edges. Anyway...

OK all sewn on. You could add another border if you'd like. I'm sticking with one.



Now you are ready to mark quilting lines. I went and bought this little pencil to mark my quilt top. I think it was maybe $1.50. An Amish lady told me NEVER to use a number 2 pencil because sometimes it doesn't come out. I found this one at the quilt shop BUT Jo-Annes has some too. My pencil was white and didn't mark well on my lighter fabric so I ended up buying 2 colors. Always mark your quilt top before layering it with your back and batting.

Alright got mine marked. Now I need to decide on a backing. Once again my quilt top measures larger than a piece of fabric so I will need to sew fabric together to make it large enough. I look in my stash and decide muslin will do the trick. I have way more than enough and even had some left over from my curtain project. I decided to use that. BUT the width measured 20 inches. So I will need to cut three pieces to fit the back. WHY you ask? Two pieces still would only measure 40 inches and that is to skinny. So three it is. Remember when cutting your backing to leave at least 2 inches of extra fabric all the way around. ANOTHER mistake on my part. I guess I couldn't add and only left an inch on the top and bottom. DUH!!! Basically take your quilt top measurements and add 4 inches to both your vertical and horizontal measurements.

My 3 pieces... I will have three seams on my backing.



Next is your batting. There are different types of batting. I have used heavy stuff and high loft stuff. The high loft is good if you are going to tie your quilt. The heavy stuff I don't recommend hand quilting it. It is very hard to do. On a recent trip to Amish country I stopped in a quilt shop and was talking with an Amish lady who told me they use Mountain Mist, which I found at Jo-Annes. This batting is 100% polyester and is only 1/8 in loft. She says it is much easier to hand quilt. I ended up buying a twin size bag because the crib quilt batting was too small. I then cut it to match my backing fabric.



So now that everything is cut you need to make a sandwich. No not that kind. LOL. Take your backing fabric lay it on a surface, wrong side up, that's big enough for you to tape down your edges to hold the backing straight. I've tried it on the carpet and it doesn't work so great. So I used my dining table. It was not big enough but I was able to deal with it. I centered my backing fabric on the table and taped it. I centered my batting on top of that. Then centered my quilt top on the top of that.



Now depending on how you are going to finish it is how you pin it together. I am handquilting mine. While at Jo-Annes the other day I decided to buy myself some bigger straight pins. These measure 1 3/4 inches. I LOVE these. It made it so much easier to pin my layers together. I have also used big safety pins and regular size straight pins. By far this method works best for me.



So I pinned my layers together being careful to try to keep my backing smooth. I have trouble doing this step. I get bubbles and it always wrinkles a little. I figure it's the back oh well. LOL. I know good attitude right?

I decided to then baste my layers together to make sure the layers don't shift while I'm quilting it. I have never done this before. I usually only safety pin it. I will have to see how this will work. I had to show you the back because you wouldn't have been able to see it on the front. I started in the middle with my vertical stitches. I tried to keep them about 4 inches apart and worked outward. I then did my horizontal the same way. I got lots of wrinkles and bubbles. Oh well. LOL



The next part of this series will take a bit as I stitch my top. I will show my progress and let you know when I will post how to do a binding. Good luck and if you have any questions let me know.

Excitement is in the Air

Good Morning!!!! Let me start out by saying I have been off my meds for 3 days and NO more blood in my urine!!!! I even found that some other issues I had going on are cleared up too. For awhile I had what felt like a lump in my throat that sometimes I felt that I couldn't swallow. My throat was also very sore. It is completely gone. Nothing nada GONE!!!! I am so excited and feeling much better. Yes, my fibromyalgia is flaring up, but I am only taking my pain meds at night to sleep.

So as you all know I have been chaining Steve outside to work on new items. LOL. OK not really he has been super busy building stuff. I think he actually enjoys it, but if you ask him he probably wouldn't admit it. LOL. Anyway, he is totally painting and building everything without my say. And let me tell you he's had awesome results!!!! I came home from work today to find all of this... some of it still needs "prim'd" up.













Some of my friends are coming this weekend to check out the goods. Then Steve says list on my selling blog after they come over. Sooooo... I will let you know when we decide to list them.

I have found some energy finally to get crafting. I am making coffee stained tags for the booth. I finished up my frame for my stitchery I made a while back and even got glass for it.



And as promised I have been working on my quilt. I will try to post part three on Sunday.



So I have a full day ahead of me and a lot to do. I even have the energy. See you soon. Thanks for visiting today.

More Goodies by Steve

Hello friends!!! I hope all is well with all of you. Here at the Homestead we OK Steve has been busy. I think the crafting mood has bit him. LOL. Me on the other hand not so much. I have been so busy working, teaching, and going to appointments that I haven't had time or the energy. I am going to sit down tomorrow and work on my quilt. I need to get a new pencil to mark my quilting lines first. I guess that means a trip to the quilt shop. YYYiiippeee!!! Oh wait... oh darn. (snicker snicker)

Anyway, I thought I'd let you in on the new goodes being painted up and will soon be up for sale on here first instead of the flea market. Remember if you find something on my website and live close to us you can always pick it up here at the Homestead to save on shipping.

So here are the befores...

Bowl racks... I really like the one with the pegs. I think the smaller one may be spoken for. Rose give Margo my number or email and let her know I have one... :)



He made 2 of these in different sizes. These are counter top size. Can't you just see your jars and crocks sitting on this?



And I know these are hard to see because of the sun, but these are awesome Primitive signs.



OK so Steve has been working really hard when I'm at work...

The after's...





I LOVE blue.... sigh



LOVE this new shutter shelf...



As we speak he's working on this bowl rack... the other has been painted the first coat of black.



And the second crock bench is stained for the first coat.



And of course he had to make something for me because it's only fair. If you come to the flea market you'll know it's me :)



Well, the rest of the month should quiet down a little for me now. I just have one more class to teach on Saturday and I'm good for the rest of the month. Today I had my last two appointments. This morning I met with my life insurance guy, which by the way didn't go so well. More on that in a minute. The second appointment was with my urologist. For those who have been following me for at least two years you'll remember I was having issues with my bladder and kidneys. I was urinating blood for about 6 months then all of a sudden it stopped. WELLLLLLLL.... it's back. It's been going on for about two months now. I thought it would be short lived so I haven't mentioned it until now. I went for a test today in hopes of a diagnosis. That didn't come. I have to stop all anti inflammatories for my fibromyalgia and wait for my urine studies come back. He even said he was having it checked for the C(ancer) word. He knows it's not from my bladder but from somewhere up above he's not sure. Keep your fingers crossed it's from my medicine. Which leads me to my life insurance guy... you have blood in your urine you get declined for insurance... grrrrrr... I guess I have bigger things to worry about for now. Next step if it's not the medicine is an angiogram, which will check for a "malformation of an artery or vein" in my kidney. Sounds expensive right? LOL AND of course my new deductible year started. woohoo!!!! Another $2000 before the insurance kicks in along with my hour cut at work.

So as not to bore you with my problems... I will cut this short and get busy doing something. I think Mexican food is in my near future tonight. LOL. I was trying to catch up with all of you who have blogs on Sunday at work. I did a lot of reading and got a lot of new ideas from you too.

Where You Can Find Us...

Thanks everyone for the good luck wishes on my booth it means a lot. Now that I have my little booth stocked for a week or two, by the way things are going, I can show you where to find our goods. We have also reduced most of our furniture in the booth since we have more to add. I was also told by the flea market lady today a local newspaper came in to do an article on the flea market and was taking pictures of some of booths. They selected mine as one of the ones!!!!! So if you get THE POST newspaper be looking for us!

Route 57 Antique Mall (Flea Market in the Rear of Building)

1314 Wadsworth Rd

Orrville Ohio 44667

I went today and added some new items for the weekend. I will also be working on a book showing all of the projects Steve and I have done. This will include all of our stenciled signs we have available. I am also working on business cards so that people have our phone number for special orders. I just need to find the time to do it. LOL.

Today in our booth...









I apologize for not posting yesterday, but I needed to get some things done after my company meeting in the morning. Well, just as we all suspected the 24 hour shift I had will be no longer at the end of April. They have cut my hours by 4 regular hours and 8 overtime hours. So in other words I better get busy crafting up a storm. LOL. I will lose approximately $300 in my pay check every two weeks. The good thing is I still have a job, but I will be working 12 hour shifts instead of 24s. BLECK!!!!! I am trying to get on a 7a-7p shift, but will see next week. All I can say is thank goodness I just paid off my car!!!! So let's add some injury to insult while we're on the subject of bad news shall we? I had to go today to my doctor for a medicine check up and of course had to get on the scale.... 8-/ let's just say shell shocked. Holy cow I have successfully gained another 10 pounds since October!!!! When did I become a couch sitting,Cheeto eating, pop drinking maniac??!!! I of course told my doctor that it wasn't my fault. I have no idea where it came from. I don't really think he believes me. LOL. He had to do some bloodwork because of the medicine I'm on and said he'd throw a thyroid check in it too. I am crossing my fingers that this is the problem. BUT more than likely it is my Elavil. This med slows down your metabolism. He said he didn't want to change it though. So I must decide sleep or being thin? I think I'm gonna like being fat and sassy!!!! LOL. No wonder my pants don't fit anymore... huh... I thought I had shrunk them in the wash. LOL.

Other than getting things ready for my booth I haven't worked on much except a stitchery. I need to prim the frame and she will be all set to sell. This is my own pattern of course. Wow the flash really wiped out this picture! It is actually lightly coffee stained.



I am going to try to work on the next part of my quilt, but I work a 24 hour shift tomorrow, teach on Saturday morning, and work 14 hours Sunday, then back for another 24 hour shift Monday. So I may be a few days late getting it up.

Oh when I make my millions (selling in my booth) don't worry I'll still be blogging!!! LOL ;) Thanks for stopping by and please come see us at the flea market!!!

The Flea Market Booth

Happy Monday everyone!!! Wow! The weekend really flew by for me. I worked Saturday then Sunday Steve and I went down to the flea market and spruced up the booth. I was going through stuff quickly so that I would have items to stock it up with. To my surprise when I got there one of my bench/tables had sold. WOOHOO!!!! Where my booth is I'm near another sorta kinda prim booth. But of course mine LOOKS better. LOL. My son is even in the selling mood. He brought some things from his room to hopefully sell in my booth too.

So this is our booth... I am still tweeking. This won't stay like this for long. LOL.



That's me in the mirror... LOL Hi!!!!!











Today I am cleaning my basement while Steve cleaned and reorganized my garage. I have a ton of totes to go through and decide what I'm going to sell. I'm sure there will be a lot.

I also took my daughter to the orthodontist today and after 6 years of braces she finally got them off today!!! She was soooo excited. Now I get to start with my son. yyiippeee (sarcasm) But while I waited I went to the Goodwill in that town and found nothing. Nada... zero... Sooooo I traveled across town to go to another thrift store and found some awesome stuff that is still in the car... shhhhhhhh... I need to weed out before I bring more in. LOL. I know you read this Steve and you are prolly shaking your head. LOL.

I also did some redos this past weekend too... I got these paper mache boxes for $.29 a piece at the thrift store a few days ago. AND guess what I already redid them... instead of waiting a month or two before I did them. LOL.

One of my favorites salmon and teal...



and my other favorite terra cotta and mustard...



I also bought a real terra cotta pot and the Goodwill about a month back that I finally redid too. See what I mean?

I painted my pot to look old...



Added a little green floral foam I bought a long time ago.



Hot glued dried grass/moss stuff on the foam.



Then cut off some stems of some plastic plants I just bought and stuck them in. I saw where there was store charging around $10 or more for something like this.



Well, I need to finish up my laundry and get dinner started. I will hopefully be back Wednesday depending how my morning goes that day. We have a company meeting and I believe my hours are going to get cut even though I was just put on this 24 hour shift. Good thing I've been working hard on paying down my debt like I told you at the beginning of the year I was going to. I just paid off my car 6 months earlier then planned. I pay off my 3rd hospital bill next week with one left to be paid off next month. It feels awesome to finally make some head way. Then I can start saving for my dream house. One day I will own a house again. :)