Stashbusting 2012 - Week 52

Hard to believe its already the end of 2012.  This year has flown by!

I'll start off this week with a few pre-Christmas purchases.  I purchased two scrap bags from Southern Fabrics.  Each scrap bag was about 2 yards of fabric.  I wanted to add some variety to a few scrap quilts I have going right now.

Next come the Christmas goodies. :-)

I was given the "My Comfort Cutter" by Grace company.  I have to get a ruler or two now.  These cutters have a guide on them to fit into a groove on the ruler such that you don't have to force the cutter up against the edge of the ruler.  The guide keeps it right next to the ruler.  The package of pins was actually a Thank You gift from Keepsake Quilting.  I guess I bought some stuff there this year. ;-)

Next are some other Christmas gifts.  I wanted to do some more hand-applique, so I had asked for a book of traditional applique blocks that are found in Baltimore Album quilts.  The handy thing is that it comes with a CD so you can print out the appliques at any size you want.  I also asked for the Winding Ways die for the Go! Cutter.  I have the cutter system already and have wanted to make a Winding Ways quilt, but didn't want to have to hand-cut all those curves.  Yay for the Go! die!

Finally, my sweet hubby bought me fabric!  And lots of it!  Below I've fanned out one of the fabric medleys he got for me.  They are all batik-styled prints in different colors.

Here's the rest of the stack of fabrics...purples, pinks, blues, greens, dark blues...yummy!

So with the 4 yards of scrap bag fabric and the 28 yards of medleys....I'm definitely in the red this year.  It just means I'll be all set for next year, right?  ;-)

The yardage I used this week was actually a backing for the Lone Star quilt.  I've basted it and did a bunch of SID quilting.  Now its time to get down to the fine custom work on it.  This quilt will probably take a while to finish up (getting sick this past week hasn't helped my productivity!).

Here are my numbers:

Added This Week:       32.00 yards
Added Year to Date:    66.29 yards
Used This Week:          3.63 yards
Used Year to Date:       31.52 yards
Net Year to Date:         37.54 yards

Go on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else did this year.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Pre-Christmas Quilting

Its been a little while since I've posted.  Things got pretty hectic just before Christmas.  I had a client quilt to finish up by the 21st along with fitting in Christmas shopping and finishing up work for the year.

I'm not going to show the entire quilt for my client, but I'll show the backing and the quilting that I did on the quilt.  In this particular case, the client wanted me to follow the butterfly patterns that were on the backing material, so I had to load the quilt upside-down on my frame (i.e. top was on the bottom roller, and the backing was where the quilt top normally would have been).  This made it a bit more difficult as I couldn't actually see the quilt top itself.  When all was said and done, I had about 11-12 hours of work into this quilt.

Here's the backing material loaded onto the frame:

The next series of photos shows the flowers, hearts and the butterflies I traced from the backing material.

I even worked in some caterpillars and leaves as the client was going with a garden theme.

It was an interesting quilt to stitch on and the client really liked the finished product.

Since today is Saturday already, the rest of my fun over Christmas will posted with the Sunday stash report as it will be the last report of the year.  I did get some yardage for Christmas, so I'll definitely be counting it this year!  :-)  Maybe my reports next year will be more in the black.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

I've been a bit quiet in the blogging world lately.  Initially it was due to being very busy with work and trying to get a client quilt finished up.  Then things changed on Friday.  While I don't like to dwell on sad things, I want to take a few moments to give tribute to Sandy Hook Elementary.

 

My husband grew up in Sandy Hook and up until a few years ago, his parents owned a home less than a mile from the Elementary school.  It has been surreal for us the past few days.  I first saw the headline on the news and it simply referenced a shooting at a school in Sandy Hook, but it didn't give any of the details that we now know. 

Sandy Hook truly is your quintessential New England village.  Its a quiet place where people gather at the local coffee shop prior to heading out to the weekend soccer and ball fields.  If you picture those post-card views of a New England town in the fall... that's Sandy Hook.

My heart breaks for the parents of the lost children and also for the children who have survived.  Life will never be the same for anyone in that small town.  The pain will never be gone, but I hope they can move forward and keep those precious 20 children and brave 6 adults in their hearts.

-------------------------
So on to quilting items...

Here was what I had planned for last week:

1. Quilt client quilt and remove from frame. Done!  This is all set to go back to the client.  Since I forgot to ask ahead of time, I can't show any pictures.  I want to make sure the client is OK with showing pictures before I actually do it.
2. Hand-sew binding on Charity quilt. I haven't been working on this since I've been focusing on #1 and #3.
3. Hand-sew binding on Whirly Stars quilt.  Getting there. :-)  I have one long side left before I'm done.
4. Square-up backing fabric for Lone Star quilt. Not done.  I've been focusing on #1 and #3.

I'm glad to have the client quilt done.  It has been one of the few projects that truly have a deadline that isn't self-imposed.  It was supposed to be done by this Friday, so I'm glad I got it done a bit early.  With that being done, it also frees up some time to do the binding on quilts and also to get moving on the Lone Star quilt.

Here's my plan for this coming week, which will be a little odd since I'm only working two days and my vacation starts on the 19th.  Yay!  I won't have to go back to work until January 2nd.

1. Square-up backing fabric for Lone Star quilt.
2. Hand-sew binding on Whirly Stars quilt.
3. Hand-sewing binding on Charity quilt.
4. Baste Lone Star quilt on quilting frame and start custom quilting.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Singer Expert Finish Steam Iron (Google Affiliate Ad) 

Make-A-List Monday

 Yes, I know today is Tuesday and my post title says Monday. :-)  This just shows how this week has been already.  It's been a bit crazy with work, Christmas shopping, dealing with 2013 healthcare issues, etc.  The last few weeks of the year area always crazy here at work and it seems to be a bit more so this year.

I didn't get everything done that I wanted to last week....

1. Prepare backing and baste the Lone Star Wall hanging. Nothing. :-(
2. Trim quilt top for Whirly Stars baby quilt and add binding. Done.  Starting hand-sewing binding.
3. Trim quilt top for charity quilt and add binding. Done.  Starting hand-sewing binding.
4. Post picture of Christmas tree and snowman applique project.  Nothing. :-(

While I didn't seem to get a lot done here, I actually did get a lot of things done.  On Monday evening (12/3), I received a call from a local quilter asking if I could quilt a for her.  We met Tuesday evening and she left her quilt with me.  I have to have the quilting done by the 21st.  It will be a bit interesting to quilt as the top isn't too terribly flat.  I think it will just be a lot of extra pinning to ease the bulk in without creating pleats.

I also wrote up Christmas cards (with hubby's help) and we completed about 90% of our Christmas shopping.  Yay!  We spent last Saturday doing a little bit of window shopping at the local mall.  It was EXTREMELY busy there.  It re-affirmed why I don't like going to the mall anymore.  We did pick up a few things for Christmas gifts, so it wasn't a complete loss.

We also did some window shopping at a music store that's in the mall (yes - kind of odd).  This music store sells guitars, keyboards and also full-size grand pianos.  We're contemplating getting a baby grand piano to use at the house.

I've played piano since I was 5 and I love playing.  When I was in an apartment in Connecticut, I needed something to play, so I paid $$ for a digital piano by Kawai.  While it wasn't the same as playing on a real piano, it was close and sounded very good.  It still sounds very good over 10 years later.  Now that we're in our house and not really moving anymore (hopefully), we'd really like to get a full piano versus the digital piano.

A friend of ours has a used Steinway and every time we visit them, we play and wish we had one of our own.  So now we're starting to check out a few places that sell them.  I'm not bit into name brands, so the piano doesn't have to be a Steinway (I've played on some really great Steinways...and some really bad Steinways).  For me, it all comes down to how the piano feels and what it sounds like.  Heck, I'd buy a Yamaha grand piano if I loved how it played and sounded.  I'm a bit partial towards Kawai pianos as they have a very clear, bright sound to them and they don't sound muddled like some of the "old-name" pianos sound.

The best part about window shopping for pianos is that you get to try them all out. :-)  When we went to the mall this weekend, we didn't have any music with us, so it was playing bits and pieces by memory.  We plan on checking out another place this weekend and we'll be sure to bring music with us this time.

So what's my plan for quilting items this week??

1. Quilt client quilt and remove from frame.
2. Hand-sew binding on Charity quilt.
3. Hand-sew binding on Whirly Stars quilt.
4. Square-up backing fabric for Lone Star quilt.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Tea Sampler Gift Set - new & updated (Google Affiliate Ad) 

Superior Threads

I'm going to start out this post by saying that I am not receiving anything from Superior Threads for posting my opinions about their threads or their services.  This is not a paid advertisement or anything like that.  I just want to share my opinion about what a great company they have.

When I first started quilting, I wasn't very particular about my thread choices.  To be honest, I didn't think it mattered.  How wrong I was!  :-)

I started using Superior Threads after I had a minor thread meltdown with my Viking MegaQuilter.  I had picked up some thread with a nice sheen to it and I hadn't ever had a problem with it before (I'm purposely leaving out the name of the thread here).  However, the thread was 40% rayon and while my standard sewing machine (with a max stitch count of 900/minute) didn't have a problem with it, when I put it on the MegaQuilter (max stitch count of 1600/minute), the thread proceeded to just melt due to the friction of it moving through the machine.

It gummed up the bobbin area of my machine so badly that my bobbin was thrown off kilter and it was rotating 180-degrees from where it should be and snapping every needle that I put into the machine.

I guess it took a problem like that to learn my lesson. 

So I started using Superior Threads because I had heard a lot of great things about them and they had a HUGE selection of threads.  What a different thread really does make!

The better threads not only make my machines run smoother, but they also produce less lint and they feel great when you do hand-sewing with them, too.

I think one of the things I like the most about Superior Threads is their customer service.  I had ordered a few thread cards earlier this year and they were out of one card.  They kindly called me at home and let me know they were out of that one and asked if I wanted to substitute a different card or they could refund my money for the card.  I gave them the replacement card number and they shipped them out that day.  Even better....I received them the next day!

Their shipping is absolutely incredible.  I placed an order on Wednesday morning of this week and they shipped the order out on Wednesday afternoon.  It was shipped via priority mail (their cheapest option) and I'll probably receive the thread Friday.  You really can't beat ordering thread and receiving it within 2-3 days.

They are a great company and are actually considered a small business, so I'm all for supporting small businesses especially here in the US.  If you haven't checked out their threads yet, I highly recommend it!


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

  

Mirror Wall Decor (Google Affiliate Ad)

Make-A-List Monday

Its Monday again...  I feel like I should put one of those Garfield cartoons on here regarding how bad Mondays are.  I think Garfield once proposed eliminating all Mondays from the calendar.  :-)  I would totally be up for that!

I actually got quite a bit done this past weekend.  Two quilts are now quilted and ready for binding.  A third quilt has the backing prepared and is ready to get loaded onto the quilt frame.  Here's one of the two quilts that got quilted.  This one got done Saturday afternoon between entertaining my in-laws.  Its a quilt that will given as part of a charity function with  my guild.  Another member had pieced the top and prepared backing and binding, but the quilt needed the final quilting and binding. 

I love the texture this pattern leaves on the quilt.  I quilted it using Baby Blue from Connecting Threads in the top and a coordinating shade of blue from Superior Threads Bottom Line in the bobbin.  I love using the Superior Threads various different types of threads.  The Connecting Threads is also good (no problems with my machine), but it does produce more lint.

So here's what I had planned for last week.

1. Post pictures of completed quilts and update blog. Done!  Posted here and here.
2. Quilt charity quilt for guild.  Done! (above)
3. Post pictures of Patchwork Garden completed.  Done!  Posted here.
4. Post picture of Christmas tree. Oops!  Forgot about this one.  I really should get a good picture of the tree as its very pretty this year.

This week is probably going to be another busy week, but here's what I would like to get done.

1. Prepare backing and baste the Lone Star Wall hanging.
2. Trim quilt top for Whirly Stars baby quilt and add binding.
3. Trim quilt top for charity quilt and add binding.
4. Post picture of Christmas tree and snowman applique project.

I hope everyone's week is starting out well!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Also, check out this pretty cool piece of wall art.  I could actually see hanging this in our foyer...we have a lot of blank space there!

 Circle Abstract Wall Decor (Google Affiliate Ad)

Stashbusting 2012 - Week 48

Its been a few weeks since I last posted for the Sunday Stash reports, but I have been doing some sewing.  Not a whole lot of stash used, but some.  I have been busy with work and also with the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US.  Three Thanksgiving dinners in one week....I think I'm done with eating for the next month. :-)

So here's what I've been up to:

- I finished the binding on this baby quilt for my husband's co-worker.

- Then I quilted a quilt for the charity group at my guild. Someone had already pieced the top and provided backing, batting and binding. So yesterday I spent a few hours and quilted it up.

- I also prepared some backing for this quilt (which is my stash used).

I also bought fabric for another quilt that I'm making for another of my husband's co-worker's and some good friends of ours.  So that's my stash added this week.  Since I couldn't pass up the good deals at Connecting Threads, I also bought a fat quarter sampler of their Winter Frost line.  It looks gorgeous and I can't wait to make some table runners with it.

Here are my numbers:

Added This Week:       10.75 yards
Added Year to Date:    34.29 yards
Used This Week:          2.20 yards
Used Year to Date:       27.90 yards
Net Year to Date:         6.40 yards

I'm back in the red again by 6 yards.  :-(  I think I'll be able to use the fabric for the new baby quilt pretty quickly and I have another backing to get ready for another quilt, so that will definitely use up some fabric.

Check out how everyone else is doing with their stash over at Judy's blog.

 Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Rowenta Pro Master Professional Steam Iron - DW8080 (Google Affiliate Ad) 

Quilt # 9 - Patchwork Garden

Here is another quilt that I made back in 2008.  This quilt was actually made for my older sister.  I had wanted to give her something special for her birthday, so I started this quilt.  I knew she would like something with purples in it and with lots of color.

Oddly enough, this was the first quilt I ever made where I followed a pattern that wasn't of my own design.  The pattern is called Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson's Designs.  Its a pretty common pattern these days, especially for new quilters.  I think the reason I struggled with it at the time was that I wasn't very confident in my cutting and/or piecing skills and I was very worried that the blocks wouldn't come together properly in the end.  Thankfully it did. :-)

So here's the fabric that I purchased for the quilt all laid out on the floor.  Most people I showed the fabric to didn't like the combinations, but somehow in my head, I could see the finished product and knew they would all work together.  I still have pieces of the dark purple yardage on the bottom as well as bits of the seashell yardage.

After following the pattern for cutting and piecing directions, here's all the blocks laid out on the floor.  There were a few leftover blocks from the pattern so I was able to mix and match the various blocks to get a pleasing design.  It took a while to get the mix just right, but it definitely helped to lay everything out on the floor.  Laying it out and photographing it actually gives you a really good view of the quilt and you can see areas where you may want to shift things around before you finalize the design.

Once all the blocks were pieced into rows, the seashell fabric was used for a nice solid border to anchor the design.

Here's the larger view of the pieced quilt top.

I did my own quilting on this one, too.  The middle section was done by tracing the quilting pattern onto Golden Threads' quilting paper and then pinning it to the quilt.  This was pretty time consuming as was tearing the paper off.  I'm definitely glad I don't have to do that anymore.  I sometimes do it for individual blocks, but I've also gotten more confident with marking on the quilts and being able to get the marks out.

The border was quilted in straight lines to offset the curved quilting throughout the main portion of the quilt.

Here's where you can see the whole thing on our couch.  It was a fairly large quilt, but is considered a lap-sized quilt.  I believe it was somewhere around 57 x 75 or something like that.

Here's a few attempts at getting pictures of the quilt draped over different objects.  Some photos were successful....others not so much. :-)

This one shows the straight-line quilting in the border.  I continued the straight lines right to the corner so the very corners of the quilt has little 2" boxes.

My sister really liked the quilt and it worked really well with the other colors in her condo.  There's nothing quite like cuddling under a nice warm quilt after a long day at work.  :-)

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

adidas Marathon 10 Shoes (Grey/White/Wonder) - Women's Shoes - 5.0 M (Google Affiliate Ad)

Quilt #8 - Teddy Bear 9-Patch

This was a quilt I made for a co-worker back in 2008.  The fabrics were the cutest flannels and so incredibly soft!  I loved the bears, stripe and the starts/hearts on the fabric on the back.  They all worked really well together.  The only fabric I probably would have changed is the gingham fabric.  This was incredibly stretchy and very difficult to work with.  It looked great in the quilt, but it was a bear (pun intended) to work with.

I don't have photos of this quilt in-progress, but it was pretty simple with 9-patches and solid blocks.

This was one of the first quilts I quilted on my own sewing machine.  Since I was still learning, I decided to just do simple, straight diagonal stitch across the 9-patches and left the solid blocks alone.

The binding I chose for this quilt was a dark green fabric.  The green seemed to offset the bright yellows and reds in the quilt nicely.

Here's a close-up of one of the corners.

And quilting you can see on the back.

Happy Crafting!

~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Franco Sarto Profile Riding Boot - Black (Google Affiliate Ad)

Time Flies....

 I didn't realize so much time had passed since my last blog post.  Needless to say, I've been pretty busy with the Thanksgiving holiday.

On the 17th, we had my husband's family over for Pre-Thanksgiving.  Everyone had a great time and we had a ton of food.  Thankfully some of the extra turkey went home with my husband's parents and his uncle, and the rest was mostly eaten by two friends who came over on Sunday to do some hunting on the back of our property.  No luck for them though as a coyote chased off the deer just as the deer ere getting within range.

Right after Pre-Thanksgiving, it was a short week at work, but that just meant that we tried to fit 5 days of work into 3.  After work on the 21st, we drove out to Syracuse, NY to visit my parents.  We stayed there through Saturday morning and we arrived back home Saturday around lunchtime.  It was good visiting with everyone and we helped them put up one of the Christmas trees.

Saturday afternoon Rich and I put up our Christmas tree while watching White Christmas. :-)  Its a tradition in our family to watch White Christmas while putting up the trees.  Besides...I love the movie!

So on the quilting front, there hasn't been a ton of quilting done as I've been cooking, cleaning, putting up trees, etc.  I'm not even going to bother listing the last post for Make-A-List Monday as I really didn't get much done.

I haven't shared pictures in a while, so here's some things that I have been doing:

The Whirly Stars quilt is completely finished.  I decided to do string blocks in the corners with the strings pointing towards the center of the quilt.

We also finally  hung the Starry Night needlepoint that I finished last year.  We've had it framed for almost a year now, but hadn't figured out where we wanted to hang it.  Its now hanging in the dining room.

We also had a little bit of snow a week or so ago.  It was really a wet rain with a little bit of snow.  We had more snow over this past weekend, but I didn't take any pictures.  Its all gone by now despite it remaining cold out.

I also finished the binding on Shine on Bayou Cane.  I haven't washed this yet, but its already getting some use on our couch for snuggling in at night.  I laid it out on the queen-sized bed in our guest bedroom to get a good view of it fully laid out.

And here's a close-up of the quilting.

This coming week, I do have some things I'd like to finish/start.
1. Post pictures of completed quilts and update blog.
2. Quilt charity quilt for guild.
3. Post pictures of Patchwork Garden completed.
4. Post picture of Christmas tree.

Happy Crafting!
 ~Sarah at upstateNYCreations



Rowenta Focus Iron (Google Affiliate Ad)

Make-A-List Tuesday

Whenever I have a long weekend, my blog posts tend to get a little off-kilter.  There are definitely two separate reasons...
     1 - My husband is home on long weekends, so not as much sewing gets done. :-)
     2 - Since its the long weekend, I want to get lots of sewing done instead of posting on the blog.

Either way, I didn't post anything late last week or yesterday, so my "make-a-list Monday" is now Tuesday for this week.

I don't have any photos to share yet, but it was a busy weekend.  I was able to get a fair amount of sewing done, but we also rebuilt a sand-bag dam for holding water in the spring.  We wanted to rebuild it now while we didn't have a lot of water to deal with.  So we managed to move over 90 wet sandbags (yuck) and rebuilt the dam using just sandbags and a pond liner to help with sealing.  We also added at least another 50 sandbags to the dam to shore it up.

We also did some window shopping at furniture stores.  We're trying to find a pub-height table for our kitchen, but haven't really found anything yet.  There was one we liked, but it was way more expensive than what we wanted to spend for the kitchen.  So we'll keep looking....

So last week, here's what was on the list:

1. Trim the baby quilt and machine sew binding.  Done!  I'm about 1/3 of the way done hand-sewing binding.
2. Finish sewing star blocks for "Whirly Stars". Done!  I also have the main quilt top done.  I just need to add the borders at this point.
3. Order thread for Lone Star quilt and applique project.  Bad, Sarah!  This isn't done yet.
4. Layer and baste Lone Star quilt.  This also isn't done yet.

So this coming week is a short week since we're already on Tuesday and Friday is going to be spent preparing for "Pre-Thanksgiving" with my husband's family.  I would like to get a few things done though...

1. Finish sewing entire quilt top for "Whirly Stars".
2. Order thread for Lone Star quilt, applique project and Wildflower Fields.
3. Baste Lone Star quilt on the quilting frame.
4. Quilt a lap-sized quilt for my guild's charity group.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Fabric Editions 149916 Novelty & Quilt Fabric Pre-Cut 100% Cotton 21 in. Wide .25yd-Red Texture (Google Affiliate Ad) 

Make-A-List Monday

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind.  Thankfully, hurricane Sandy didn't cause too much trouble here in the Albany, NY area.  We had some strong winds and a little bit of rain, but by large, the storm missed us.  I definitely feel for the folks in Connecticut, NYC and New Jersey.  They got hit really hard and are struggling to pick up the pieces.

A lady in our quilt guild is gathering items at our guild meeting tonight to take down to NYC and New Jersey to help out folks there.  Quilters are very generous, so I imagine there will be lots of items donated tonight.

We had a house guest for a few days last week as my husband's Uncle lives in southern CT and was without power for a few days.  We offered up our spare bedroom for him to come stay for a few days in the warmth.  The power in his neighborhood was restored late last week and he went back home on Saturday morning.

Since we were pretty busy during the week, I'm actually surprised at how much I was able to accomplish.  Everything on my to-do list is completed.

1. Press sewn blocks for boy baby quilt. DONE!

2. Take photos of quilt blocks sewn/pressed. DONE!  I even have it laid out and started sewing some of the blocks together.

3. Select backing, thread, and quilting pattern for baby quilt. DONE!  I even got the whole thing quilted last night.  After a bit of a fiasco at the start (note to self, do not use super-thin Bottom Line thread as the top thread on the quilting frame...machine not happy!), I was able to really get going on this.  This is a small quilt, but the quilting was also fairly simply.  I love the texture the quilting gives to this quilt.  Its a pantograph called Celebrate.

4. Start creating freezer-paper templates for a wool applique mini-wall hanging. DONE!  No pictures though as freezer-paper templates are pretty boring to look at. :-)  I did however, sew all of the background for the applique, so I'll be able to start appliqueing things as soon as I place an order for matching threads.

So now, the plan for the upcoming week....

1. Trim the baby quilt and machine sew binding.
2. Finish sewing star blocks for "Whirly Stars".
3. Order thread for Lone Star quilt and applique project.
4. Layer and baste Lone Star quilt.

 Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Singer Sewing Co PixiePlus 4 Stitch Mending Machine (Google Affiliate Ad)

Stashbusting 2012 - Week 44

I've actually been able to get some quilting done the past week or so.  I wasn't so sure about this past week due to Hurricane Sandy making her presence known here on the east coast.  Thankfully, we only got a little bit of wind and rain from it.  The folks in NYC and NJ didn't far so well.  My husband's uncle lives in southern CT and he had no power for several days and came up to stay with us for 2 days while he was waiting to get power back.

The past two weeks I've been able to make progress on my "Whirly Stars" baby quilt.  Here are the fabrics all cut into strips.

Then into 2.5" squares for 4-patches and for corners on some larger blocks.

Here's the stacks of all the fabrics cut for the main body of the quilt.  I have my Yankee Candle burning nicely in the background as well as my "parking sign".  The parking sign reads "Princess Only.  All others will be toad." :-)

Then this past week I was able to get things up on the design wall and lay out the squares.  I have half of the star blocks sewn together.

And here's the full quilt...albeit a little offset.  The ones on top are just there in the layout and not sewn yet.

I"m hoping to get some additional sewing/quilting done this week.  I think a fair amount of it will be hand-sewing binding onto a quilt though.

Here are my numbers:

Added This Week:       0.0 yards
Added Year to Date:    23.54 yards
Used This Week:          2.50 yards
Used Year to Date:       25.7 yards
Net Year to Date:         2.15 yards

I'm back in black again.  Go on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing this week.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Sauder Sewing Craft Cart, Bishop Pine 129707 (Google Affiliate Ad)

Bad Kitty!

You wouldn't be able to tell from this picture, but this little sweetheart can be a bit of pain!

Since moving into the new house, she has taken it upon herself to meow....LOUDLY...in the middle of the night.  These aren't just little meows where she comes and wants to be in bed.  This are meows where she goes into the foyer and yells at the top of her lungs and it echos everywhere!

Most nights I sleep through it and the nights where I don't, it doesn't really bother me that much.  However, its a completely different story for my husband.  He dislikes the cat... a lot... because of her meowing.

So I'm hoping blog-land may have some suggestions.

Any ideas on how to figure out why she meows or how to get her to stop?

We've tried locking her up in a bedroom with her litter box, food and water, but then she wants out and pulls on the door causing it to bang against the molding.  We've also tried keeping her awake in the evenings in an attempt to make her tired and sleep through the night, but that doesn't seem to help either.

I'm open to just about anything at this point to try to keep the sanity in the household and to not have to find her a new home.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

Happy Monday!  The next few days are going to be a bit of a whirlwind around here.  I live in the Albany, NY area and the weather forecast currently says that starting this afternoon we will be having 50+ mph winds with gusts towards 75 mph.  They're expecting widespread power outages and about 2-4" of rainfall.  Needless to say, we've been busy preparing.

Thankfully, I usually keep at least a weeks' worth of essentials around the house anyway, so we have lots of Gatorade, granola bars, canned goods, items we can heat up and cook with the propane stove and the fireplace.  I bought one small case of bottled water just to be on the safe side.  We also have iced tea, soda and gatorade to drink, so we should be fine.  Other than that, our preparations were really just getting wood stockpiled inside the garage, filling the bathtubs with water (we're on a well, so when we lose electricity we lose water), and getting the laundry clean and dishes clean.  If we do lose power for several days, we'll have plenty to eat/drink and clean clothes.

The house is located at the top of a hill which is bad from a wind standpoint, but good from a flooding standpoint.  We didn't have any issues with the basement flooding during Irene last year, so I think the house will be fine this year.  We may have water on the driveway, but even during Irene it wasn't deep enough that we wouldn't be able to drive across it.

Depending upon what actually happens with this storm, I may get a lot done this week, or I may get nothing done as I won't have any power. :-)

Here's the list from last week.  I wasn't very productive last week as there were a lot of things going on with work and I spent the weekend at my parents.

1. Cut fabrics for the boy baby quilt (I have to work on a name for this). Done.  All fabrics are cut and 96 of the squares are sewn together.
2. Start sewing blocks for the boy baby quilt. Done
3. Select backing and quilting pattern for 2nd baby quilt. Not done.
4. Load baby quilt on frame and start to quilt. Not done.
5. Play with EQ6 to get fabric amounts/colors for a smaller version of Judy's Sing A Happy Song quilt pattern for 4th baby quilt. Not done.

 This week's list is going to be fairly short and simple as I don't know what the power situation is going to be.

1. Press sewn blocks for boy baby quilt.
2. Take photos of quilt blocks sewn/pressed.
3. Select backing, thread, and quilting pattern for baby quilt.
4. Start creating freezer-paper templates for a wool applique mini-wall hanging.

Hope you all have a great week and stay dry!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Updates to the Blog

I've been busy making a few changes to the blog over the past few days.  The biggest thing that got me moving was the fact that the free service I used for my photos decided they weren't going to be free any longer.  This meant that I need to switch all my photos over to something else.

I've been able to update all the posts on this blog, but one of my older blogs still isn't updated.  Since I plan on re-hashing some of those posts here, I don't think I'll actually update that old blog.

If you're interested in checking out the changes, there are really two pages that were updated.

The first is my "Completed Quilts" tab.  You'll notice there are only pictures of the first 6 quilts and then quilt #26.  However, there really are quilts in-between...just no pictures here yet.  I added their names and years to the tab so at least I have a running list.  I plan on putting photos there over the next several weeks.

The second is the "Quilting Services" tab.  I am available to quilt individual's quilt tops and my prices and capability are detailed on this tab.  I've made two full quilts for clients (not just the quilting, but making the entire top) and both have been ecstatic about the quilts.  Anyway, on this page, I have information about the prices and there are links to examples of pantographs (just click on the links for level 1, level 2 and level 3).  I decided to use pictures of the quilts I've done instead of just showing the paper pantographs.

In some cases the pantographs are purchased designs, but there are one or two that I designed myself.  When I couldn't find a design I liked or that would fit my machine, I decided to make my own.

I hope you enjoy looking around and if you think you would like me to quilt something for you, please contact me.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

Last week was a very productive week for me.  It is so nice to get some finishes after having no finishes for a long time!  I was originally supposed to have all of Friday and 90% of Saturday to myself while my husband went to a friend's place to help pull in a dock.  He was scheduled to be back late Saturday, but after a bad Friday, he ended up leaving early and was back home Saturday afternoon.  While it was good to have him back, he wasn't feeling well, so a lot of Saturday afternoon/evening was spent making sure he was ok.

Thankfully, it appears that it was a lack of sleep problem, because after sleeping 12 hours from Saturday to Sunday, he was fine all day Sunday.

"The List" from last week....
 1. Complete hand-sewing of binding on client quilt.  DONE!  In fact, the entire quilt is now washed and ready to give to my client this coming weekend.

 

2. Press strips together for 2nd baby quilt. DONE!  The entire top is actually together.

3. Design 3rd baby quilt (yes, another one in addition to the one from last week). Done!  I have to play with the borders a little bit more, but I have all the fabric purchased and it is now ready for cutting into strips and blocks.

4.  Play with EQ6 to get fabric amounts/colors for a smaller version of Judy's Sing A Happy Song quilt pattern for 4th baby quilt. I didn't get to this item this past week.
5.   Hand-sew binding on Shine on Bayou Cane quilt.I did a little bit here, but not a whole lot.  I spent most of the week doing binding for the client quilt.

I'm hoping this coming week will be productive too.  Here is my plan:
1. Cut fabrics for the boy baby quilt (I have to work on a name for this).
2. Start sewing blocks for the boy baby quilt.
3. Select backing and quilting pattern for 2nd baby quilt.
4. Load baby quilt on frame and start to quilt.
5. Play with EQ6 to get fabric amounts/colors for a smaller version of Judy's Sing A Happy Song quilt pattern for 4th baby quilt.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations