Sunday, June 23, 2013

Lone Star Progress and Other Things

Its been a little while since I posted on here.  My new position at work has been keeping me pretty busy.  I'm generally at work by 6:45 or 7am and I'm not leaving work until 5:30 or 6pm.  Its been some pretty long days lately, but I'm getting the hang of things a bit more and don't feel quite so overwhelmed by everything.

I have been able to squeeze in an hour or two here and there for quilting, which has been good.  My progress has been slower, but I'm still getting that relaxing time, so its all good.  :-)

I was able to finish up the Bento Box quilt top.  This isn't a great picture of the top...I'll get some more when I start to quilt it.

IMG_2258


IMG_2259

I've also made some good progress on the Lone Star.  Here is one of the setting triangles completely quilted.  I did a lot of dense filler around the star motif and to highlight the squares outlining it.

IMG_2307


IMG_2305

In the picture above, you can see the quilting I did in the blue border.  After it was finished, I wished I had done something a little differently as it doesn't really stand out at all.  I am not picking out all that stitching though, so its going to stay as it is.

And here are some close-ups of the corner squares.  It takes me about 2-2.5 hours to do each square due to the amount of dense quilting.  Its not very thought intensive at this point, but just takes a while to fill in everything.

IMG_2312


IMG_2311

These off-angle shots show the detail a bit more....


IMG_2310


IMG_2309

The final quilt is going to be very pretty and I can't wait to get it hung up on the wall.  This is a 67 x 67 quilt and will be hung in our 2-story foyer.  Soon I'll have to start planning to put on the opposite wall in the foyer. :-)

IMG_2308

Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather.  Here in upstate NY its finally sunny (and no rain) and its supposed to be 85F today.  Its nice to have that sun out after having a month of almost constant rain.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Garden Update

 Despite all the rain we've been getting, the flowers and plants seem to be doing alright.  Lots of flowers have grown and many have started blooming.  Some of the plants are not very happy about the rain since its a bit much, but for the most part them seem to be tolerating it.


IMG_2269

A view along the sidewalk from a week or two ago....

IMG_2270

Our poppies are very happy right now.  Lots of flowers and new buds.

IMG_2271

My mother in law brought us a beautiful yellow lupin, which we planted in the front.  Love the tall spires!

IMG_2275

This coneflower is new and is called Tiki Torch.  Its a great orange color that you don't see often.

IMG_2274

Our columbine seem pretty happy. :-)

IMG_2276


IMG_2267

An an overall view of the front area next to the sidewalk.  The plants are a bit bigger now, so I'll have to get a new picture one of these days when it stops raining for more than 5 minutes.

IMG_2273


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Rain, Rain and some more.....

As most people across the US can attest to, it has been raining pretty much non-stop for the past month... or so it seems.  We have a stream that runs on the northern edge of our property that is purely run-off from the farm across the road from us and we also have a major creek through the back part of our property.  Since both of these are "low spots", whenever we have a ton of rain come down, these areas always start roaring.


IMG_2279

This is the area where we've created a bit of a dam so we can collect water and water our lawn from it.  This is the run-off from the field across the road, so we don't worry about changing the "natural" environment.  Plus, as you can see, the water definitely still flows downhill.  :-)


IMG_2280


IMG_2284


IMG_2283

One of our overflow pipes has washed partway down the stream.  The other one... somewhere past that bend. ;-) 

Its a very pretty view looking up the stream a little bit.  The sun was coming out after a big storm passed, so it was actually very pretty.

IMG_2285

This next photo is a culvert on our neighbor's path down to the larger creek.  Normally the water is just a small trickle... not so much after the storm passed.


IMG_2289

And here's down by the creek.  My husband is standing on the footbridge.  Normally the water here is only a few inches deep, it was at least a foot deep in the photo.

IMG_2291


IMG_2292


IMG_2293

Down on the main part of the creek, it was a raging river.  This isn't the worst we've seen it, but its definitely extremely high.


IMG_2296

Normally, you can see about 5 feet of that rock, now its just about 2 feet.

IMG_2295


IMG_2297


One of the best photos was a waterfall on the other side of the creek.  Usually this is a small trickle of water coming from the farmer's fields above the creek, but it was a full-fledged waterfall after the storm.

IMG_2302


I do promise to get back to quilting soon.  I have been making a little progress here and there.

As for the new job, thanks everyone for the congrats.  I'm still finding my feet under me, but its better this week than last.  I do have a new "tether" to work now.  Since I'm now a manager, I need to have a work cell phone such that I can be contacted all the time.  So I know have a smartphone for work that is my permanent tether.  At least it allows me to keep up to speed on things when I don't have my laptop with me.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Work...work...work....

 It seems like that's all I've been doing lately.  My work (i.e. my job outside the home) has been taking up way too much time lately, and its going to continue for a little while yet.

Our organization has gone through its 2nd re-structuring in 2.5 years and this time, its a doozy.  One fewer general managers, about 10 fewer managers, and a bunch of re-shuffling.  As part of this, I decided to post for a different position in the company... and I got it! :-)

I am now a manager in the business and I will have approximately 50 people reporting directly to me.  Yikes!  It is a bit scary, but also exciting at the same time.  I look forward to the challenges and hope that I can put my good ideas to use.

However, all this means a little less quilting time and less time to post on here.  So don't be too surprised if there is a bit more time between posts now.  I will try to keep up with it and I have been doing some quilting and sewing, I just will not have as much time to do this fun stuff until I get a bit more settled in the new routine of what needs to be done. 

Wish me luck!  I'll also be quilting vicariously through all of you... so keep on quilting and posting!  :-)


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations