Mariner's Compass Quilt

Over the summer, I didn't get a whole lot of quilting done, but I did make progress here and there.  The bulk of my quilting time was spent doing stitch-in-ditch and outline stitching on the Mariner's Compass quilt.  Once that was done (which was tedious, but worthwhile), I could finally get started on some of the more detailed quilting.

Here's what the overall quilt looks like again

Here is the outermost border.  I did "piano keys" that are 7/8" wide and every other one has dense quilting in it to make the texture show up more.

Here's a close-up of the ribbon border that's around the quilt:


And here's the filler stitching that I've finally been able to start.  I decided to keep it simple with pebbles to showcase the straight lines of the piecing.


I was able to get about 1/8 of the center section done this afternoon.


Overall, I think I'm going to love the texture this creates on the quilt.  Since I used wool batting, the non-quilted areas really stand out.


Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday afternoon.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

New York State Fair - 3

OK... I promise this is my last post on the fair.  :c)

Each year at the New York State fair, they do a huge sand sculpture.  And I mean HUGE!  Each year it has a different theme and typically revolves around something related to NY.  This year, they focused on Theodor Geisel, the author for the Dr. Seuss books.  If you go to the fair early in the week, you can see the artists still working on it.  We went mid-week and most of it was completed, but there were still a few spots that they were working on.  Here's a series of photos of the various sides of the sculpture...and it really is a sculpture. 






























I will get back to posting quilty things again.  I've had a lot going on lately, but have been making progress on some quilts, so I will definitely show that...soon. :c)


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

New York State Fair - 2

It has been a while again, but here are some more pictures from the New York State Fair:






They also had some needlepoint mixed in with the quilts:






I really liked this panel with the country scape.  It just "spoke" to me for some reason.


The peacock quilt below was truly spectacular.  I think it may have been hand-quilted, but I can't recall right now.  The radiating lines stopped at each of the appliques and then started up again on the opposite side of the applique.








The color and movement in this next quilt really captured my eye.  I keep thinking about how the person made the quilt as I haven't seen a pattern for this one.  If anyone does recognize it, let me know.  :c)




There were also some knit items around including these adorable little animals.  They have a circle open in the middle of them such that you could stack them together on the "tree" in the left of the picture.






There were also these awesome wooden trucks and digging equipment.  These were really cute.  (Sorry for the thumb obscuring part of the picture).








A few more wood-working items.  The oars were really very pretty and something I would think about having as decoration in the house.


This ship was really extremely detailed.  There were all sorts of "lines" going around the ship that were very realistic and traditional to this era of ship.






I have one more post of the fair planned.  Mainly for non-quilting or crafting items, but still some cool pictures.  :c)

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall and being able to get some quilting done!
 
Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

New York State Fair - 1

Its been quite some time since I posted.  I actually didn't realize that its been 2 months since I last posted....that's how crazy-busy it has been!

Work has been busy throughout the summer.  Our company is purchasing a competitor, so there's a lot happening due to the merger.  On top of that, we've just had a lot of orders, which is great for business, but makes things hectic.  Add in some travel and visitors, and somehow it got to be the middle of September.

At the end of August though, I went out to the New York State (NYS) fair with my mother-in-law, my mom and my dad.  I know... kind of odd.  My younger sister was originally going to come, too, but she ended up having to work that day.  I took a lot of pictures, so this is going to be broken up into a few posts.

The main reason I wanted to go was to see the quilts at the fair.  They mixed in some wood-working and other hand-crafted items in the same display area as the quilts. 

The quilt below was the overall winner and is absolutely spectacular.  The quilting on it is all hand quilting.  I think it may have been hand-pieced, too.




The level of detail is just incredible....





A fairly intricate log cabin quilt.... the quilting was beautiful on it.


Someone's very time consuming Dear Jane:


This is one of the wood-working items displayed around.  The chess set was gorgeous and the inlaid wood was beautiful!




This side table had a lot of small detailed carvings on it:




This rug caught my eye, despite its rather 'cartoonish' feel to it.  The text said "The Cat's Funeral".  Since I won a black cat, it made me laugh.


There were a fair amount of sampler quilts, too.






And I'll end off with this beautiful clock.  The carvings on it were exquisite!


Overall, we had a great time at the fair.  My MIL and I shared a "wine slushy" at the end of the day.  Afterwards we commented that we should have started out the day with one.  LOL!  Next time we will definitely be hitting up the wine slushy booth right when we arrive.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations