Vacation

Last week, my husband and I both took the entire week off from work.  We didn't really have any plans to go anywhere, but we both needed to just not be at work.  Sometimes it isn't about going somewhere on vacation, but just being able to relax.

I always feel like when I travel on vacation that I need a secondary vacation to make up for the energy spent traveling somewhere.  It was really nice to just be home and relax.  We did make the most of our time and got a fair amount done around the house/yard.

When we purchased our piano a few months ago, we decided to convert our formal dining room into the room with the piano.  This ended up meaning that we had to change the table in our eat-in kitchen area to be one with leaves in it so we could seat everyone for large families dinners.  I don't have a picture of the new table yet, but it was delivered last week while we were home.

In addition to the new table, we then had to find some comfy chairs to put in the room with the piano.  We both hate furniture shopping.  Most of the time you don't find anything you like and you end up frustrated and feeling hassled by the sales folks at the stores.  This time, we did find some chairs!



This chair was at the 3rd furniture store we went to (over 2 weekends), but we fell in love with it.  Its comfortable to sit in and looks very nice.  One of the best parts.. its actually a recliner!  It looks like any normal chair (even from the back), but that square section on the front...that's the foot rest.  They will be perfect in the room with the piano and will let one of us sit and relax while the other plays.

Besides a bunch of yard work being done last week, we also spent some time at my in-laws where they live on a lake.  We went up twice and enjoyed swimming and kayaking.


Finally since I haven't shown many garden pictures this year.... The catchfly is flowering and is a very pretty orange-red color.


My orange coneflowers are also finally blooming.  They seem to be happy this year, which is good considering we thought we were going to have to replace them since they just didn't do it last year.



I hope you all are enjoying your summer and those of you in the south aren't wilting from the heat too much yet.  I did get a small amount of quilting done on vacation, but not enough to even consider taking pictures.  Hopefully I'll get my mojo back soon and will start making progress on a few things.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Client Quilt

In early June, I was contacted to do the quilting for a local quilter.  She had originally planned on doing the quilting herself, but could no longer do it.  I was happy to do the quilting for her and we made the arrangements to send the quilt my way.

The quilt was a beautiful pieced quilt with embroidered blocks.  Each block was embroidered with a different type of flower as well as the name of the flower.  The client wanted something simple and left it up to me to decide whether to quilt over the embroidered flowers or around them.  After receiving the quilt, I definitely knew that I did not want to quilt over the flowers.  The were very pretty and I wanted my quilting to showcase her embroidery versus potentially covering it up at all.  The client was concerned with some puckering around the designs, but I was able to handle that with the quilting I chose.


I ended up using a variegated thread for the top portion of the quilt.  The color variation is very subtle, but has a pale pink, blue and green in it.  You can see it in person in the quilt on the white areas and it pulls the colors from the flowers a little bit here and there.


The top thread was called Morning Sky by Superior Threads (their King Tut line).  The bottom thread was a pale blue (Baby Blue) from Superior's Bottom Line thread line.  I've always had good luck with Superior Threads and haven't had issues with breakage.  Both of my sewing machines seem to love the thread.


I did a medium-sized loop design throughout the quilt.  I wanted to have the freedom to move about the embroidered spaces and still create texture throughout the quilt.  The client wanted to tie the sashings and blocks together, so the quilting extended throughout the entire quilt and around the flowers and embroidered names.




I used Quilter's Dream 100% cotton batting for this quilt.  Only one layer was used since I use their thickest loft...Supreme.  It almost gives the thickness of wool, but is great for someone who doesn't want the potential allergic issue with wool.

The next two photos show the completed quilt and really highlights the texture created with the loops and thicker batting.






The client also asked me to trim up the quilt and add the binding around the edge of the quilt.  I machine stitched the binding to the front of the quilt after squaring it up and left the hand sewing to her (at her request).











Overall, the quilt turned out really nicely and the client was ecstatic at the end result.  I always try my hardest to make each quilt something that I would be proud of to call my own.  The best part is that the client was very happy about the result of the quilting and it exceeded her expectations.

Here's a small bit from her email to me:

I just opened the box and I have only one thing that I can say about  your work... you took a first time attempt at making a quilt by me and turned it into a MAGNIFICENT  piece of art.  I am nearly speechless.  I knew it would be nice but I didn’t expect it to be this beautiful.  You are an artist and I hope you realize that.  What you did for my quilt was not an ordinary run of the mill quilting job... you knew how to highlight the embroidery and how to blend the rest of the quilt into one solid piece of art.  I am going to be so proud to give this to my daughter.  Thank you so much for putting the effort into it that you did.  It shows that you care about what you do. 

It makes me extraordinarily happy when a client really enjoys the end result! :c)

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Busy! Busy! Busy!

The past month has yet again absolutely flown by.  Its amazing how each year time seems to go by even faster than the last.  I'm not quite sure how that happens, but somehow we're into July already and I barely feel like summer started.

I've been keeping busy lately with a lot of things.  Work (as usual) keeps me busy during the week from about 7:30am until about 6pm.  However, over the past two months, I've taken up running three times a week.  Last fall, I kind of got kicked in the butt to do something about my weight (about 20-25 lbs over what I should have been).  I purchased a Fitbit Flex and have loved having it.  It seems silly, but it keeps me accountable for actually getting up and moving more.

The first few months, I paid attention to how much I was walking and changed my eating habits slightly (no more bagels for breakfast).  By November, I had lost the 20 lbs I wanted to lose.  I've continued with the exercise and become more fit.  I'm still trying to get the last 5 lbs or so (I would really like to be down to 125 lbs again), but I'll get there eventually.

I walked a 5k with my sister a few weeks ago and plan on running (or at least partially running) one in the next two weeks.  I'm definitely more fit than I was and am glad that I've lost the weight and can now run more easily.



My garden has also taken off in the past month.  My lupines were beautiful while they were blooming.  I now have orange coneflowers up as well as some lavender.  My phlox should be blooming shortly.



My clematis are also going like crazy.  I have purple, pink and white flowers all over the place.  I definitely need to get an updated picture of it.

Last but not least, I also had a client contact me for quilting her quilt last month.  I finished it up and sent it back to her and will share some pictures here, but that is for another post since I have some nice photos to show.  She did a great job with her embroidery and I made sure that my quilting didn't detract from the embroidered blocks at all.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations