Snow!

About a week ago, we had a pretty hefty snow storm come through the northeast.  Here in upstate New York, we ended up with about 15" of snow.

This was the view out my back door after the snow finally stopped




And the view out the front door....


The trees are absolutely beautiful after it snows.  :c)


All the time while it was snowing and bitterly cold... our cat had the right idea.


Completely zonked out in front of the fireplace.


In the picture below, you can see the ash on her feet and legs.  We're going to have to really wipe down everything after the winter since she tends to carry the ash with her wherever she goes.


All the while she was sleeping, I was thinking it must be tough to be a cat in her position. ;c)  Her biggest worry is having to get up from the fireplace to go eat or use the litter pan.


Hope everyone is staying warm this wee!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Working from Home

One of the good things about the company I work for is that I have the ability to work from home.  This comes in handy particularly this time of year when the snow/ice can make driving to work difficult.

Lately, its been bitterly cold here in upstate NY.  On last Friday (January 25th), the temperature when I started the fireplace up in the morning was -4F outside.  I was definitely glad I was working from home and not having to go outside.

So while I was busy working and making sure the fireplace was nice and happy, this is what my cat, Ellie, was doing.

Looks pretty comfy, huh?  I was sorely tempted to join her.

This next picture is a little wonky.  I was trying to get a picture of her face (hard to do with a black cat) without waking her up.  She just started waking up when I snapped the picture.

Despite the desire to take a nap, I was able to get a fair amount of work done on Friday because I didn't have the constant interruptions that I get when I'm in the office.  I think I'm going to have to make a habit of this on Fridays.  :-)

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Ultimate Cuteness

I couldn't help myself the other night.  We had the fireplace going (since it was going down to a low of -13F) and Ellie was really enjoying the fireplace.  As I was sitting and doing some needlepoint, I couldn't help but take a few pictures of her asleep in front of the fireplace.

When Ellie sleeps, she usually curls up into the tightest ball possible.  Not in front of the fireplace though... she sprawls out and absorbs as much heat as she can from the fire. :-)

The funniest part was that she was actually dreaming while she was asleep.  I've never seen her dream before, but her paws and tail were occasionally flicking like she was chasing something. 

I have been doing a little bit of sewing and was able to mark the 3rd of 4 triangles on the Lone Star quilt last night.  I'm hoping to get all the triangles done by the end of the weekend.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Back to Work

Today is my first day back at work since December 18th.  The time off was good...it would have been better if I didn't get sick starting on the 27th.  I'm still sick now and only managed to get about 3 hours of sleep last night.  Thankfully, today is pretty quiet still as folks are still trickling back into the office and there aren't a lot of meetings yet.

I thought I'd do a quick post on the happenings around here and some quilty items.

First off, its been very cold in upstate NY the past week or so and we've been using our fireplace a lot!  Hubby and I aren't the only ones enjoying it.  Our cat, Ellie, hasn't moved more than 2 feet from the fireplace the entire time that we've had it running.  In the photo below, she's curled up in front of it, but she usually is sprawled out between the blue plastic bin (for carting wood into the house) and the Amazon box (holds newspaper to start the fires).  I really need to get a picture of her sleeping in front of the fireplace as it is very cute.

With being sick, I didn't really have the energy to get up to my sewing room and work with the machine or rotary cutter (not a good idea to use a very sharp object when doped up on cold medicine).  So I've been spending some time working on my needlepoint.

I've been working on it for about 14 months now and this is how far I've gotten.  That top row.... that's one row of 7...that's right... seven!  It will take me something like 6 years to get this puppy done.  It will look good when its done though.

I did manage to finish hand-sewing the binding on a charity quilt for my guild.  I'll be able to drop it off at the next guild meeting.

On the day or two that I was feeling a little better, I did venture up to my sewing room to do some quilting on the Lone Star wall hanging.  Since there was a lot of SID (stitch in ditch) quilting that I needed to do, I decided to just baste it on my quilting frame and do all the detail work on my smaller machine.  I marked out the straight line quilting with a blue water-soluble pen and a ruler, then used my walking foot to get the nice straight lines.

The larger sections that don't have any quilting in them yet will be filled with a free-motion filler...something like McTavishing or pebbles.  I also plan on breaking up the squares on the outer border with doing a micro-filler in every other square.  So far I have two of the four triangle sections quilted.  It takes about 2-3 hours to mark each section, quilt it and then rinse out the marks (I just spray the sections lightly and use a cotton swab to get the moisture to the edges where the colored fabrics are --- don't want to risk fabrics bleeding).

Depending upon how this cold does this week, I'd like to get at least the other two triangles marked and quilted.  I'd love to start on the four larger corner squares, too.  The corner squares will have the same type motif as the triangles, but you'll be able to see a full Lone Star in those blocks whereas the triangles only show half of the Lone Star.

I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with the Lone Star in the middle.  I've seen people do simple SID to outline each of the triangles and I've also seen free-motion curves between the points of the triangles.  I'm not sure what exactly I want to do...so I'm avoiding it for the time being.  Any suggestions are welcome!  :-)

Have a great week!


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Client Quilt - Monkey in the Middle

I'm a little behind on posting status for the client quilt I've been working on.  I actually just finished up the binding last night, but I'd like to share some pictures of the quilting as it was progressing.

This was a fairly tricky pattern to quilt as it was originally sized as a 9.5" wide pattern.  The max area I can quilt is only about 5", so I had to do some reducing.  In doing that I also had to simplify the design since some of the detail was just too small for my machine to be able to handle.  Here's an up-close picture of the quilting in one area:

Here's one with it completely quilted and still partially on the frame.  I love the texture this quilting put onto the quilt.  I think its going to be really great once the quilt is washed.

Since the weather has also gotten colder lately, we've had a few fires in the fireplace so far.  Ellie, the cat, is definitely happy about the fireplace.  She gets just about as close as she can to it.  When we have to add wood or poke the fire, we physically have to push her out of the way as she won't voluntarily move from in front of the fire.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Quilt Tester

Every quilter has her (or his) little "helpers", whether that be a spouse, family member, or pet.  In my case, I have a furry, little "Quilt Tester".  This is my cat, Ellie.

She is twelve this year (May 2012).  I first adopted her when I was living in Connecticut.  I had graduated from college in 2002 and started a job in Hartford.  I was alone in my apartment and tried the fish thing, but it didn't last long.  I decided I wanted a pet that would keep me company and be expecting me to come home each night.  I looked on Petfinder and found a woman who was trying to find a home for a cat because the cat was "terrorized" by her Pugs.

I met the woman and she was happy to give Ellie to me such that she would have a good home.  The first week in my apartment, I didn't see Ellie at all.  The only way I knew she was there (and alive) was that the litter box was being used and the food/water was being eaten.  After about a week, she started venturing out of her hiding spots and coming to me.  She seemed to finally realize she was the only animal in the apartment and that she had the run of the place.

We quickly became friends once Ellie realized she was the only pet.  I would come home from work each night and see her sitting in the window waiting for me to come home.  As I opened the door, she was always right there to say hi when I came home.  It took her longer to warm up to my husband when we were dating and then married, but she has warmed up to him.  She clearly prefers me still as she will come to me all the time and likes to snuggle against me.

When I started quilting, Ellie would love to "help" me arrange the fabrics.  Typically this was done by pouncing on the pieces laid out on the floor and "re-arranging" them. :-)  She has since learned that she's not allowed to walk on the fabric on the floor, but if its folded up...its game!

Every quilt I make is tested by her at some point or another.  Some quilts she enjoys more than others and I know I've done a good job with those quilts in making them cuddly-soft.

Our "helpers" - even if they don't really help - are always a joy to have in our crafty spaces. :-)

Go spend some time with your helpers!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations