A little of this... and a little of that...

The weather lately in upstate NY has been pretty miserable for spring time.  We have a lot of cold and rainy days so far this spring.  Most nights we're still down into the lower 40s and during the day, we've been lucky if we hit 60.  So my garden is very slow going this year and we haven't really been doing a lot outside yet since its been so yucky.

For anyone else in woodsy areas and areas prone to ticks, please remember to check yourself after being outside in the woods.  The tick population is definitely increasing here.  In the past 3 weeks, we've found 5 ticks on us after being outside.  My husband had two that were just crawling on him.  On one weekend in particular, I found 2 crawling on me while I was still outside and then found a 3rd one later that evening that had attached itself.  We gently pulled it free and kept it in a baggy (just in case) out in the garage. 

Aside from the very limited outdoor work, I have been doing quilting.  There isn't much to show for it, but I spent several hours today prepping a quilt for quilting.  It is the Mariner's Compass quilt that I plan on doing a lot of custom quilting on.  So today was spent marking some details in the corners of the quilt prior to layering it with batting and backing.  I've found that its easier to get straight lines marked when its just the quilt top versus all the puffiness of the batting.  I also had to cut and press backing material for the quilt.

In the meantime since I don't have any recent pictures.  I realized I never showed a picture of my completed wool applique project.  Here it is below.  The stitching on the bears' heads is embroidered on as well as the dangling stars.


I quilted it very simply and outlined most of the bear shapes.  In the end, I didn't really care for doing the wool applique.  It turned out fine, but it just didn't spark anything for me.  I could see making something out of wool felt if you want to do a mat for a candle or something like that.  Otherwise, its pretty boring.

I hope to share some pictures later this week of another sampler quilt that I finished up the binding on earlier this winter.  I did a lot of custom quilting in different blocks to try out different techniques.  Some I ended up liking others...not so much.  Its all a learning phase though.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations