Make-A-List Monday

I realized today as I was starting to write this post that I never actually wrote down what I had wanted to accomplish last week!  Maybe that's a good thing as I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. ;-)

The week was busy and went by quickly, but I was able to do a bit of work in the sewing room.

I posted here about some fabric organization ideas. I've had a few people say they have also tried this and liked them.  These are the boards that I used and are good quality. 

 

And this is what it looks like with some fat quarters wrapped around them.

If you want to get yourself a set, they can be found here:

In other news, its been a busy week and we're getting ready for our trip to Paris next week.  A week from tomorrow, we will be heading out for our flights to Paris, France!  Its going to be a fun trip! :-)

So here's my list for this upcoming week:
1. Organize more fat quarters and leftover fabrics onto boards.
2. Quilt straight lines on Lone Star.
3. Post pictures of needlepoint progress.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

I know today is Tuesday already and I missed my Monday post. :-(  Work was a bit crazy on Monday as our business recently instituted daily 1/2 meetings to go over scheduled items.  As such, it meant a lot of leg work ahead of time to get updates on everything.

Not a whole lot of sewing happened last week or over the weekend, but a few interesting things.  We went to a wood working show on Sunday in Saratoga Springs, NY.  The pieces of work there were amazing and some were very creative.  Someone had made a chair that was finished except one leg, which was still the original wood with markings on it for the final shape. The arms of the chair held a small hammer and chisel and the "hands" held the tools on the unfinished leg.  Essentially, it was depicting a chair making itself. :-)

Here are two pictures of items from the show.  There was a lot more items there, but I didn't take any real pictures.

They did have a children's "toy factory", which was definitely worth the admission price.  Our niece and her dad came with us and they built a small car as well as a tool box.  After watching our niece hammer a nail in with about 50 strikes, her dad helped out on the next ones so it didn't take quite so long.

 
So here's the list from last week:
1. Finish quilting the outer border on Lone Star.  DONE!  Finally!
2. Quilt the white sections of the center star on Lone Star.  I changed how I'm quilting the center, so its just stitch-in-ditch.  I'll take some photos a little later this week and get them posted.
3. Post pictures of pool table being assembled. DONE!
4. Fold fabrics from winter sampler and put on bookshelf. Not started.

I'm hoping to get back into the groove for quilting.  I haven't had a lot of extra time lately, but I'm hoping with this little break that I'll be more energized into getting the quilting done.  It will be nice once the Lone Star quilt is done and I think all the work will be worth it in the end.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Crafting!

~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

I missed a lot of posting last week!  Sorry!

Last week was a bit crazy between work and trying to finish up the coffered ceiling in time for the pool table to be delivered.  I've also been feeling a bit "down" lately, so its been difficult to find time to get into the sewing room.

I have been able to make it to the gym 3 times each week for the past 2 weeks.  To date, I've already lost 4 pounds.  Yay!  I've found my best workout day is actually Friday.  There's something to be said for being done with work, not having to get up the next morning, and hitting the gym for a good strong workout.

I think I'm going to be getting a different kind of workout tomorrow....SNOW!

We're expected to get a pretty significant snow storm for this late in March.  We're actually located around the first "a" in the word "Saratoga Springs" in the picture above.  This puts us in the 6-10" range, but if the storm shifts a bit, we could be in the 5-8" range or in the 10"+ range.  We're up in the hills a little bit, so we may be closer to the 10"+ range.

So the other big thing this past week was that our pool table was delivered on Friday.  There is plenty of room for it in the room, but somehow the room feels smaller now.  I think its just because we've either had nothing in the room or just a small foos-ball table.  It looks really nice and we're definitely putting it through its paces.  :-)

I'm not even going to bother going through my last Monday list, but I have been making some small progress on the Lone Star quilting.  I have 3 of the 4 sides of the outer border quilted and the last side is almost halfway done.  There's still a bunch more quilting to do, but it will be good to be done with the outer border and move onto something else.

So here's the list for the upcoming week:
1. Finish quilting the outer border on Lone Star.
2. Quilt the white sections of the center star on Lone Star.
3. Post pictures of pool table being assembled.
4. Fold fabrics from winter sampler and put on bookshelf.

Hope everyone has a great week!


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  The weather was finally pretty nice here in upstate NY.  We had some sun and the temperatures were above freezing during the day.  It was still cold enough at night that we received a dusting of snow each night, but it was gone within a few hours during the day.

I did get some items done this week, but not as much as I would have liked.  I had some medical tests that I had to have run over the past few days, which ended up making it such that I didn't want to do anything.

Here was the list from last week:
1. Finish quilting the border for Lone Star. I didn't get to finish the quilting, but I have about half of the border done.

2. Post pictures of ceiling progress (we should get all the crown up this week). Done.  Posted about it here.
3. Press and photograph Bento Box pieces. Done.  I'll post some pictures here.

4. Setup Wildflower Fields for quilting. No progress.

I really hope to make some progress on the Lone Star quilting this week.  I'm at a stage where I can sit down and do 15-20 minutes of quilting easily and then be able to stop.  I find that when I am at stages where I can do just a little bit at a time, I am able to make more progress.  During the week its sometimes hard to find an hour or two to do something more complicated.

I have a guild meeting tonight, so that means no quilting will happen tonight.  I also have to make sure I start getting to the gym this week, so that will also take up some time.  We only have one full weekend left to finish the ceiling, so we're down to the wire and need a big push to finish that up.  So this week, my list is going to be shorter than normal.  Only two things on it this week...


1. Finish quilting borders on Lone Star.
2. Post pictures for ceiling progress.

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Here in Upstate NY, it was a bit of a cold and dreary weekend.  We had snow/sleet off and on all day Saturday.  Sunday evening we had a short burst of snow, but in general it was pretty cold and damp feeling.  At least it was outside, inside we had the fireplace going so it was nice and toasty warm. :-)

I was able to get a few things done last week and even got a bit of quilting done on Saturday.  I was going to go on a "tea" road trip with Yarnkettle, but we decided to post-pone due to the yucky weather on Saturday.

Here's the list from last week:
1. Finish sewing the Bento Box quilt pieces.  Done!  The blocks are sewn, but I need to press them before I do any more pictures.
2. Quilt the marked border for the Lone Star quilt.  Done! I even got a little bit quilted.

3. Post pictures of the ceiling progress.  Done!  Its posted here.
4. Decide upon design to quilt Wildflower Fields.  Done!  I decided to quilt this using a panto called Bayside.

Here's the plan for the upcoming week:
1. Finish quilting the border for Lone Star.
2. Post pictures of ceiling progress (we should get all the crown up this week).
3. Press and photograph Bento Box pieces.
4. Setup Wildflower Fields for quilting.

Hope everyone has a great week!


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

Whew!  What a week last week was.  I was definitely glad when the weekend rolled around.  The weekend was a bit of a late start for me though since I didn't leave work on Friday until 6pm.  Nothing like being one the last people in the office on a Friday evening.  Yuck!  At least it was quiet and I got some good work done.

Today is another quiet day in the office.  Presidents' Day is a floating holiday for us, which means that a lot of people take the day off and our hourly staff have it as a holiday.  The office is definitely quiet here today.  With this week being mid-winter break for the schools in the area, the entire week should be a little bit lighter.

Last week was a productive week, even though I spent a lot of time at work.

1. Mark the border quilting for the large outer border on Lone Star.  Done! I started and finished marking on Saturday morning.
2. Post pictures of needlepoint and coffered ceiling progress.  Done!  I posted about it here and here.
3. Post pictures of Bento Box progress.Done!  I posted about it here.
4. Post review of tea maker. :-) Done! Posted here.

I don't have any pictures to share today, but I'm going to be leaving the office a bit early today to make up for last week and I hope to get some quilting done when I get home. I did sew a bit on the Bento Box quilt over the weekend, but no pictures to show for it.  On Sunday, my in-laws came up to help us out with the coffered ceiling, so we made some good progress there, too.

So here's the list for this coming week:
1. Finish sewing the Bento Box quilt pieces.
2. Quilt the marked border for the Lone Star quilt.
3. Post pictures of the ceiling progress.
4. Decide upon design to quilt Wildflower Fields.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-a-List Monday

The past week has been a fairly good week in terms of getting things done.  I made good progress at the beginning of last week, but petered out a bit at the end.  We did have a bit of snow come down on Friday with the N'oreaster that came up the coast and battered NYC and Boston.  Since we're quite a bit inland, we didn't get as much snow as they did.

These first pictures were taken at about 8am on Friday morning.  Just a little dusting on the ground:

It didn't really snow heavily though on Friday morning.  This is what we had by about 2 in the afternoon.

The snow did come down at a good clip during the night though as we woke up to 10" on Saturday morning.

This last picture is from Sunday morning.  The sun on Saturday afternoon melted a little bit of the snow that was left on the sidewalk after shoveling and the sidewalk is now perfectly clean. :-)

It was nice to see everything white again though.

So here was the list from last week:


1. Rinse out blue marks from Lone Star quilt and photograph. All the marks are rinsed out.  When you look at the close up pictures below, it shows all the straight-line stitching.  I plan on doing more custom free-motion quilting in the open areas, but I want to get the other borders done and then come back and fill-in afterwards.

2. Start quilting outside cream border on Lone Star quilt. Not done. :-(  I got lazy.
3. Post photos of needlepoint and coffered ceiling progress. Done...sort of.  I do have photos of both the needlepoint and coffered ceiling, but I'm going to spread them out through a few posts. :-)

So this coming week, I hope to get a few more things done and log a few more posts.
1. Mark the border quilting for the large outer border on Lone Star.
2. Post pictures of needlepoint and coffered ceiling progress.
3. Post pictures of Bento Box progress.
4. Post review of tea maker. :-)

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-a-List Monday

It's Monday again, which means its time to make that weekly list.  I actually did fairly well last week on things, but I don't have any good pictures to share.  I've really been working on the quilting on the Lone Star quilt, but its not a whole lot to actually show.

Here was the list from last week:
1. Quilt one additional square on Lone Star. DONE!  I actually have all four corner squares done, which means all the straight line quilting with the walking foot is done!  YAY!
2. Cut and piece 2 Bento Box blocks. I cut fabric for more pieces, but I didn't get anything sewn.
3. Post photo of needlepoint.  No pictures yet. :-(


So I did make a few purchases lately, but only one somewhat quilt-related.  Last night I submitted an order to Amazon (which I absolutely love).  One full pound of Earl Grey Supreme tea from Harney & Son's.  And yes, I will easily go through it in the next year, maybe even in 6 months.  Especially when you look at the 3rd item on the Amazon order.

That's right... I decided to purchase the Breville One-Touch Tea Maker.  Its a little pricey, but the reviews are great and I would love to be able to easily make tea while I'm at work.  I'll definitely do a review of it once I get it and start using it.

I also purchased some wool batting.  I've been wanting to try it as some folks really swear by it when they quilt.  Sadly, none of my local quilt shops carries wool batting.  I was just going to purchase one piece large enough for a double-sized quilt; however, the cost of the batting and shipping $9, made it somewhat senseless to buy just that one piece.  I was able to get a 90" wide by 8 yard long roll of batting with no shipping costs thanks to Amazon Prime.  Hopefully it is good to work with or else I will have a lot of batting that I won't want to use.

Finally, the latest purchase was a new pair of boots from Naturalizer.  I have a lot of their shoes and boots and while they can be a little pricier, they are always comfortable.  There's something to be said for walking around in heels all day and not having it bother you because the heels are actually made really well and cushion your feet.

Anyway, I needed a new pair of boots to wear to work through the wet and snow.  These ones were on sale for $30.  Not bad! :-)   They look like they'll be warm and comfy.  Reviewers said they weren't real clunky, so I'm hoping they'll be OK for driving.

 So finally... to the list for this coming week.

1. Rinse out blue marks from Lone Star quilt and photograph.
2. Start quilting outside cream border on Lone Star quilt.
3. Post photos of needlepoint and coffered ceiling progress.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Crafting!

~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

I totally didn't get done what I wanted to last week, but it sure wasn't for lack of effort.  It was a busy week at work...insanely busy.  We also had some friends over to the house on Saturday, which meant the entire day was spent doing grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking and finally entertaining.  We had a great time and it was good seeing some of our friends that are going to be moving soon.

Here was the plan for last week

1. Quilt 2 corner squares for Lone Star. Nope. :-(  I did get half of one block quilted.
2. Post needlepoint picture. Nope.  Didn't get any pictures taken.
3. Sew 4 blocks for the Bento Box quilt. Nope... consistent story, right? Didn't get to this either.
4. Order backing material for Wildflower Fields. I also didn't order backing.  I'm still debating what I want to do with backing.  I could probably make the backing scrappy, but I don't know if I want to do that or just purchase some yardage.

After entertaining our friends on Saturday, we spent a good portion on Sunday working on the coffered ceiling in the "green" room.  We have all the lines marked on the ceiling and some frame boxes made, but we needed to get them squared up on the ceiling and nailed/screwed in place.  That was the Sunday project that kept me from getting into my sewing room.

This next view you can see some of the boxes on the edge as well as the marks on the ceiling showing where all the pieces intersect.

Finally a picture showing the edge of the green room into the dining room. 

Our big purchase for 2013 will be to get a "real" dining room table.  We've figured out we need to be able to have close to 100" of dining length for our families to sit and eat.  What we haven't quite figured out is whether we want to get a solid table 100" long and its permanently set that long, or if we want to do one that has leaves to extend to the necessary 100" length.

I'm hoping this coming week won't be as crazy (or depressing) as the last week.  Here's my plan:
1. Quilt one additional square on Lone Star.
2. Cut and piece 2 Bento Box blocks.
3. Post photo of needlepoint.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

This past weekend was setup to be a great weekend for getting sewing done....and then other things got in the way!  :-)

We found out a friend of ours who is moving is unable to take their pool table with them.  So for about half the price of a new table, we can get a pool table moved into the house and re-felted.  Our friend is moving around the end of March, so we now have a deadline for our coffered ceiling.

Saturday I was able to do a little sewing while my in-laws were up to help with the ceiling.  I also got the laundry done; however, the rest of the weekend was mainly spent working on the ceiling.

Here's my list from last week:
1. Mark and quilt at least one additional corner square on Lone Star. Partially done.  All four corner squares are marked, but I only got one partially quilted.
2. Post an updated picture of the needlepoint. I forgot to take a picture of the needlepoint, so it will have to wait until next week.
3. Sew next three blocks for the Bento Box quilt.  DONE!  I actually got this done, but no pictures off the camera yet.  Sheesh!  :-)
4. Order backing material for Wildflower Fields.  Not done.  I haven't been able to decide whether I want to go for "el-cheapo" fabric for the back, or to go with something nice.  Any suggestions?

 So here's the plan for this coming week:
1. Quilt 2 corner squares for Lone Star.
2. Post needlepoint picture.
3. Sew 4 blocks for the Bento Box quilt.
4. Order backing material for Wildflower Fields.


Happy Crafting!

~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

How did it get to be Monday again?  Somehow its already the middle of January and I'm not quite sure how that happened!

I did make a bit of progress this past week on things I had wanted to complete. Here was last week's list:


1. Post a picture of my progress on my needlepoint.  The "page" shown below is actually completed now.  I'm on to page 9...of 42.

2. Finish quilting the straight lines in all four triangles. Done.  All four triangles have the straight-line quilting done.

3. Start quilting the straight lines in the corner squares (4 total).  Done!  I finished quilting one of the four corner squares. 

 

4. Pair up white strips and batiks for a Bento Box quilt. Done.  All strips paired up and I made one block.  I also cut fabric for the next 3 blocks.

So I made a lot of progress this past week.  I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up this coming week.  We also made progress on a house project we've been working on.  We want to put a coffered ceiling into one of our rooms, but we've been struggling with how to put something square into a non-square room.  Below is a picture of what we kind of want to do. 

By the end of Sunday, we had figured out how to make it square and snapped some reference lines onto the ceiling.  The next step is going to be to buy some wood that we need to use to put the "boxes" on the ceiling and measure the thickness of the wood so we place everything correctly.

My plans for the coming week are:
1. Mark and quilt at least one additional corner square on Lone Star.
2. Post an updated picture of the needlepoint.
3. Sew next three blocks for the Bento Box quilt.
4. Order backing material for Wildflower Fields.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

Happy New Year to everyone in Blog Land!  I know I'm a little bit late, but that seems to be how its going to be this coming year!

I'm a little overdue for my Make-A-List Monday post.  I guess its good that I've been doing some sewing though. :-)

I came down with a cold just after Christmas and I'm still fighting it off, but I've felt a little bit better the last few days.  I've been doing a lot of this with the kitty. :-)

Looks comfy doesn't she?  Just to the right...that flat, white-ish surface... is the hearth to our wood-burning fireplace.  As soon as we get the fire going, she plops herself in front of it and starts to snooze.  I don't blame her... its what I want to do whenever we have the fire going, too!

I have been able to get some quilting done when I can pull myself away from the fireplace (I've been doing a bit of needlepoint since I can sit myself right near the fireplace and do it).  This is a picture from last week, but I do have more done.  There are four of these triangles that have to be marked and quilted with the walking foot.  I'm completely done with three of them and the fourth is almost done.  Then its on to quilting the large corner squares using the same motif.

So here's my plan for the up-coming week:
1. Post a picture of my progress on my needlepoint.
2. Finish quilting the straight lines in all four triangles.
3. Start quilting the straight lines in the corner squares (4 total).
4. Pair up white strips and batiks for a Bento Box quilt.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Crafting!

~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

I've been a bit quiet in the blogging world lately.  Initially it was due to being very busy with work and trying to get a client quilt finished up.  Then things changed on Friday.  While I don't like to dwell on sad things, I want to take a few moments to give tribute to Sandy Hook Elementary.

 

My husband grew up in Sandy Hook and up until a few years ago, his parents owned a home less than a mile from the Elementary school.  It has been surreal for us the past few days.  I first saw the headline on the news and it simply referenced a shooting at a school in Sandy Hook, but it didn't give any of the details that we now know. 

Sandy Hook truly is your quintessential New England village.  Its a quiet place where people gather at the local coffee shop prior to heading out to the weekend soccer and ball fields.  If you picture those post-card views of a New England town in the fall... that's Sandy Hook.

My heart breaks for the parents of the lost children and also for the children who have survived.  Life will never be the same for anyone in that small town.  The pain will never be gone, but I hope they can move forward and keep those precious 20 children and brave 6 adults in their hearts.

-------------------------
So on to quilting items...

Here was what I had planned for last week:

1. Quilt client quilt and remove from frame. Done!  This is all set to go back to the client.  Since I forgot to ask ahead of time, I can't show any pictures.  I want to make sure the client is OK with showing pictures before I actually do it.
2. Hand-sew binding on Charity quilt. I haven't been working on this since I've been focusing on #1 and #3.
3. Hand-sew binding on Whirly Stars quilt.  Getting there. :-)  I have one long side left before I'm done.
4. Square-up backing fabric for Lone Star quilt. Not done.  I've been focusing on #1 and #3.

I'm glad to have the client quilt done.  It has been one of the few projects that truly have a deadline that isn't self-imposed.  It was supposed to be done by this Friday, so I'm glad I got it done a bit early.  With that being done, it also frees up some time to do the binding on quilts and also to get moving on the Lone Star quilt.

Here's my plan for this coming week, which will be a little odd since I'm only working two days and my vacation starts on the 19th.  Yay!  I won't have to go back to work until January 2nd.

1. Square-up backing fabric for Lone Star quilt.
2. Hand-sew binding on Whirly Stars quilt.
3. Hand-sewing binding on Charity quilt.
4. Baste Lone Star quilt on quilting frame and start custom quilting.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Singer Expert Finish Steam Iron (Google Affiliate Ad) 

Make-A-List Monday

 Yes, I know today is Tuesday and my post title says Monday. :-)  This just shows how this week has been already.  It's been a bit crazy with work, Christmas shopping, dealing with 2013 healthcare issues, etc.  The last few weeks of the year area always crazy here at work and it seems to be a bit more so this year.

I didn't get everything done that I wanted to last week....

1. Prepare backing and baste the Lone Star Wall hanging. Nothing. :-(
2. Trim quilt top for Whirly Stars baby quilt and add binding. Done.  Starting hand-sewing binding.
3. Trim quilt top for charity quilt and add binding. Done.  Starting hand-sewing binding.
4. Post picture of Christmas tree and snowman applique project.  Nothing. :-(

While I didn't seem to get a lot done here, I actually did get a lot of things done.  On Monday evening (12/3), I received a call from a local quilter asking if I could quilt a for her.  We met Tuesday evening and she left her quilt with me.  I have to have the quilting done by the 21st.  It will be a bit interesting to quilt as the top isn't too terribly flat.  I think it will just be a lot of extra pinning to ease the bulk in without creating pleats.

I also wrote up Christmas cards (with hubby's help) and we completed about 90% of our Christmas shopping.  Yay!  We spent last Saturday doing a little bit of window shopping at the local mall.  It was EXTREMELY busy there.  It re-affirmed why I don't like going to the mall anymore.  We did pick up a few things for Christmas gifts, so it wasn't a complete loss.

We also did some window shopping at a music store that's in the mall (yes - kind of odd).  This music store sells guitars, keyboards and also full-size grand pianos.  We're contemplating getting a baby grand piano to use at the house.

I've played piano since I was 5 and I love playing.  When I was in an apartment in Connecticut, I needed something to play, so I paid $$ for a digital piano by Kawai.  While it wasn't the same as playing on a real piano, it was close and sounded very good.  It still sounds very good over 10 years later.  Now that we're in our house and not really moving anymore (hopefully), we'd really like to get a full piano versus the digital piano.

A friend of ours has a used Steinway and every time we visit them, we play and wish we had one of our own.  So now we're starting to check out a few places that sell them.  I'm not bit into name brands, so the piano doesn't have to be a Steinway (I've played on some really great Steinways...and some really bad Steinways).  For me, it all comes down to how the piano feels and what it sounds like.  Heck, I'd buy a Yamaha grand piano if I loved how it played and sounded.  I'm a bit partial towards Kawai pianos as they have a very clear, bright sound to them and they don't sound muddled like some of the "old-name" pianos sound.

The best part about window shopping for pianos is that you get to try them all out. :-)  When we went to the mall this weekend, we didn't have any music with us, so it was playing bits and pieces by memory.  We plan on checking out another place this weekend and we'll be sure to bring music with us this time.

So what's my plan for quilting items this week??

1. Quilt client quilt and remove from frame.
2. Hand-sew binding on Charity quilt.
3. Hand-sew binding on Whirly Stars quilt.
4. Square-up backing fabric for Lone Star quilt.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Tea Sampler Gift Set - new & updated (Google Affiliate Ad) 

Make-A-List Monday

Its Monday again...  I feel like I should put one of those Garfield cartoons on here regarding how bad Mondays are.  I think Garfield once proposed eliminating all Mondays from the calendar.  :-)  I would totally be up for that!

I actually got quite a bit done this past weekend.  Two quilts are now quilted and ready for binding.  A third quilt has the backing prepared and is ready to get loaded onto the quilt frame.  Here's one of the two quilts that got quilted.  This one got done Saturday afternoon between entertaining my in-laws.  Its a quilt that will given as part of a charity function with  my guild.  Another member had pieced the top and prepared backing and binding, but the quilt needed the final quilting and binding. 

I love the texture this pattern leaves on the quilt.  I quilted it using Baby Blue from Connecting Threads in the top and a coordinating shade of blue from Superior Threads Bottom Line in the bobbin.  I love using the Superior Threads various different types of threads.  The Connecting Threads is also good (no problems with my machine), but it does produce more lint.

So here's what I had planned for last week.

1. Post pictures of completed quilts and update blog. Done!  Posted here and here.
2. Quilt charity quilt for guild.  Done! (above)
3. Post pictures of Patchwork Garden completed.  Done!  Posted here.
4. Post picture of Christmas tree. Oops!  Forgot about this one.  I really should get a good picture of the tree as its very pretty this year.

This week is probably going to be another busy week, but here's what I would like to get done.

1. Prepare backing and baste the Lone Star Wall hanging.
2. Trim quilt top for Whirly Stars baby quilt and add binding.
3. Trim quilt top for charity quilt and add binding.
4. Post picture of Christmas tree and snowman applique project.

I hope everyone's week is starting out well!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Also, check out this pretty cool piece of wall art.  I could actually see hanging this in our foyer...we have a lot of blank space there!

 Circle Abstract Wall Decor (Google Affiliate Ad)

Time Flies....

 I didn't realize so much time had passed since my last blog post.  Needless to say, I've been pretty busy with the Thanksgiving holiday.

On the 17th, we had my husband's family over for Pre-Thanksgiving.  Everyone had a great time and we had a ton of food.  Thankfully some of the extra turkey went home with my husband's parents and his uncle, and the rest was mostly eaten by two friends who came over on Sunday to do some hunting on the back of our property.  No luck for them though as a coyote chased off the deer just as the deer ere getting within range.

Right after Pre-Thanksgiving, it was a short week at work, but that just meant that we tried to fit 5 days of work into 3.  After work on the 21st, we drove out to Syracuse, NY to visit my parents.  We stayed there through Saturday morning and we arrived back home Saturday around lunchtime.  It was good visiting with everyone and we helped them put up one of the Christmas trees.

Saturday afternoon Rich and I put up our Christmas tree while watching White Christmas. :-)  Its a tradition in our family to watch White Christmas while putting up the trees.  Besides...I love the movie!

So on the quilting front, there hasn't been a ton of quilting done as I've been cooking, cleaning, putting up trees, etc.  I'm not even going to bother listing the last post for Make-A-List Monday as I really didn't get much done.

I haven't shared pictures in a while, so here's some things that I have been doing:

The Whirly Stars quilt is completely finished.  I decided to do string blocks in the corners with the strings pointing towards the center of the quilt.

We also finally  hung the Starry Night needlepoint that I finished last year.  We've had it framed for almost a year now, but hadn't figured out where we wanted to hang it.  Its now hanging in the dining room.

We also had a little bit of snow a week or so ago.  It was really a wet rain with a little bit of snow.  We had more snow over this past weekend, but I didn't take any pictures.  Its all gone by now despite it remaining cold out.

I also finished the binding on Shine on Bayou Cane.  I haven't washed this yet, but its already getting some use on our couch for snuggling in at night.  I laid it out on the queen-sized bed in our guest bedroom to get a good view of it fully laid out.

And here's a close-up of the quilting.

This coming week, I do have some things I'd like to finish/start.
1. Post pictures of completed quilts and update blog.
2. Quilt charity quilt for guild.
3. Post pictures of Patchwork Garden completed.
4. Post picture of Christmas tree.

Happy Crafting!
 ~Sarah at upstateNYCreations



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Make-A-List Tuesday

Whenever I have a long weekend, my blog posts tend to get a little off-kilter.  There are definitely two separate reasons...
     1 - My husband is home on long weekends, so not as much sewing gets done. :-)
     2 - Since its the long weekend, I want to get lots of sewing done instead of posting on the blog.

Either way, I didn't post anything late last week or yesterday, so my "make-a-list Monday" is now Tuesday for this week.

I don't have any photos to share yet, but it was a busy weekend.  I was able to get a fair amount of sewing done, but we also rebuilt a sand-bag dam for holding water in the spring.  We wanted to rebuild it now while we didn't have a lot of water to deal with.  So we managed to move over 90 wet sandbags (yuck) and rebuilt the dam using just sandbags and a pond liner to help with sealing.  We also added at least another 50 sandbags to the dam to shore it up.

We also did some window shopping at furniture stores.  We're trying to find a pub-height table for our kitchen, but haven't really found anything yet.  There was one we liked, but it was way more expensive than what we wanted to spend for the kitchen.  So we'll keep looking....

So last week, here's what was on the list:

1. Trim the baby quilt and machine sew binding.  Done!  I'm about 1/3 of the way done hand-sewing binding.
2. Finish sewing star blocks for "Whirly Stars". Done!  I also have the main quilt top done.  I just need to add the borders at this point.
3. Order thread for Lone Star quilt and applique project.  Bad, Sarah!  This isn't done yet.
4. Layer and baste Lone Star quilt.  This also isn't done yet.

So this coming week is a short week since we're already on Tuesday and Friday is going to be spent preparing for "Pre-Thanksgiving" with my husband's family.  I would like to get a few things done though...

1. Finish sewing entire quilt top for "Whirly Stars".
2. Order thread for Lone Star quilt, applique project and Wildflower Fields.
3. Baste Lone Star quilt on the quilting frame.
4. Quilt a lap-sized quilt for my guild's charity group.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

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Make-A-List Monday

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind.  Thankfully, hurricane Sandy didn't cause too much trouble here in the Albany, NY area.  We had some strong winds and a little bit of rain, but by large, the storm missed us.  I definitely feel for the folks in Connecticut, NYC and New Jersey.  They got hit really hard and are struggling to pick up the pieces.

A lady in our quilt guild is gathering items at our guild meeting tonight to take down to NYC and New Jersey to help out folks there.  Quilters are very generous, so I imagine there will be lots of items donated tonight.

We had a house guest for a few days last week as my husband's Uncle lives in southern CT and was without power for a few days.  We offered up our spare bedroom for him to come stay for a few days in the warmth.  The power in his neighborhood was restored late last week and he went back home on Saturday morning.

Since we were pretty busy during the week, I'm actually surprised at how much I was able to accomplish.  Everything on my to-do list is completed.

1. Press sewn blocks for boy baby quilt. DONE!

2. Take photos of quilt blocks sewn/pressed. DONE!  I even have it laid out and started sewing some of the blocks together.

3. Select backing, thread, and quilting pattern for baby quilt. DONE!  I even got the whole thing quilted last night.  After a bit of a fiasco at the start (note to self, do not use super-thin Bottom Line thread as the top thread on the quilting frame...machine not happy!), I was able to really get going on this.  This is a small quilt, but the quilting was also fairly simply.  I love the texture the quilting gives to this quilt.  Its a pantograph called Celebrate.

4. Start creating freezer-paper templates for a wool applique mini-wall hanging. DONE!  No pictures though as freezer-paper templates are pretty boring to look at. :-)  I did however, sew all of the background for the applique, so I'll be able to start appliqueing things as soon as I place an order for matching threads.

So now, the plan for the upcoming week....

1. Trim the baby quilt and machine sew binding.
2. Finish sewing star blocks for "Whirly Stars".
3. Order thread for Lone Star quilt and applique project.
4. Layer and baste Lone Star quilt.

 Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

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Make-A-List Monday

Happy Monday!  The next few days are going to be a bit of a whirlwind around here.  I live in the Albany, NY area and the weather forecast currently says that starting this afternoon we will be having 50+ mph winds with gusts towards 75 mph.  They're expecting widespread power outages and about 2-4" of rainfall.  Needless to say, we've been busy preparing.

Thankfully, I usually keep at least a weeks' worth of essentials around the house anyway, so we have lots of Gatorade, granola bars, canned goods, items we can heat up and cook with the propane stove and the fireplace.  I bought one small case of bottled water just to be on the safe side.  We also have iced tea, soda and gatorade to drink, so we should be fine.  Other than that, our preparations were really just getting wood stockpiled inside the garage, filling the bathtubs with water (we're on a well, so when we lose electricity we lose water), and getting the laundry clean and dishes clean.  If we do lose power for several days, we'll have plenty to eat/drink and clean clothes.

The house is located at the top of a hill which is bad from a wind standpoint, but good from a flooding standpoint.  We didn't have any issues with the basement flooding during Irene last year, so I think the house will be fine this year.  We may have water on the driveway, but even during Irene it wasn't deep enough that we wouldn't be able to drive across it.

Depending upon what actually happens with this storm, I may get a lot done this week, or I may get nothing done as I won't have any power. :-)

Here's the list from last week.  I wasn't very productive last week as there were a lot of things going on with work and I spent the weekend at my parents.

1. Cut fabrics for the boy baby quilt (I have to work on a name for this). Done.  All fabrics are cut and 96 of the squares are sewn together.
2. Start sewing blocks for the boy baby quilt. Done
3. Select backing and quilting pattern for 2nd baby quilt. Not done.
4. Load baby quilt on frame and start to quilt. Not done.
5. Play with EQ6 to get fabric amounts/colors for a smaller version of Judy's Sing A Happy Song quilt pattern for 4th baby quilt. Not done.

 This week's list is going to be fairly short and simple as I don't know what the power situation is going to be.

1. Press sewn blocks for boy baby quilt.
2. Take photos of quilt blocks sewn/pressed.
3. Select backing, thread, and quilting pattern for baby quilt.
4. Start creating freezer-paper templates for a wool applique mini-wall hanging.

Hope you all have a great week and stay dry!

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-A-List Monday

Last week was a very productive week for me.  It is so nice to get some finishes after having no finishes for a long time!  I was originally supposed to have all of Friday and 90% of Saturday to myself while my husband went to a friend's place to help pull in a dock.  He was scheduled to be back late Saturday, but after a bad Friday, he ended up leaving early and was back home Saturday afternoon.  While it was good to have him back, he wasn't feeling well, so a lot of Saturday afternoon/evening was spent making sure he was ok.

Thankfully, it appears that it was a lack of sleep problem, because after sleeping 12 hours from Saturday to Sunday, he was fine all day Sunday.

"The List" from last week....
 1. Complete hand-sewing of binding on client quilt.  DONE!  In fact, the entire quilt is now washed and ready to give to my client this coming weekend.

 

2. Press strips together for 2nd baby quilt. DONE!  The entire top is actually together.

3. Design 3rd baby quilt (yes, another one in addition to the one from last week). Done!  I have to play with the borders a little bit more, but I have all the fabric purchased and it is now ready for cutting into strips and blocks.

4.  Play with EQ6 to get fabric amounts/colors for a smaller version of Judy's Sing A Happy Song quilt pattern for 4th baby quilt. I didn't get to this item this past week.
5.   Hand-sew binding on Shine on Bayou Cane quilt.I did a little bit here, but not a whole lot.  I spent most of the week doing binding for the client quilt.

I'm hoping this coming week will be productive too.  Here is my plan:
1. Cut fabrics for the boy baby quilt (I have to work on a name for this).
2. Start sewing blocks for the boy baby quilt.
3. Select backing and quilting pattern for 2nd baby quilt.
4. Load baby quilt on frame and start to quilt.
5. Play with EQ6 to get fabric amounts/colors for a smaller version of Judy's Sing A Happy Song quilt pattern for 4th baby quilt.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations