Lots O' Thread

Just before my birthday (which was this past Sunday), I finally got around to purchasing thread so I could do the quilting on the Mariner's Compass quilt.  As typical, I bought my thread from Superior Threads.  Their threads are great and are very low lint, which is good for your sewing machine.  I don't want to be a "thread snob", but I've tried a bunch of different threads in the past and these ones are definitely my favorites.  I have yet to have ANY issues with the Superior Threads, regardless of which line of threads I use.

So the small cones in the picture below are actually for quilting the Mariner's Compass quilt.  I already had some great blues left over from the Lone Star quilt that I will use in the blue sections of this quilt.  The red will go in the large red sections of the quilt and the gold is going to be used in the pieced outer border where the fabrics switch from yellow to blue to red to green.

You may be wondering about those large cones in the back.  Since I was ordering thread anyway, I decided to indulge and get some very large cones of thread for piecing.  I use Masterpiece threads for my piecing, and typically use the cream color.  However, Superior had a great deal on some of their large cones, so I also picked up the gold/yellow colored cone.  It was originally supposed to be $107, but was on sale for $40.  Very hard to beat that kind of price.



So if you're wondering on the actual size of the new cones....

The two "small" cones of So Fine! and The Bottom Line are both about 3,000 yards.  That big cone...a whopping 10,840 yards of thread!  :c)  The cream color cone is even larger at 15,000 yards.  I have a lot of piecing ahead in my future to use up these babies.  LOL!



I still have some prep work to do on the Mariner's Compass top before its ready to start quilting, but I'll be sure to share some pictures on here.  I have to mark some things on it prior to loading it onto my quilting frame for basting.  Because I have a small throat space on the machine on my frame, I will only baste it on the frame and then do the actual quilting on my regular sewing machine.

It may seem odd to some of you, but if you only have 5" of throat space on a frame and your quilting design is larger than 5" you end up constantly having to adjust your rollers and where the quilt is positioned.  I'd spend half my time just trying to move the quilt on the rollers and not mess up my stitching lines.  So the quilt gets basted on the frame and then detail work is done on the smaller machine where I can more easily continue my lines of stitching.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

More Partial Seams

I'm finally getting around to the continuation of my last post on partial seams.  The prior post can be found here.  These pictures are all from the Jambalaya quilt pattern that I'm putting together with some quarter yard cuts of material that I got a year or so ago.

Once you have your columns sewn together as shown in last post, you'll want to put two of the columns next to each other so you can visualize how they nest together.


Flip the piece on the right over onto the left.  Take a look at the fabric placement in the above photo compared to that in the below photo.  The column on the left is stationary, the column on the right is flipped right sides together with the pink/white/orange piece on top of the mainly orange piece from the left.  I pin these seams to keep things aligned a bit better as I move things around.


On this top section, you want to start with another partial seam.  The picture below shows my stitching line starting about 1" from the edge of the seam.  The line is sewn all the way to the free end.  This is the only partial seam you will need.  The rest of the seams are full seams.


Here is what it looks like after that first seam is completed.  The next step is to sew the yellow striped fabric to the free side of the orange piece from the first seam.  Again,  I've found it easier to pin the seams to keep things aligned.


Here is a picture of the next seam ready to be sewn.  The yellow strip piece is now laying on top of the orange piece.  Sew this as a full seam.


Keep sewing the seam (all of the full) until you get to the bottom of the column. There's no need to press between each seam you sew.  Simply finger press the seams enough to allow you to sew the next seam and then do a full press once you're done with the column.  Its easiest to press from the back side first to get the seams going in the direction you want them to go.  Once you have that done, you can do a good hard press from the front side.

I don't currently have a picture of the finished columns, so you'll have to trust me that its done. ;c)  The partial seams aren't too bad once you get accustomed to the method of doing them.  The only downside I found was that there was a lot of stopping and starting.  I keep a pile of squares next to my machine for a scrap quilt and used those to maintain my line of stitching as much as possible.  So the benefit was that I got a lot of these pieces sewn together when making this quilt.  LOL!



Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Quilt Show - Empire Quilt Fest

A few weeks ago, my parents were up visiting and we went to a local quilt show that is held every other year. There are always some amazing quilts at the show.  Here's some really beautiful ones that struck my eye while I was there.


"Curves Ahead" by Sue Schoch.  The pattern was called Urban Pods.

"Party Streamers" by Suzette Merendo-DuPont.  The pattern has the same name by Kate Mitchell Quilts.

"Queen of the Magnolias" by Jennie Ozog.  The pattern is called Cathedral Window Quilts by Lynne Edwards.

"My Celtic Solstice" by Laurie Collins.  The pattern is "Celtic Solstice" by Bonnie Hunter and Laurie made modifications to the borders to make it all her own.  I like how she modified the border and put a celtic quilting theme into it.

The quilting was great on this one.




"Star Sapphire" by Monica Mottolese and the pattern is by Jinny Beyer.






"100 Patch" by Ronald H. Lower.  This one would be a great pattern to use up lots of those little scraps that we never know what to do with.


"Floral Fantasy - William Morris" by Rita Haldar.


"Baltimore Album Quilt" by Chris Polak.  The patterns were taken from various books by Elly Sienkiewicz.

"Mimi's Traditional Garden" by Carol Swota.  Pattern is "Mimi's Bloomers" by Erin Russek.





"Bella's Mimi" by Janet Palombo.  Pattern "Mimi's Bloomers" by Erin Russek.





"More Whirligigs" by Laurie Collins.  Pattern is "Whirligig" by John Kubiniec.




"Repro Stars" by Mary Widdis.  Pattern is from County Threads.  This quilt is actually very small.  The log cabin pieces were only 1/2" wide finished.  The individual did an amazing piecing job with this one.

"We're on a Roll...." by Suzette Merendo-Dupont.  The pattern is by Karen Brown of Java House Quilts.  I couldn't help myself with this one.  Its just so cute and funny.

"Feather and Swirl" by Laurie Collins.  This last quilt was one of the few whole-cloth quilts in the show.  It is a masterpiece.  I can't imagine the number of hours it took to quilt this.





Next time I'm hoping to enter a few quilts into the show.  I always end up forgetting to do so and finally remember it about a week before the show opens, which is obviously too late to enter anything.  I really need to start planning ahead a little bit more. :c)

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Partial Seams

When I first started the Jambalaya quilt, I was a little put off by the partial seams.  I didn't realize it was partial seams until after I had purchased the pattern and started reading the directions.  However, I really wanted to make the quilt as I liked the overall design.

It took a little bit to get used to the partial seams, but in the end, it hasn't really been that bad.  They definitely aren't as difficult as they seem to be. :c)  Here's a quick little tutorial on partial seams for braided designs:

In the photo below, I've already started a column of pieces.  The first few blocks follow the same pattern as the other blocks in the column.  Take the piece that you want on the "right" of your sewn pieces and line them up as shown.



Next, flip the fabric over and align the raw edges.


For this orientation, you start with the seam all the way to the edge of the fabric as shown:


Sewn down the length of the seam and stop about 1" from the end.


Remove the fabric from under your pressure foot.  This is a good time to use something from a "leader and ender" project.  Simply put set of fabric under the pressure foot and sew the seam and you don't ever have to break the thread.  This ends up saving thread in the long run, but I find it also simpler since I don't have to worry about loose thread tails getting tangled.


Lightly press your seam that you sewed.  I tend to press the full end heavily to get it nice and smooth, but as you get towards the partial seam end, you don't want to press the fabric much.


For the next piece, again, align the fabric along the edge of your sewn column.


Flip the fabric over and align the seam edges.  The scissors below are point to where the partial seam starts.


In this case since you want your raw edges on the right, you have to start on the partial seam.  Simply start you needle approximately 1" from the edge of the fabric.  The scissors are again pointing to the same spot from the picture above.


Sew this seam all the way to the end of the fabric and press lightly as you did before.


Keep adding blocks using the partial seams until you finish your columns.  The picture I have below is 3 columns finished.  I have 4 finished now with the 5th one in process and then I'll be sewing the columns together.


I'll also show some detailed pictures of sewing the columns together since that will be the trickier part with the partial seams.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Another Project... LOL

Not that I needed another one, I decided to start a new quilt project this past week.  This pattern is called Jambalaya by Prairie Sky Quilting.  The pattern is designed for using fat quarters, but I used a set of quarter yard cuts that I had instead.  I had a bit more waste that I cut into pieces for other scrap quilts, but it used up some of my stash.

Here is the first set of blocks ready to be sewn.

And all of the "plain" blocks required for the pattern.




This next photo has the plain blocks and one of the other blocks next to each other.  I ended up spreading them all out and then putting equal numbers of the blocks into the columns for the quilt.  I wanted to have an even mix of all the fabrics.


I then laid them all out on the floor so I could make sure I had a good mix of the fabrics.  There were a few fabrics that I had more of the blocks in that particular color, so I had to make sure I was intermixing those so I wouldn't end up with a clump of blocks all the same color.


I decided to start this pattern as I wanted to try something new.  This quilt requires partial seams due to the nature of how the blocks align.  So its new to me as I haven't done partial seams before.  I have most of the columns sewn at this point, but I haven't started trying to join the columns together with the partial seams yet.  We'll see how that goes.  ;c)

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.  Here in upstate NY, the weather is finally nice.  Most of our snow is gone, though we still have piles of it in certain places.  It is supposed to get up to 55F today with a high later this week of 65F.  We don't have any plants growing yet, but spring is finally here. 

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Time....

....is the one thing I wish I had more of lately.  That and maybe some extra energy! :c)

Its been another hectic two weeks here in upstate NY.  Just after I posted last time (about 2 weeks ago), I ended up picking up a nasty cold.  I spent 4 days straight not doing anything but drinking tea, reading and sleeping.  I'm still fighting off a cough from the cold, but it seems to be getting better.

Work has also been crazy the past few weeks.  Its the time of year that we have to do appraisals.  Originally, we didn't need to get them done until the end of April, so we (myself and two other managers) had plenty of time to get things written up and then to hold the meetings with the individuals.  Then on March 10th, HR told us that we needed to have EVERYTHING done by the end of March!  So I have 30 reviews that I had to write up and then schedule meetings and I only had about 2 weeks to do it.

Sadly, the reviews have not been going well.  The prior managers were very generous with the appraisals and the average for the group was 4.7 out of 5.... not really an average.  So this year the manager of the group decided he wanted to "fix" it...so all the ratings are lower.  We have some very unhappy people now simply because the number changed.  The text of the appraisals still say they're doing a good job, but people like to focus on that number.

Needless to say, its been stressful trying to get through these reviews.  I have 4 days (counting today) left of reviews and I'll be done by lunchtime on Friday.  Friday afternoon can't come fast enough at this stage!

I'm hoping that I can get back to some quilting soon.  Due to dealing with the reviews, I have been neglecting my quilting in the evenings.  In fact, I don't really get anything done in the evening but try to relax so that I can sleep at night.

I have some projects in the works.  Not that I needed another project, but I bought this applique quilt kit from Quilting by the Bay.  It looks really cute and I needed something that was fun and not too terribly difficult to piece.  All the appliques are fused, so it should come together rather quickly.  Plus, the overall design has some really great opportunities to do some custom quilting on it.

I also have some smaller projects in mind and a few finishes that I'm almost done with.  I have some binding to sew onto a few things and then they are done.

Hope everyone is enjoying the start of spring.  Its been cold here in NY still, but we have spurts of spring every now and then.  Hopefully the 50-degree weather later this week will help get rid of the 6+ inches of snow we still have on the ground.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

It's Been A While....

...since I last posted.  I can't believe its been 3 weeks already!

Work has been insanely busy the past two weeks as we had visitors from Mexico.  This meant getting into work earlier and staying much later to get everything done.  Plus, most evenings we took them out for dinner or other things, so I wasn't getting home until after 8pm most nights.

I haven't been doing a lot of quilting lately due to the insane hours I've been putting in at work.  However, I did get a small quilt on the frame this week.  Sadly, I think this is going to be one of the most epic fails and will likely be either thrown away or finished up with tying it so my cat can use it.

It started out pretty promising (the 2nd item in the picture below), but yet again, my quilting frame has failed me.


The quilting frame I have is an older generation frame for a Viking Mega Quilter.  It can be setup in 2 sizes, either a 5-foot length or a 10-foot length.  Unfortunately, where the pieces come together in the middle, it has a small step in the joint.  We've spent hours trying to smooth that you and adjust the frame over and over again to get rid of it, but it still lingers.  So when I try to do some custom quilting with it....the quilting ends up looking terrible, which is what has happened with the Winding Ways wall hanging.

I'm not sure at this point whether I will scrap the whole thing or attempt to rip out the stitches that are currently in it.  I'm seriously tempted to just scrap the whole thing and never think about it again...that's how frustrated I am with it.

I would love to upgrade to a better frame and machine.  While I could afford to do it, I still have a hard time justifying the cost, especially if I don't use it for a business or something of that sort.  For now I will do what I've done in the past.... quilt simple pantographs on the frame and anything that needs custom quilting will be basted on the frame and then quilted using my regular sewing machine.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations