Quilt Guild Lecture

Monday evening was my local quilt guild's meeting for the month of February.  I've noticed that there are fewer quilters showing up when the weather is cold compared to earlier this year.  However, we did have a really great speaker last night.

Sue Pritt of Sweet Season Quilts was the guest lecturer.  She spoke about how she grew up not as a sewer, but as a "fixer" just like her mother.  They didn't sew for the purpose of making clothes or quilts, but for the purpose of mending items around the home.  Eventually Sue started making a quilt or two and then she got into paper piecing and fusible applique.  Her quilts that she brought to the lecture were amazing.  Here is an example of one of her patterns:

The amount of texture she has on her quilts is amazing.  She does her own quilting, too, on her regular sewing machine.

Sue's patterns can be found in many quilt shops as well as through Keepsake Quilting.  If you do have a chance to go to a lecture by Sue, definitely go!  It was informative and a fun lecture!

 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

Possible Purchase

I've been debating about making a particular purchase lately.

For those of you who don't know, I'm an avid tea drinker.  I take an insulated thermos of tea with me to work every day...sometimes two of them.  A few years ago, in an effort to save money, my company got rid of our water coolers that provided both cold and hot water.  When we had those coolers, I could easily make some tea at work using the hot water (no microwaved water for this tea weenie).  However, now that we don't have those, I'm back to bringing thermoses of tea.

Hello Amazon!  Since I have bought tea and tea accessories off Amazon, the company sent me an email a while ago regarding a programmable tea maker.  Here's a link to the item.  Its made by Breville and not only does it boil water at a touch of button, but it has an infuser that automatically lowers into the water, steeps for the desired amount of time and automatically retracts to stop the brewing process.

Can we say... Totally Awesome!!!

The only not-awesome part..... the price.  Its currently listed at $240, which seems like an awful lot of money to be able to make yummy tea at work.

I think the next time I get an award at work, I may splurge and get this.  I really enjoy my tea and would love to just be able to make it at work at any point during the day.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Starting and Ending a Line of Quilting

I thought I would do a post on starting and ending a line of quilting and being able to bury the thread afterwards.  Clicking on any of the pictures will take you to my Flickr site and you can view the picture larger.

When starting the thread, first you want to put your needle down where you want to start your quilting.

Be sure to keep a tight hold of the thread that comes from your needle and raise the needle to the up position again.

Gently tug on the thread until the bobbin thread comes up.  You can see it as a little loop in the picture below.  Use a stylus, pin, pencil (pretty much any small tool) and slip it through that loop to pull the thread out from under the needle.

Hold onto both ends of the thread and make sure you have some tension on both of them to prevent them from getting pulled to the wrong side of the fabric.

Again, put your needle down in the spot where you want your quilting to start.  Put your pressure foot down and hold onto those threads and start stitching.  Once you have a few stitches taken, you don't need to hold onto the threads any longer.

When you get to the end of the line of stitching, we will follow a similar process.  When you are the end of stitching, put the needle in the up position, raise your pressure foot and use a small tool of some sort to catch your top thread between the quilt and the needle.  Pull that thread to the side and grab onto it with your hand.

While holding that thread, put your needle back down in the last place you took a stitch. 

Raise the needle to the up position again and pull gently on your thread.  The bobbin thread should come to the top fairly easily.  You will want to leave your pressure foot down on this step to prevent the top thread from pulling through.

Again, use a stylus or small tool to grab that loop of thread and pull it to the side.

Gather both the top and bottom threads and snip them.  Be sure to leave enough thread such that you can tie a knot in it.

Move your quilt sandwich away from the pressure foot and tie a knot close to the surface.  You will want to leave a little space so you can pull the thread between the layers of the quilt.

I use a self-threading needle to do this step as it makes it easy to thread.  Thread the needle and insert the tip as close as you can to your line of stitching and the point should come up about a half inch to an inch away from your stitching.  You will want to make sure you only get your needle under the top layer of fabric.  it doesn't need to go into the batting and you definitely don't want it going all the way through your quilt.

Pull the needle through.  If you look closely at the picture below, in the corner of the stitching, there is a little "ball" of thread. That's my knot.  Pull gently, but firmly, on your thread and it will pop through the top layer of fabric.  You will actually feel a little "pop" when it goes through.

In this picture, if you look at the same corner again, the "ball" of thread is missing.  It is buried under that top layer of fabric.  Now just snip that thread tail close to the surface of the quilt and you are done.

I hope you found this helpful!


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

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

Stashbusting 2013 - Week 4

Some sewing has been going on this past week, but not a lot to show in terms of progress.  I used a bit more stash making more blocks for the Bento Box quilt.

I've also been slowly making progress on the Lone Star quilt.  All the corners are now marked and two of them are quilted.  I'd like to be a little further along on this, but my free time (outside work) has been split between quilting and helping to build a coffered ceiling.  I'm hoping to be able to spend some time today quilting since I don't have to do any laundry or grocery shopping and dinner is already in the slow-cooker. :-)

Here are my numbers

Added This Week:       0.00 yards
Added Year to Date:    0.00 yards
Used This Week:          0.42 yards
Used Year to Date:       0.56 yards
Net Year to Date:         0.56 yards

Go on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Slow....but Steady

Progress on the quilting front has been slow lately.  I've been able to do a little bit here and there, but there hasn't been a whole lot to show.  I've been able to fit in sewing every now and then between other things around the house and work.  My work has been difficult again lately.  It seems to go in waves and the peaks of the waves are getting higher and lasting longer unfortunately. 

I was finally able to finish marking all of the corner squares for the Lone Star quilt.  I'm progressing through the quilting of the marked lines, but its pretty slow going.  From the areas that I have quilted and removed the marks, it will be worth it in the end. :-)

I also did a little bit of sewing for the Bento Box quilt.  Here are some of the strips of fabrics that will be used in the quilt.  I wanted to show some the detail of the purples and greens that will be in the quilt.

I have four strips completely sewn and into the Bento Box pattern.  I will mix it up a bit more in terms of which strips will pair up in the sets of four blocks, but this is what I have so far.

I hope everyone else is have a great week and you can get plenty of sewing done!  I'm hoping to get a bit done tonight and then a nice sewing "fest" on Friday evening while hubby is out rock climbing with some buddies.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations