Jam packed weekend...

Busy! Busy! Who said the weekend is for resting??!!!


Saturday morning was our local quilt guild meeting with special guests, Mary Hoover and Barbara Persing from 4th and 6th Designs.

It is always fun when designers talk about their process. It gets the creative juices flowing in my head!

These sisters also talked about the work involved in designing across state lines (Mary lives nearby) and Barb lives in PA...

and the process of writing a book together.

Cool stuff!

And of course, as I ran on the treadmill this morning with the music blasting in my ears...

this quilt, named Floreo (below), got me thinking about how I could use some of their techniques in a project I am working on for a foursome group.

But I will wait until my trip (in 17 days... but who's counting?!) with friends, Blogless Deb and Blogless Laura, to the Lancaster Quilt show (a la bus trip) before I can buy some batiks for this in-my-head idea.

This year, I will be bringing my own feminine hygiene supplies so as not to hold up the bus!!!!

Along with guild, Sugarbaby had two (count them... 2!!!) figure skating exhibitions this weekend...

She skated beautifully...

Of course, I didn't just sit and watch! I ran the raffle tables at one exhibition and played the music for the skaters for 1 1/2 hrs at the other exhibition.

I was pooped by the end of the weekend, and I didn't even skate!!!

In spite of the fact that some of my free time during the day has disappeared to make room for homeschooling,

I have managed to catch up on my hand applique blocks from Bunny Hill's free BOM, A Tisket A Tasket.

I don't often do hand work but it is quite relaxing and rewarding (let's just hope I feel the same way in December)!

And finally! Upstate NY is starting to show some signs of spring!!!! Still below freezing at night but hitting the 50's during the day!!!!

And with the melting, the U family always finds the odd item emerging from the depths of the melting snow...
(a scarf in the foreground, a sled in the middle, and who-knows-what beyond the tree!)

Speaking of spring... don't forget my first-day-of-spring giveaway!

In a Nutshell...

Welcome to all! I am thinking that we have some newcomers to my blog since I am having this first-day-of-spring giveaway and I am lucky to be featured guest blogger on Michele's blog/website this weekend!

I am known as 'Upstatelisa' around these here parts. Where did the crazy name come from you ask?

WhenI began my internet connection here in our present home, I signed up for a yahoo account and had to come up with a user name. Well, just in case you don't know, my parents (and millions of others who became parents of girls in the 1960's) chose "Lisa" as their daughter's name, so plain ol' Lisa just wouldn't work for a user name... it was all ready taken (surprise!). So... living in what is known loosely as upstate NY (though I have to say that we really do live in upstate NY, northeastern NY), I chose "Upstatelisa" and the name stuck!

I am wife to Mr. U (we will celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary next week) and Mom to Teenager with lots of stuff, Nature Boy, and Sugarbaby (a.k.a. Sloppy).

Most mornings, Mr. U's alarm goes off just after 4 AM (I know... this is crazy, you say!). But this allows Mr. U and I to have a cup of coffee and go our separate ways for an hour or two. He goes off to climb a nearby mountain or run about 2 hours outside...

while I go to the gym to run on a treadmill-- I prefer to have control over my environment, kind of like a laboratory, eh? ( HA! I stuck that in for the Canadians, but really, I have lost all my Canadianisms, except the occasional s-oh-rry which my kids laugh at and honestly, most people think I sound more american than my US born hubby). I don't have 2 hours to spare so I am happy if I get in a 4 mile run (which I did in 36.04 minutes this morning) or I take a one hour strength training class a couple of times per week.

I can come home, shower, dress, eat breakfast, and then start the day which includes seeing the girls off to school on their respective school buses, schooling Nature Boy whom we began homeschooling last month, fulfilling landlord duties for our 6 unit apartment building, completing household chores or my fave....

Escaping to my sewing room!!!!!! I have had to take a bunch of photos of me in my sewing room lately to get ready to send off to the publisher of a book project spearheaded by Vickie Howell (I made the final cut).... this is one photo that I am considering sending. Can you see the giveaway quilt in my hands?!

If you don't all ready know, I am a huuuuge lover of log cabins in quilts


This is my latest bunch of scrappy log cabins...

making a total of 79 blocks...

which I started when I saw this challenge (I am using freezer paper paper piecing to make my blocks) and I am aiming to make about 100. Almost there!

This is another of my recent log cabin projects...
The 25 blocks are sewn together but now I have to figure out which way to quilt it!

I could go the wonky line route....

or the more wonky grid pattern route...
Which do you prefer?

Once that project is done, it is back to my other love...


My houses!!!!! Wonky houses, to be exact! (Can you tell that I like the word 'wonky'?!) I want to put these together to enter in our guild's quilt show in June!

So, that, in a nutshell, is me....

Have a good weekend! I will be transporting Teenager to/from work, going to a lecture/trunk show at our guild given by 4th and 6th Designs, and helping out at two figure skating exhibitions (Saturday and Sunday) in which Sugarbaby will skate. Which leaves me no time for blogging this weekend!!!!

Just another......Manic Monday

Well, not really, but I couldn't think of a better title for my post (besides, I do wish it was Sunday.... just another fun day....)


Just in case we haven't had enough snow this winter, Mother Nature is out to remind us that winter isn't quite over yet....

we probably won't get as much as some places but isn't it enough all ready?!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had the nerve to step in the way of Bethany Reynolds and her attempts to reach upstate NY and our quilt guild. She won't be at the meeting tonight, which was subsequently cancelled due to the inclement weather, but she is due back here in June.

This morning, while Nature Boy and I worked on a math lesson, the birds were busy in the backyard (maybe anticipating the snow).

We saw a red bellied woodpecker...
a mourning dove (or two or three..)

and some others (cardinals, blue jays, chickadees) who were too fast to capture on camera.

Not a lot of sewing this weekend (wish it still was Sunday!), but I did manage a small quilt to raffle off next weekend at Sugarbaby's local figure skating club...
complete with some hot-fix crystals...

Figure skating is all about the sparkle!!!!!

After a 4 mile run, shower, and breakfast this morning, I drew a number from my hat (okay, from the randon number generator!) and Jodie is the winner of my Occupational Hazards giveaway!
Blogspot says that I have posted about 218 posts since I began Upstatelisa... maybe time for another giveaway soon! Stay tuned!!!!

A Journey

Do you ever wonder how you got to where you are today? and where are you going next?Reflecting this morning, I realized that there are so many crafts/skills/lessons/places yet to be explored!

I grew up in a loving family who wanted the best for me...

... the best that they knew...
(by the way, the dress I am wearing above was handmade, including the smocking, by my paternal grandmother)

I took dance classes..

music lessons...

I even took ice skating lessons for a few years....

and sewing lessons too..

(remember the days of peasant blouses and skirts? I am probably dating myself... but I did make that outfit!)

I have travelled some... Canada, USA, and abroad...

I went to college and graduate school to learn a respectable profession and I started a family but it was only then that I began to really set out on my journey, to search, to grow, to discover...

Lately, I have been on a quest to expand my horizons and also to find some focus. There are so many things I want to try that I might have to live until I am 100 to get to all of them!!!!

Today, I tried illustrated journaling...

I need to practice my drawing but it was fun.

And of course, I continued on my exploration of...

white log cabins
with colored centers...

Some journeys run into snags on the way... even so, my quest continues....
Life is a voyage

-Victor Hugo

Going into hibernation!!!

Well, Mr. U, Sugarbaby, and I were up before the sun and on the road to Lake Placid for a figure skating competition and boy, was it cold out there in the Adirondack Mountains!!!!!

and it got colder!!!!It actually dipped to -26 degrees before rising again. It is probably the coldest weekend of the season!

Reason enough to hibernate!

But here we were on the highway early this morning watching the steam coming off the trucks..

peering through the iced up windows.....

and watching the sunrise over the mountains...

Just spectacular!!!!

We arrived in town at around 7:30 or so....
with the mountains aglow....

Inside the Olympic Ice Center, Sugarbaby was all aglow too!!!

She competed against 5 other skaters (this photo is a shot from warm up before she took off her jacket!) in her age group and level...

and took first place!!!! Yeah!

Still cold outside the rink on the way home...
and icy!
Reason enough to hibernate!

So I am gathering up my supplies (food and fabric!) for the weekend and hiding in my sewing room, hoping to finish up this baby and soon!

Stay warm!!!