Jane-rally successful!

Well, the first (probably of many) Dear Jane-a-thon is over!!!!

What a weekend!!!!

I toiled at the sewing machine from sun up to sun down!!!



(well, not really... Mr. U took this photo this AM while hiking his fave mountain!) but I did work in my pajamas most of yesterday!

It was so stressful, I just about gouged out my skin!



(well... not really! Nature Boy is perfecting his wound-making skills for an upcoming film and possibly for Halloween!) and it wasn't all that stressful..... really (though I did do my share of ripping out)!

I did buy myself a new toy to enjoy in my sewing room....



... a dock for my IPhone with a clock radio. I listened to some wonderful podcasts (Craftsanity, CraftyPod, Sew Forth Now, Simple Arts and Grandma's Sewing Cabinet) while I sewed to keep me company... and I learned a lot too!

I twittered frequently with my Jane-a-thon companions, Sarah in Canada, Fanny in the USA and Holly (with the cutest puppy) in Australia... how great that I can hear from my quilting pals all over this earth in mere seconds!!!!



And I managed to complete 16 blocks!!!!



So... add 16 to the 22 blocks I have all ready..... then, take away that number from the 225 blocks total (ACK!) and........

I have a lot more Jane-a-thons in my future, don't you think???? OY!

Dearest Jane....

September 17, 2009
Upstate NY


Dear, dear Jane,

It has been some time since I wrote to you. The first time I wrote, I was just embarking on a long, long journey! I had stars (or should I say... DOTS!)



in my eyes and I had made 4 blocks!!! What foolishness!

Now it is 7 months later and I have only 22 blocks completed!



At this rate, according to my calculations, all the blocks will be done by July, 2015. Of course, that does not include the time it will take to piece the 225 blocks together and to quilt it!!!



So, in the interest of time (and aging!)....



Sarah Fanny (and maybe Holly too) and I have designated this weekend a Dear Jane Marathon!!!



Our plan is to piece as many blocks as we can and keep in touch by email, flickr and twitter (ahh... modern technology!).

Of course, we began plans for this marathon several weeks back and now several additions (run at the gym) to my schedule (swim lessons for Sugarbaby) have cropped up (dinner with friendship group) so I am hoping to still make many, many blocks!!!

I remain....



at least, until the weekend begins!!!!

Coming up for air!!!

gasp.... gasp!!! sputter!!!

It has been a busy week and I have not had enough time or anything intelligent worth posting lately.

But if you are ever trying to catch up with me, you can always find me on flickr (always downloading new photos, now even right from my IPhone!) or serving my latest addiction, Twitter (IPhone has a great free app called Twitterfon!)... just find me under...."upstatelisa"!!!!

Anyway, upstate NY finally moved into summer (albeit extremely late!) with hot, hazy, humid days....



and Sugarbaby and I spent a lot of time hanging out at our town pool, trying to stay cool...



rather than under the hot lights of my sewing room....

(can you feel the heat?!!)

But with a deadline looming, I had to finish the baby quilt for my expectant cousin... and I did!!!!



The back is almost as fun as the front!!!



The aqua fabric is all my hand dyed fabrics! and of course, no fun quilt is complete without the obligatory polka dotted binding!!!!



I do know now (if I didn't all ready!) that straight stitch quilting takes a lot (A LOT!) longer than free motion quilting! and let me tell you, with stitching all those squares... there are an awful lot of loose thread ends to bury in the quilt.... OY!!!

But I will wrap it up soon and it will be heading with me up to my homeland this coming weekend!

Now... can you guess who is coming to pay us a visit???? I will give you a clue or two.... she is mean and clean!!!!

See you soon (somewhere in cyberland!)

Connections....

I have not spent nearly enough time in my sewing room this week.... with fighting a nasty cold, continuing my chauffeur obligations, and engaging in general household duties, so I don't have much crafty to show!

I did a little more work on this project (using some of my hand dyed fabrics) that I am hoping to finish up this week...



and don't forget that you might be a proud owner of a piece of my hand dyed fabric if you leave me a comment on my previous post by Tuesday, July 28th!

So... since I have no quilting/crafting to show, I will share some photos I took while on a trip to meet up with family in the Catskill Mountains.... I have come to realize how much inspiration I find around me... in the mountains, the trees, the plants..... the colors in nature...




It is truly amazing how Small the World has become, thanks to the internet, flickr, blogging and twitter for me! (I have avoided facebook/myspace in the interest of time LOL!)....



and I won't play the Small World music!! It just so happens that our local ice cream man, Mr. Ding-a-ling (need I say more?!) plays this music in his truck ad nauseum!



Just in the past month or so, I have come to meet so many wonderful people (to add to the many wonderful people I have all ready encountered!) through the world of cyberspace!

My blog name, Upstatelisa, seems to prompt interest in some... 'upstate' refers pretty much to any area north of New York City (although I really feel that we reside in the true upstate of NY!!).

I came up with that name many moons ago, when I registered for a yahoo account and found that my parents, along with millions of other parents, had chosen THE most popular girls' name in the 1960s, so I had to embellish.....

Debra checked out my blog when she saw the word, "upstate", recognized some of the photos I had posted of the old houses in Mr. U's nearby hometown (which just happens to be her town now)! She is scheduled to speak at our guild in the spring, 2010, but if I can remember my schedule correctly, I may not have to cancel (again!) on a chance for us to get together for coffee soon!

Deb found my blog the other day and through e-mails back and forth... we discovered that she lived in Mr. U's nearby hometown for a bit and visited our beautiful lake nearby! She originally hails from central NY (not to be confused with upstate NY :-) )



By the way, apparently, if you watch the Today show tomorrow, you will see Ann Curry and Meredith Viera, visiting our beautiful lake and nearby mountains (that I often photograph). They will be broadcasting from a posh resort but if they want to stop by for coffee at the 'lived in' U house, I won't turn them away!



Yesterday, I received a comment from Valerie . I always like to visit my commenter's blog (if they are new to me) and looking through.... it appeared that she might live near my hometown (north of upstate! north of the border!).



So, we e-mailed back and forth some....

......and lo and behold, I went to high school with her sister-in-law and brother-in-law! Small world, indeed!!




Of course, as I blogged last month, I was actually recognized ("Are you Upstatelisa?") at a quilt show in Vermont by Joanna. As soon as I looked around, I recognized her too (and of course, her accent is a giveaway... and I am not talking New England, Joanna!)



And that encounter happened while I was hanging out with my new-found flickr friend, Sarah, who also lives in my hometown, across the street from my nephew's high school!!



So.... who knows... we probably have a connection too!



I have been around the block once or twice....



I have lived in two countries... three cities in Canada, five cities in the US (including a stint my dad did with the Canadian Embassy in D.C. in the late 60s... I was pretty young then LOL)



and you know..... I love quilting, sewing, crafting, chatting, blogging, getting up early (okay,I don't really love it but I do it!)........



.... so, I am sure you and I are connected too!

Yikes! I forgot to mention that I met Ilena at our guild quilt show! Sorry, Ilena!!!! I don't know how our blogs crossed... but she lives in my neck of the woods, slightly north of me (even further upstate LOL)! She has told me recently about some batty issues she has had at home... I may need to consult with her as we have had some visitors of late (Ewww!)

Wednesday Wonkiness or Mosaic Madness.... take your pick!!!

Seeing the sky at dawn.... and the trees....


this morning at around 7:40 AM (bus time)...
inspired this bit of wonkiness..

It isn't very big but it is eventually destined to the Priority Quilt Auction as part of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I heard about it from Tonya and I said, "sure, why not?" I decided to come up with something a little different, and wonky, as always!

Then, after consulting with Sarah, my flickr aficionado, I can now add photos from my flickr album!!!! And so, I tried making some mosaics, my first ever, which I could post today!

These are some of my scrappy log cabins for the challenge...

Kinda looks like a finished quilt! I have actually made 42 blocks so far but I could only download 35 to the mosaic. I plan to make many more but not sure how many!

And here is another little mosaic of a burning bush at the bus stop, on our neighbor's lawn. I take my camera with me most mornings and have been tracking its progress.

I can hardly wait for when it turns bright red!

Luckily, I had my camera with me (my kids have gotten use to me whipping out my camera at the weirdest moments.. am I mad?!) to show you all that even Target has gotten into the owl craze!
Pajamas in the girls' department! Love 'em!!!!

Have a wonky, mad night!

Multi-tasking!

multi-tasking (mul′ti task′iŋ)
noun
Comput. the execution by a single central processing unit of two or more programs at once, either by simultaneous operation or by rapid alternation between the programs


Well, then, I guess I am kinda like a computer (but my brain couldn't possibly be a SINGLE central processing unit... I have too much to do)!!! Many of us are multi-taskers and today just seemed to be one of those days when I was doing many tasks simultaneously and rapidly alternating between them.


I start my Tuesday early at the gym, pumping...


and then run home to get the kids going for school, while eating my breakfast, trying out the latest crossword puzzle, and telling everyone to get ready! But on the way home (which is not very far away), I am all ready thinking about my next blog post...


This sun caught my eye... beautiful big red sun, seen with a flash...

and without...
Once the kids get off to school, I have some computer work to do but about half hour into my work, Sugarbaby (aka Sloppy) calls me from school to tell me that she has no more test strips!!!

No more test strips?!

Well, how can that be??? A week and a half ago, we brought in.....glucometer, lancet, canister of test strips, glucose tabs, candy, juice boxes, granola bars, and a small shoulder bag to carry said stuff outside the class. And then, a week ago, we brought in insertion sets, reservoirs, Glucagon, extra pump pouch, syringes, bottle of insulin, extra glucose tabs and candy. Phew!!! (yes, she is high maintenance) But I didn't send in an extra box of strips and a glucometer is no good without the strips to measure blood sugar.

So, I leave my computer work to run over to the school to drop off a box of test strips, and while I am at the school campus, I might as well....

distribute the rest of the figure skating club flyers to the k-3 building. They are the white things on the bottom right, under all the refreshment supplies that I just happen to be housing in my car for our quilt guild since we are moving to another location beginning this weekend. Even my car is multi-tasking!!!!

Back to finish up at home to finish my work on the computer, shower (yes! I haven't even showered since coming home from the gym about 2 hours earlier!!), answer the phone while still dripping wet, distribute clean laundry, and head out on some errands and meetings.

Got some banking to do...

and no time like the present to take another snapshot for the blog...
This is our tallest building in the region. I think it is about 12 stories tall. It would be a shame to have tall buildings here... we wouldn't be able to see the mountains.

And before heading home, might as well stop to get some groceries for home and a tote to contain all those refreshment supplies flying around the back of my car...
At home, I wash the dishes (the breakfast dishes, that is!), while making some Rice Krispie treats for the kids (who will be home before I know it) and head to my sewing room for a bit...

This is my latest house in the latest series of houses on linen... Had to do something about my recent fascination with mushrooms!!!

And a close up....
The houses as they are so far....
But wait!!! I couldn't possibly be working on one project at a time!!!!
Hmmmmm.... what is this????? (And that doesn't even include the 2 swaps I have to get going!)