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Goodbye 2017

Another year has passed and for me it was a fairly quiet one. We didn't go on vacation and I'm pretty sure I sewed less this year than last year and I definitely posted less. I had around 30 blog posts from bluebirds to quilts to cooking classes. There were no anniversary parties this year but I did take my grandmother to OSU Orton Museum to speak with someone about her rock collection.

My grandmother is 89 and fondly remembers the time she spent traveling out west with her husband in the 1980's. During their traveling she picked up rocks from all the states they visited and they came back with the trunk full. It's a wonder they didn't break the car she has so many rocks.

She loves her rocks but she doesn't really know what type of rock they are and some are very unique. She's wanted to go over her rock collection with a geologist for years and often spoke of inviting someone from OSU to her house to see her rock collection. Now that she's 89 and feeling her age she wanted to get a few things off her bucket list, so I arranged for a meeting with Dale Gnidovec at Orton Museum at OSU to meet with her and go over some of her more unique rocks.

One rock grandma was interested in finding out about is this one. It's fairly large so we didn't take it with us but this is pink quartz. My grandmother has a ton of quartz both white and pink but quartz normally looks like a crystal and more transparent. This quartz grew more like flint so it's opaque and smooth looking.



Grandma loved speaking with Dale and said it was a dream come true for her. She spoke to Dale for 2 hours about her rocks and there are a few rocks that are still a mystery but that's okay.

I also finished a quilt of my grandmother. It's hand drawn and painted with portraits of grandma and things she loves like OSU, birds and her german shepard. I also made it in the shape of the State of Ohio so that was a sewing challenge for me.


River and I didn't enter in many trials for 2017 for scent or barn hunting. This year we just took weekly classes in Rally and Tracking.

And of course, I got some pictures of some birds that I don't normally see. I took some really good pictures of bluebirds, cedar waxwings and of a Cooper's hawk that perched on the neighbors roof for a minute or two. Well, at least I think it's a Cooper's hawk...




I also finished two quilt tops. A four patch charm quilt and a kaleidoscope quilt.




I'm still working on my second horse quilt. The horses are painted and each horse represents a season. It's not completely painted yet but it's getting there. Hopefully, I'll get this finished this winter.




I put a red glittery ribbon on River's collar for her last dog class of the year. So farewell 2017 and happy 2018. I'm looking forward to more cooking classes, taking pictures, painting and quilting.


















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