Sweet River Studios

Yes! I've started my 4 horses art quilt. I've made some additional decisions since my last post so here they are. I bought 4.5 yards of PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric. This fabric hasn't been treated with any stabilizers and I've not washed it. The fabric is supposed to hold onto paints/dyes really well. I didn't wash it but I did throw it into the dryer on the refresh cycle so a little steam was added but that was it. I created my own image of four horses and projected it onto the fabric and made an outline of the horses. I decided to make the horses realistic in coloring and decorate each one with seasonal themes. So for example, I decided the Spring horse will be a palomino color with white mane/tail and then I'll decorate the horse with flowers, leaves, ribbons and whatever else I can come up with. I might applique them on or just quilt them. I'm not sure about that yet. I'll probably take some scrap fabric and do some experimenting and see w...

I like making quilts with patterns and I recently purchased a paper piecing pattern called Paradise in Bloom by Judy Niemeyer. I haven't even selected fabric for that one yet but I will. It's early stages for this quilt but I'm hoping to start it soon. Lately, I've been feeling the need to start another art quilt. I like the freedom of no pattern. It's mine and I can do what I want with it using whatever technique I want to try out. I've been thinking that I'd make something to do with horses. I originally thought I'd make a quilt featuring carousel horses using the four seasons as a theme. Then I got to thinking that maybe I'll just use real horses instead but I haven't really decided. A picture in my brain is starting to form and it's looking more and more like real horses that are running. And big. Did I mention that? Like 45x120" big. Like scary big. Then the artist part of my brain scoffs and says, "Go big or go home."...

I decided to get binding that didn't really stand out. I wanted the focus to be on the quilt so I got a complimentary fabric for the binding. I cut my binding on the bias for this quilt given all the curves. That way the fabric will have a little stretch in it. Everything work out fairly well except for joining the ends. I had a bit of trouble and it got really, really frustrating but I finally got it on. Memo to me - practice binding! I machine stitch my binding on the front and hand stitch it to the back. I don't hand stitch very often so I take this time to brush up on my hand stitching skills and I find it very soothing. So after fighting with the binding a little peaceful sewing is called for. Now, I just need to add a label and call it done.

I went and picked up the two quilts I entered at the Ohio State Fair on Monday, August 8. I stood in line with about 20 other people, who were also picking up their entries. I got to the head of the line and a lady asked for my last name and I told her "Oliver." She said, "Lisa Oliver?" My immediately thought was, Oh God, she has to tell me a small child had somehow got a slushy through the building and was running and tripped and her bright blue no bright red slushy had landed on my quilt and its ruined! Ruined!  I dreaded confirming my name to her. "Yes," I said hesitantly. Here it comes the big, giant shoe that was about to step out of my nightmares into reality. Remember, wait until you're in the car to cry, I told myself. "Congratulations, your conservation quilt won People's Choice." What? Really? No giant shoe? Awesome! She took my claim tickets and we walked back to the table where my quilts were already bagged. I c...

I decided the open space area above mom's head needed some quilting. I didn't want to have too much quilting but I wanted to fill the space. The people will not be quilted. I decided that I didn't want to mess anything up and taking the plunge to quilt even the empty space was making me nervous. I've put a lot of work into the portrait and I don't want to ruin it. I thought a large 50 should go into the corner but what else? I had no idea and after looking through some quilting books to get ideas, I thought I'd use the Ohio quilt block pattern, which to me looks just like a star so I thought I could work with that. I got my projector out and got to work. Using the projector simply helps with placement and keeping things straight, which most people can't do freehand. So after I got them roughed in so to speak, I needed to fill the spaces in between. I didn't just want to do a meander stitch all over because I wanted a bit more of a design. So when ...