Sweet River Studios

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 fee...

On April 21, we celebrated my grandmother's 89th birthday. Grandma doesn't want any gifts but it's hard to show up with nothing so I got her an Edible Arrangement. I've never ordered one before and my friend Sharon said her daughter in law loves to get EA over flowers. She said they have always been fresh and she's always been pleased with them. So I ordered a large arrangement and they are pricey for sure but I didn't have to do it. As long as the person who gets it like all the different fruit especially melon and honeydew they're great. Mom also brought a cake, I suspect so she could put the candles on it, since we didn't need cake too. You know for 4 people... I also showed my grandmother the quilt I made of her. I drew 3 portraits of her in colored pencil, then added some things she loves around them. Ohio State, cardinals and a portrait of a German Shepard and I made it in the shape of the state of Ohio. She read all the comments people posted...

In part 2, I posted a picture of the quilt with a piece of clear vinyl laid on top. I tested out various quilting designs by drawing on it with dry erase markers. Trying to figure out the quilting designs for this quilt has been rather hard. I guess the colored pencil drawings are making it hard. Do I quilt them or not? I'm no longer debating about it. I've decided to quilt the portraits. It'll be a challenge but I think every quilt you do you should give you at least one challenge. So far I've not really had one for this particular quilt so there it is. I just hope I have enough thread colors. I've also added a German Shepard to the quilt. Grandma really, really loved her dog and never got another shepard. She's had other dogs since then but she never talks about them, just her shepard. It's not an exact portrait of her dog but she'll love it just the same. I've been gathering some additional quilting threads this last week and I'm goin...

Well it's taken me forever to continue posting about this quilt. I wanted to add a wash of color to the quilt to soften the glaring white fabric but I lost my inks. I looked for several weeks and had to continue posting about my other applique quilt project in the mean time. That quilt has had a serious set back and I'm really not happy about it or with my self since it was totally my fault. Of course it was my fault! I'm the one making the darn thing. Anyway, I still can't find my inks, so I finally broke down at the end of June and purchased the ink that I know I have lurking in my house somewhere. I'm pleased to say that I got the ink wash on last week. It really helped to blend the colored portraits together. I also got the edges a little darker. When applying the inks, I was trying to only blend so far into the portraits. They have white areas that I did not want to color and if the ink gets to the white area it's not going to come out and it m...

I finished the 50th Anniversary quilt for my parents in February and I've taken a few weeks off to think about my next art quilt project. I usually find inspiration by picking a subject first, then I consider what else I can put on the quilt. I decided my next subject would be my grandmother. She will be 88 in April and she's my last remaining grandparent. She's a really kind woman and I'm glad she's been in my life so I thought I'd do something special. Since I made a colored pencil portrait of my parents, I thought I'd do the same for this quilt. So I went through all the family photos and picked a few pics of my grandma that looked nice. I picked one from when she was a teenager, one with her holding a great-grandchild and one with her with some flowers she got on Mother's Day. Grandma loves birds, flowers, Ohio State football, has no sweet tooth to speak of, has always weighed 127 lbs. her entire life and loves everyone she meets. Since I can...