And...She Liked Her Quilt!

Layla approved of her new quilt!  Makes my heart melt!

Adding Ruffles to a Girl's Shirt

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you!  We enjoyed a lovely Christmas in our new cabin.  One of our sons and his family were able to join us.  Having a little one around makes Christmas really special!

This year I bought some really cute knit leggings for our almost-two-year-old granddaughter.  They have a butterfly on the butt!  I had to have a cute top to go with them and show them off.  I purchased a plain shirt and decided to add ruffles to the bottom.

                                   

I was going to start pulling fabrics from the stash when I noticed that the fabrics left over from a recent baby quilt would be perfect!  I had stitched a patchwork backing, and had long strips of it left over from trimming.  That, along with the border fabric from the quilt, were perfect.

I decided to add some rickrack in variegated pastel colors to each row of ruffles.  

I positioned the rickrack so that it was halfway over the edge of the ruffle.

 I made two layers of ruffles, one of patchwork and one of the wild border fabric, and pinned them together to treat them as one.

Then I sewed two rows of basting stitches at about a quarter inch and a half inch from the plain edge.

After that, you draw up the stitches to produce the ruffles.  I started out by pulling the thread ends, but also had to pull up some of the stitches with a needle or a skewer.

Keep arranging the fullness of the ruffles until they are evenly arranged.

Then you sew them onto the shirt.  Use a lot of pins to keep the ruffles in place.

This shirt had a nice clean-finished edge, so I just pinned the ruffles underneath the hem and sewed them down, adding another layer of rick-rack as I went.

That little ruffle in the back is playing peek-a-boo with the butterfly on the leggings!

I was very pleased with this quick sewing project.  I think Charlotte was, too!

Looking Up

We're in!  We finally got to spend the night in our new cabin last weekend.  The beds were not delivered until after ten o'clock on Friday night, but they sure felt great!

Although we have had a garage apartment on the same lot for six or seven years, we never realized that we would be able to observe sunsets from our new deck.  The colors are even reflected in the pond below the house.

Our son Dave, his wife Emily, and their baby Charlie came up to help us move in.  It was so nice to have a proper bedroom for them, and lots of room for Charlie to run around.

In fact, she is a Mountain Girl now!  She has been on Gator rides,

run through  the Christmas tree farm,

and played with Aunt Katy's baby goats and chicks, and a whole mess of Hall cousins.

And I think I may have another budding artist in the family.  I got out my box of 64-color Crayolas, and I swear she said, "Oh, Wow!"  She carefully took out one or two crayons at a time and then put them back IN the box without breaking them.  That's my girl!

Back at home in Raleigh, the dogwoods decided to start blooming while we were gone.  Now if only the weather would warm up a bit, we could go outside and enjoy the North Carolina springtime.

Here are two of my pieces featuring dogwoods.  Carolina Woodland Spring is a trapunto quilt with additional painting and beading.  I used real dogwood blossoms for the patterns.

Carolina Woodland Spring, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer

And here is my watercolor painting of the dam over the creek at our mountain place.  

Creek at Dogwood Time, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer

And for those who read my previous post about my dog needing more surgery...she did just fine.  What a trooper!  We have a very good dog.  Getting expensive, but what a sweetheart!

Fall in Raleigh

Fall is looking colorful and beautiful here in central North Carolina.  Our leaves are at the peak and I am enjoying our very woodsy yard.

I have put out baskets of mums by our front door, and the camellias in the garden beds have decided to bloom.  I put a little quilt banner in the garden.

I took our dog for a beautiful walk around Durant Nature Park in north Raleigh.  We both enjoyed the lakeside trail and the colorful reflections in the water.  (I enjoyed the reflections, she enjoyed the water!)

I have been dabbling at the two portraits that I started in my watercolor class, but I think I should have left them alone.  Too much mucking about can ruin them.  I'm still not satisfied...  but here is a funny little portrait I did in one of my journals.  The lady started out as a cosmetics ad in a magazine.  She probably never dreamed of being quite this colorful!

I have been enjoying my baby granddaughter, who turned ten months old this week.  She has been practicing walking behind this toy I bought her.

She took her first steps when I was there on Tuesday!  Look out world, here comes Charlotte!  But she also LOVES to watch Sesame Street.  Up close and personal!

This weekend we are staying in town.  My husband and his partners are throwing their annual client pig-picking on Saturday.  His brother, who does Elvis impressions, will be arriving tonight with his wife, Phyllis.  We are going to take them to the Angus Barn along with our friends Pauline and Tom.

When they leave Sunday, Charlie is driving to the mountains to be there for a Monday morning meeting with the contractor, site manager, crane operator, and concrete trucks.  We are getting close to getting the foundation ready for the modular log cabin.  It is sitting in a parking lot in South Carolina, wrapped in Tyvek, waiting for our lot to be prepared.  Lots of government red tape to deal with.  One of these days we will have a house in the mountains!

On Monday, I am hosting my art quilt bee.  I have been trying so hard to get boxes unpacked and find places for everything  but almost every room has a corner piled with stuff that has not yet found a home.  Oh, well, we will work around it!

High School Reunion and Revisiting an Old Project

It has been cloudy or rainy for more than a week now.  I am ready for some October blue skies and vibrant autumn color!

Saturday, Charlie and I attended my forty-fifth Cary High School reunion.  Man, how did that much time go by?  It was held at a beautiful location on Montague Lake in Apex.  There was a nice shelter so the drizzling rain did not dampen the spirits.

Can you find me in this photo?  You would be doing very well to find me since I am partially hidden.   My blond head is in the back right behind a lady with a black jacket.  There were lots of people taking pictures so maybe we will see more of them soon.

We had a couple of visits with Dave, Emily and Baby Charlie over the weekend since we kept our Granddog, Roo, for the weekend.  She absolutely loves Kasey's fluffy tail, so one of us has to keep watch close by.  So far both dogs have been smart enough to get up and move when Baby C comes to pet them!

I have had a hard time trying to decide what artwork and quilts to hang in our Raleigh home.  All the wooden slats for hanging quilts seem to have disappeared...or at least I couldn't find the right slats to fit the proper quilts.  I went to Lowe's and bought two eight-foot long pieces of lat, a saw and miter box, and my very own lightweight Black and Decker drill, and now I am in business.

The box made by Stanley Tools has adjustable clamps (the two black pegs) to hold the wood in place.  There are slats in the yellow box where you insert the saw to get a straight cut.  When the board is cut to the width of the quilt, you drill holes in both ends, insert in hanging sleeve, and then you can hang your quilt with two nails or screws.  No more waiting for sweet DH to help me saw and drill.  I am woman, hear me saw!

I have really been trying to fix up the bedroom that will be my painting and sewing studio.  It has been very difficult because the movers piled it with furniture and boxes from floor to ceiling.  I actually unpacked and set up my sewing machine yesterday, and will try to hang my design walls and pegboards on the walls this week. 

While I was rummaging through the boxes, I found this little forgotten piece that i started a few years ago.  I was making quilts in the style of Larkin Van Horn's Shards after taking a workshop with her through Capital Quilters Guild.  

I had already found my bead box, since I was working on the flower challenge, so I started adding some embroidery and beads to the piece for fun.  It was already machine-quilted

Now it looks like an undersea scene.  I'm not sure I like the word sincerity on there (which was printed on Extravorganza)  so I might paint over it.  I think I need some seashells at the bottom.

The other pieces I made in this method were mounted on artist's gallery canvas and sold at a benefit auction for $45 and $60.

I am leaving on Thursday to go to our mountain place, and I won't be coming home for ten days!  I signed up to take a watercolor painting class at Cheap Joe's in Boone.  More details to come!  Meanwhile I have to find my tabletop easel, which has still not turned up.  I might have to buy a new one while I am at Cheap Joe's!

Mountain Sunset Quilt Revisited

Another quilt that I recently hung in our new kitchen is Mountain Sunset, shown here on the wall next to the sliding glass doors to the deck/balcony.

I made this quilt in 2009 on my embellisher (needle-felting machine.)  You can read about the process here.  I based the scene on a photo from one of our sunset trips to the Christmas tree farm on the top of the mountain where we have our cabin.  The mist was setting in, and the trees in the foreground glowed luminously as the sun set in glorious color in the sky.

I used lots of layers of sheers for the sky, a dark green velour for the hills and trees in back, and some Angelina for the sparkle.

 I quilted over all the layers, adding branches and foliage to the foreground.

We had planned to go the mountains this weekend to meet with the contractor for the new cabin, but he now wants to wait until he gets the official blueprints.    Since we are babysitting for our grandbaby this weekend, it will be much easier to do that at home and not have to take her on a long road trip.  So, I can't wait for a weekend of baby love!

Baby Quilt Progress

I've been babysitting the last two days for my little Charlie, but today I came home to my sewing room and finished piecing the blocks for an I Spy Quilt.  I had finished the short sides last time, and had the long sides all organized in order for quick chain piecing.

When you chain-piece, you just sew one block after another without stopping to cut threads.  You end up with a "chain" of attached blocks.  You just sew one side, then start again and sew the other side, before cutting the threads apart.

Then, I pressed both long sides to the outside, and checked to make sure that each block had a "twin" with a matching center.  These seem to be upside down!

Next is the fun part...arranging the blocks in a pleasing placement on the design wall.

Here are some other pictures from the last two days.  First, my grandbaby!

  

She is full of new tricks, including sitting up, eating solid food, and, oh yes, happily untying my shoes!

It has gotten scorching hot this week, but we are still having heavy rains during thunderstorms.  All this has made the yard extremely green for this time of year.  I took a walk around the house this morning with my camera.

I love the way the sun lights up the woods in places where it can break through the trees.

The swallowtail butterflies are enjoying my flowering shrubs, including abelia, butterfly bush, and crepe myrtle.

Hope you are enjoying life wherever you are!