Barn Quilt Square

Finally...the finishing touch for our mountain cabin!  Our wooden quilt square, Dutch Dreams, is now installed!  We decided to hang it "on point" under the peak of the cathedral ceiling roof.

It was a very fun Mothers Day weekend in the mountains.  One thing we did was "walk the cows" from the pasture on the big hill behind my sister's house, down the mountain and across the street to Uncle Gary's new grassy pasture.  This involved a person walking each calf on a halter, and a Gator riding behind to help encourage them to proceed.  Here is my niece Melinda trying to get her boy started on the short journey.

I walked one, too.  He enjoyed the walk, and treated the entire trip like he was going to the salad bar, munching all the way.

 It was also my sister's 60th birthday.  I gave her a little painting of the dam over the creek on her property.  I have painted it several times now.

I also did a quick little painting of a tranquil mountain lake for my daughter-in-law for Mothers Day.

This week I have been keeping little Charlotte, my two-year old granddaughter.  What a delight!  Needless to say I have not gotten much done while she has been here, but I managed to finish another journal page.  The prompt for this one was "Feet."

I used the lyrics from a favorite Zac Brown song called Toes, and a photo from last year's family beach trip.  I painted over the black and white copy with watercolor to blend it in with the background.  This year's beach trip is now only 24 days away.  Bring it on!

Busy Days

Sorry for neglecting my blog for awhile!  The days have flown by between moving into the new mountain cabin, driving back and forth to Raleigh, babysitting for my sweet Charlotte two days a week, celebrating two family birthdays, shopping for things we need for the cabin, and everything else.  There has been no new artwork or sewing project to report!

Last weekend we had a cabin full of company as our older son and his family came to visit, as well as our friends Tom and Pauline.  This time Tom got the walkway installed, and it looks great!  Much better than my cardboard boxes laid end-to-end!  There is still some loose sand to continue to work into the cracks between the bricks.

While that project was underway, my brother-in-law's uncle Gary came over with his bulldozer to landscape the rest of the property!  We did not know he was coming.  He worked for two days straight, pushing over scraggly trees and opening up our view to the creek and pond.

He also smoothed out all the holes and trenches from installing the utilities, and expanded our driveway.  Our yard looks at least double the size it once was.

I was a little concerned about the kids playing outside with the bulldozer in action.  It seems they always like to find a hide-away to build their "clubhouse."  This one under the cabin steps was perfect, and kept them out of the path of the dozer!

There was also time for a little fishing in the pond.  For the past several years we have been transporting trout caught in the creek into the pond so the kids have a "catch -and-release" fishing pond.  Some of those trout have gotten very sizable!  Caden hooked a huge one twice, but could not bring it in on his Lightnin' McQueen fishing rod.  I'm the only one that actually caught one, a pretty ten-inch speckled brown trout (caught on the Sponge Bob fishing pole!)

These two little pooches look like Me and Mini-Me.  The little one is my sister's puppy, Daisy.  She says over here with us a lot whenever we come up.  I think she believe that Kasey is her mama.  Kasey says, "Not no way, not no how!"

I took Kasey for her check-up after her mouth surgery and they said she was doing great.  She goes next week for her 8-week check-up following her knee surgery.  I think she is doing fairly well on that leg.  She puts her weight on it some, and we are starting to let her walk the short way from our mountain house to my sister's (just across the pond.)

Meanwhile, back in Raleigh, it is the prettiest time of the year.  The dogwoods and azaleas are in full bloom.  We are lucky to have a beautiful woodsy yard and a pond at our rental house.  There are banks of azaleas all around our driveway.

The dogwoods are beautiful between the deck of the house and the pond.

If only the weather would stay spring-like.  We will have a couple of nice warm days followed by a return to cold, damp weather.  

Here is our little munchkin enjoying one of the warmer days!  She looks like an Easter doll.

Today we are going up on the mountain to dig up some rhododendrons and maybe some flame azalea to transplant to our own little hill.

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!

Mountain Tote Bag :Finished!

I finished something!  A while back I posted about an art quilt UFO from an online Pamela Allen class.  I decided it would become a tote bag.

This piece is already quilted with backing and batting.  I just satin-stitched through all layers to attach the appliqué and do the quilting at the same time.

I found an old canvas tote bag that had dark green handles and was approximately the right size.

I remembered a workshop with Karen Eckmeier in which she had covered a canvas tote with patchwork.  I couldn't find her book which I think had instructions for the tote project, but I set out to make a quilted tote bag cover.

I ripped out the stitching along the side seams.

Then I created some more patchwork with mountainy, leafy fabrics to make the cover large enough.  I just happened to have some fabric with log cabins in my stash!

Since the other piece was already quilted, I quilted the new section as well.

I added a narrow dark green binding to each end, using some leftover binding from another project.
Then I sewed the two quilted sections together.  I trimmed the canvas tote to be the same size as the quilted cover.

 I used an overcast stitch on my Janome to finish the tote bag edges, since I cut off the serging that was on there.  Canvas can unravel very easily.

Next I applied a fusible mesh to the quilted cover, and ironed it to the canvas.  Then I stitched the pieces together around the edges.  It seemed like it needed more quilting to hold the layers together, so I just did some in the ditch stitching through all layers.

I sewed the side seams back together.  Then I made a gusset so the tote bag could stand up.

After trimming the seam, all I had to do was turn it right-side out.

Here is the front side.

And here is the reverse side.

This bag is just the right size and padded enough to carry my iPad, a library book, and my chargers when we travel to the mountains.

And we did travel to the mountains this weekend...and look!  We got to see the new cabin lit up for the first time!  They hooked up the electricity and the gas on Friday.

I love the way the house lights are reflected in the pond below.

The fireplace is now functional with gas logs, although the mantle is not finished and the rocks need to be mortared.  But it made a cozy fire and for the first time it was warm enough to be comfortable inside the cabin.

We did not sleep in the new place, because the water is not hooked up yet, and the gas furnace is not yet fired up.  But next weekend we will have new beds, and couch and chair delivered, and hopefully we will be all set.

More Works-in-Progress

When the snow and ice storms hit last week, I rummaged through my bin of unfinished projects to find a project that needed hand-stitching.  It seemed likely that the power might go out.  I worked on the day lilies piece and got a lot of the hand appliqué done.

Before I could get it finished, I developed a problem with cracked skin around my cuticles on my thumbs.  I often get this problem in the winter.  I had to give the hand-stitching a rest, so I dug out yet another UFO and did some machine quilting on my Janome 6600.

It now has all the quilting done and the binding done.  I am thinking of putting this one in the PAQA-South art quilt show with the theme of Whimsy.  Right now it looks like a still life in a Victorian parlor, but I have some embellishments to add which will make it much more humorous.  For a hint, the featured plant is a spider plant...and look at the quilting in the window in the above right.

The backing is a batik with lots of mottled color.  I am getting better at quilting with the Janome, but would much prefer my Gammill.  It is still with its "foster mother" in Clayton.

This weekend we came up to the mountains to check on the progress of our cabin.  It is looking pretty.

There is still a lot to do.  This weekend we had mild weather, and it did not snow at all.  It was a quiet weekend.  I am longing to get into that new cabin.  Our driveway has gotten so muddy that you can't get up it unless you have four-wheel drive.  One of these days it will all get done.

My Future Sewing Room

This room in the unfinished basement of our new cabin will be my space some day.

They have put in lots of fluffy insulation.

I love the French doors.

There is a great view of the pond out the front windows.

I don't know when we will get around to finishing the basement,  but I sure am anxious to get my Longarm quilting machine in there!

Yesterday Charlie took my sister Katy and I for a Gator ride across the mountain.  It was beautiful!

Kasey and Daisy went with us.  I can't believe they wanted to get in that cold creek water when we got back down!

Kasey somehow hurt her foot yesterday and is limping.  Hope it perks up soon!

Looks like it is getting ready to snow again.  I think we will stay inside and watch the last two football games before the Super Bowl.