After Irma

This is the first day in a week that I have worked in the studio.  We have been busy watching The Weather Channel to see what Hurricane Irma was doing in Florida and on up to the Carolinas.  My brother Jeff and his wife Anna evacuated a week ago from Ft. Myers, Florida and have been staying with us.  I think they will leave tomorrow...going back to no power or water, no traffic lights, and pretty much chaos.  Jeff works in Naples, where the highest wind gusts in Florida were recorded.  The house is okay and all their family is safe, which is all that matters.

When they were here on vacation just a couple of weeks ago, I wrapped Jeff's birthday present in a piece of brown Kraft paper that I had painted with an undersea scene.

He liked the wrapping paper so much that I mounted it on a gallery-wrapped canvas for him.  Here it is, glued down with gel medium and sprayed with glossy acrylic varnish.

Underwater Scene, acrylic paint on brown Kraft paper, mounted on gallery-wrapped canvas.

My new quilt guild meets Thursday, and this month's challenge block was a six-inch maple leaf.  I made two.  These did not take as long as the Sister's Choice block I featured on my last post, but I am very rusty...and still having to search for things.

I have been asked to provide quits to hang in the New River State Park clubhouse for a couple of months, so I went through the stash of smaller quilts that might work.  Lo and behold, I came across The Green Man, started many years ago in an online class with fabric artist Pamela Allen.  The Green Man is probably the strangest quilt I have ever made, but I love him.  He suffered an awful fate years ago when my grand-dog had an anxiety attack and chewed off the corner of the quilt, as well as the three-D nose and eyebrow.   

I am happy to say that I have made repairs, and I think he looks just fine.  I made a new corner for the quilt and added some leaves and flowers from an old flower arrangement.  I finished the edges with Tussah Silk Tops that I just mashed around the edges and zigzagged with my sewing machine.

The Green Man, art quilt by Jeanne Turner McBrayer

I also finally finished the edges of this little batik quilt that I made several years ago.  It is oriental paper, painted with watercolor paints and sealed with wax. The drawing is a detail from a Kathy George kit that I purchased after taking a workshop from her several years ago.  I think I will mount this one on gallery-wrapped canvas.

                                       

That's about it until next time!