Tom Lynch Waterfalls Workshop

I have finally finished my paintings from the Tom Lynch Waterfalls workshop last weekend at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh.

Colorful Waterfall, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2016

Rocky Waterfall, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2016

Tom painted this scene with us, and also had many other paintings of the same scene from his previous workshops for our reference.  

I like all the color change and splashy water.  I came out of that workshop with paint spots all over my face and eyeglasses!

I drove to our mountain home yesterday for the Thanksgiving holiday.  When I came in view of the ridge lines of the Blue Ridge mountains, I scanned for signs of smoke or wildfires.  I did not see any on the way up, but have been hearing about a new fire in Ashe County.  There has been no rain in the western part of North Carolina for a long time, and the dry conditions plus gusty winds have sent wildfires soaring over thousands of acres throughout North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.

When we went to town today, we could see the smoke from the Ashe County fire as we approached West Jefferson.  I took a photo from the parking lot at Ingle's grocery store.

This is about twenty miles from our cabin, but we know people whose homes are nearby.  I am thankful for all the firefighters who are away from home, putting their lives at risk to save land and property from fire damage.

Beautiful Autumn Weekend

We finally got our house listed and the For Sale sign out front on Friday.

 

About one minute after that, we left for the North Carolina mountains and some autumn color.  There was a lot of traffic heading that way.  Well worth the trip.

 

 

Some leaves are down from the trees already, but there was still a lot of autumn splendor.  On Saturday, Charlie and I went to town.  First stop was the park on top of Mount Jefferson.  Wow.

 

 

I love when you can see the cloud shadows on the hills.

 

 

Here is one with Mr. Buzzard flying by.

 

 

Then we drove back down and stopped at Welch's Produce Store.  Look what welcomed visitors there.

 

He is made of hay bales, squash, and flexible pipe.  His buddy was guarding over the entrance to the fruit & vegetable stands.

 

I am a sucker for farmer's markets and fall displays.

 

 

We drove back to Laurel Springs along the parkway...the Blue Ridge Parkway, that is.

 

 

We also did a lot of riding around on my sister and brother-in-law's property and through the Christmas tree farms.  On Sunday, the sky could not have been any bluer and the sun was shining brightly.

 

 

 

It makes my soul happy to see the sun shining through the trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mountain Beauty

We are in the North Carolina mountains, soaking up as much natural beauty as we can!  The native "flame" azalea is in full bloom, lighting up as the rays of the sun find it in the hidden mountain glades.

We actually arrived here Wednesday night, driving up through a thunderstorm.  No more rain is expected until Sunday.  The mornings have been chilly, and the afternoons warm and sunny.  We had a wonderful ride across the mountain on our Gator yesterday.

Of course, our little dog Kasey is full of joy as she runs freely on the mountain trails and through the Christmas tree farms. 

Charlie got her a North Carolina State bandanna.  I'm not so sure she likes wearing it, but isn't this a happy looking dog?

In addition to the flame azalea, the wild native orchids known as lady's slippers are in bloom. 

 I was elated to discover one growing on the mountain trail about five years ago.  I had not seen one since my childhood in New York and New Jersey.  Later I discovered several growing on "the point" of land where our driveway forms a switchback.  I about went crazy yesterday when we were coming up the driveway on the Gator, and I spotted this large "colony" of lady slippers!

Yesterday we met with Riverside Log Homes in Sparta, North Carolina.  They are the company that built our little garage apartment.  We are ready to add on and build an adjoining house.  I got so excited as we went over the plans.  Now all we have to do is sell our house in Wake Forest.  We have been working hard to get it ready to list on the market.  Any one want to buy a five-bedroom home with mature landscaping on a very private lot?

Later today, our son Dave, daughter-in-law Emily, and grand-dog Roo are coming up to join us.  We are greatly looking forward to spending the rest of the weekend with them.

Catching Up

I apologize for neglecting my blog for the past couple of weeks!  Sometimes life just intervenes, doesn't it?   I have not been very creative or done any quilting since my last post. 

My quilt bee, The Whacky Ladies,  met on March 1 with only three members present at Carolyn's house, but we had a great time.  Carolyn is making log cabin blocks out of gorgeous fabrics.

I took a picture of her pattern, but can't read the name of it.

Irene brought me her beautiful charity project to quilt for the Quilts For Kids program at Capital Quilters Guild.  It is the Warm Wishes pattern again.  She tried to machine-quilt it herself, was not happy with the results, and picked out all the stitching.  I hope to work on it and a customer quilt next week when things get more back to normal, I hope.

My Anything Art Bee also met last week on Monday at Roberta's house.  I was so pleased to see that Ruth-Ellen is continuing to make great progress on her Pamela Allen-style quilt that she started at my house in January.  I love that she has broken up the flat-looking green with additional fabrics, pathway, and fence.  The quilt hanging on the fence is actually a small piece of beading in the grandmother's flower garden pattern. 

Our technique for the month was metal work!  Roberta has a full set of tools in the garage workshop, and an amazing collection of metal cans to cut into jewelry, purses, and other ornamentation.  Here is an example of a framed mirror that she decorated with flowers and leaves punched from soda cans and painted with alcohol inks and Sharpies.  You can see my hand snapping the photo in the mirror!

Toni opted to work on a similar project.  Ruth-Ellen worked on making a book cover from a metal tin, and I worked on a metal cuff cut from a cookie tin.

I love that we experiment with new techniques at these meetings.  Several times I have found out that I have no interest in pursuing the technique or, more importantly, purchasing books and materials.  I did not really like cutting metal, pounding metal, or filing metal.  Ruth-Ellen managed to cut herself within minutes, and I was very wary of doing the same.  I brought home a cuff, but forgot to take a photo.  It is home and I am currently in the mountains.

Roberta has a very friendly cat named Lola who was posing for me next to a very funky cat sculpture that looked a lot like her.  It does not show up well silhouetted in the photo.

We got up here to our mountain cabin yesterday afternoon.  It makes us so happy to cross the creek to our "family compound" in the North Carolina mountains.

We have only been one other time this winter, when we enjoyed a snowy weekend. This time it is bright and sunny, although a bit breezy. We wrapped up and went for a ride up the mountain on our Gator.

Even though the creek must be near freezing, it did not stop the intrepid Kasey from plunging in for her refreshing drink from the sparkling mountain water.

One good shake, and she was ready to go!
 

I still have many pictures from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival to share with you.  Here is my favorite quilt from the show, Star Struck, an amazing piece made from three-fourths inch hexagons in a rainbow of colors.

I made a point of photographing the identifying labels for each quilt, but wouldn't you know the maker's name is left off the picture.  Fortunately, it was a big award winner, and I found the award list online.  The maker is Cheryl L See.

In addition to the tiny hexagons, there is added embellishment such as flowers.

And Elvis was in the house!  The King appeared several times among the myriad of colorful hexagons.
 

Here are a few more detail shots of Star Struck.

 
And here is a quilt that my husband loved when he saw the picture.  He has this thing for sheep-LOL!



Crazy Sheep, by Debora Konchinsky



The handwork that embellishes her felted sheep patches is just beautiful.

That's it for today.  Hope this long post makes up for my absence from the world of blogger for awhile!

Ashe County Quilt Show, Part 1

Today I will start sharing some photos I took at the Ashe County Piecemaker's Guild Quiltfest last weekend in West Jefferson, NC. 

I kept seeing quilts that referenced Barn Quilts, and eventually figured out that this was a theme category this year.  Barn quilts are very popular in this area, especially after a promotion by the Ashe County Arts Council.

One quilter, Peg Hofstetter,  painted quilts on the barns on a printed fabric.

This is the entire quilt, called I Spy Barns With Quilts.

Another lady embroidered quilts on the barns on a flannel print.

Here is the whole quilt.  It is called, Happy Trails:  A Barn Quilt Trail to Granny's House, by Sandi Smith.

This lovely art quilt features a mountain barn, but alas, no barn quilt. It is When the Cows Come Home, by Jannett Caldwell.   The pieced blocks on the inner border are known as "Hole in the Barn Door," quite appropriate!

Here is a close-up of the barn.

This was probably my favorite of the quilts featuring barns.  Bright Wintry Day, by Chris Eichner.

The tree is fantastic!

This quilt really sums up the fall season on the farm.  It's called Turkey Trot, by Jo Seagle.

And this is a lovely quilt also featuring pumpkins and fall colors.  It's appropriately titled Colors of Fall, by Alica Potter.

Naturally, quilters from this area love to create quilts featuring mountains.  This one is Mountain Landscape, by Barbara Barkley, an original design.

 Here is a detail.

Another is Purple Mountain Majesty, by Sandy Leafe. 

These landscape quilts were displayed in one of the vendor booths. Wow!  Love them!

That's it for today.  Check back next time for more quilts from the show.