Childhood Memories

Although I have lived in the Raleigh, North Carolina for almost fifty years, I was born in Manhatten, and grew up in the suburbs of New York and New Jersey.  We moved out of the big city when the third child was born in our family, and three children under five was getting difficult to manage in a small apartment!  We moved to a house in New City Park, New York, with a big yard, lots of trees, safe streets, and tons of other Baby Boomer children to play with.   There was a lake where I learned to swim and ice skate.

My father was a commercial artist.  He painted this watercolor of New City Park Lake sometime between 1952 and 1958.  In fact, those boys could be my brothers Chris and Tim!

There was a raft or dock which you had to be able to swim to in order to be allowed in the "Deep End."  There was a clubhouse and and a few homes on the lake.

The reason I am writing about this now is that this painting just surfaced on Facebook!  One of my friends from the New City neighborhood has lept in touch with me all these years, and messages me about this painting!  I don't remember it, but it is signed by my father (Pete Turner) and is clearly his recognizable work.

Having discovered the New City Park Lake web page, I started reading through the messages and photos.  The painting is owned by a woman who lives on the lake, and tells me that this is still the view of her back yard!

Additionally, one of the members of the Facebook group used to live down the street from us, in another Catholic family with tons of kids.

This has been an unexpected trip back in time to my childhood.  I even found a photo on the site of my old elementary school, Chestnut Grove.

Look at that stone work!  I remember the classrooms had "cloakrooms" where we could shuck off our boots and snow suits or leggings after walking to school.  The desks were so old that they had holes for inkwells!

I am so glad that my father signed his artwork.  Quilters, don't forget to sign and label your work!  The quilts you make today could tell a story some day in the future!

A Finished Quilt Top...and a Special Afternoon

 

Here is my finished quilt top for my grand-baby!  The borders are on.  I just need to piece the backing, and make arrangements to visit my Gammill one day to get it quilted.  (It is at a Foster Mother's house while my home is on the market.)

 

It has been a busy week.  I had to get a temporary crown on a molar, and spent three and a half hours in the dentist's chair on Monday.  Then it came off on Wednesday and I had to go back on Thursday to get it cemented back on.

 

On Saturday my family had a Celebration of Life in honor of my late father, Pete Turner.  It was a wonderful day.  I saw cousins and friends I have not seen in decades.  A special surprise was one of my childhood friends who flew down from New Jersey.  My two surviving aunts and my last surviving uncle were there, along with my father's cousin.  I had a PowerPoint running on the wall screen with scanned images of my father's artwork.  We brought in some of his paintings, and had display tables with lots of his newspaper clippings, commercial art, and published artwork.

 

 

All seven siblings, and many others took turns sharing stories about my father and mother. 

 

 

 

At the end, my brother Tim played guitar and sang  "Someone to Watch Over Me," which was my parents' song during their time of separation during World War II.  I put the lyrics on a PowerPoint slide show and we all sang along.  It was very moving.

 

 

 

Dave and Emily brought little Charlie to meet her cousins, aunts and uncles.  She was a good little girl the whole time. 

 

 

 

Afterward most of us went to dinner together at the Hibernian Pub in Cary.  It was a good day for my family, friends, and neighbors to visit and remember my father's amazing life.

 

Big Charlie took a picture of Little Charlie, her mom, and both her grandmothers. 

 

It looks as if the baby is looking up adoringly at me, but she is looking at my father's painting of mountain wildflowers, hanging on the wall behind the couch.  She loves that painting!  I think the red flowers catch her attention.

 

 

 

My father died just a couple weeks before she was born, but maybe he is looking down on her from Heaven.

 

 

Sad

My father, Peter C. Turner, passed away last Thursday.  He was 89.

I am so thankful that we just spent Thanksgiving traveling together to Florida to visit my brother Jeff's family.  It was a lovely time spent together.  Although my father's health had been declining, he was still able to enjoy the warm sunshine and all the attention from his grandchildren. 

When we were on the airplanes, Dad wore his "Flight of Honor" ball cap that was given to Veterans on a trip to visit the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.   We were always the last off the plane, and it warmed my heart that so many travellers paused on their way up the aisle to say "Thank you for your service, sir."

We were also very touched at the graveside service to find a military Honor Guard.  It was a rainy, misty, day in the North Carolina mountains at the little church graveyard in Banner Elk.  The bugler climbed up the hillside and played "Taps,"  and the sound echoed down the hill.

I was doing pretty well until Taps.  It is very hard to say goodbye to someone who has been such a huge part of my life.

Good-bye, Daddy.  Yours was a life well-lived.

Some Colorful Art for a Gloomy Winter's Day

We have finally gotten a day of winter weather after many warm, balmy days in January and February.  My dad is here with us this weekend, and we took him to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh this afternoon.

Here are some exhibits of interest to those of us who love textile art.

This fabulous African costume looks like a patchwork quilt.  Here is the front view.

And it is diplayed so that it can be viewed from the back as well.

This outfit covered the entire body, including the head, but the dancer could see through a mesh area.  Here is the label.

This stunning exhibit is also in the African art area.  It is beautifully woven Kente cloth on the wall, and draped as a robe as Akan royalty would wear it.

All of us who sew recognize what these are.

But who would have thought to create an image of the Mona Lisa with spools of thread?  The image appears to be upside down until you view the piece through a glass sphere that creates a prism effect.

Since we just celebrated Valentine's Day, here is the classic Rodin scupture, The Kiss.

And here are a couple of Thinkers.

My dad is doing great these days, but we borrowed a wheelchair from the museum to conserve his strength as we toured the museum.

Here is the Valentine card that he gave me with some original abstract art.

And for a last bit of color on this gray day, here is the bouquet from my sweetie on the colorful quilt that I made for Dad years ago. 

Stay safe out there if it is snowing where you are.  So far we have just had rain and some sleet, but they say it is coming.

Happy Halloween!

Last year I participated in the 21 Secrets online journaling class.  One of the workshops was Doodlicious Daybook, with Tracie Hanson.  We made funky journals out of painted brown paper, old calendar pages, duct tape, zig zag stitching, and other fun stuff.  On one of my painted pages, I took the paint blobs and made them into ghosties and goblins.

Then I got this card from my dad a couple of days ago.  He likes to make color photocopies of his artwork and make note cards.  This painting from Sunset Beach came with his version of ghosties and ghoulies!

Great minds think alike.

We have not had a trick-or-treater at our house in about six years, probably because of our long driveway.  But I hope that you have a safe and happy Halloween!  It is a very cold one here in central North Carolina.  My grandkids live in South Carolina, where you can usually count on it being in the 80's on Halloween.  Avery and Lily did not look too pleased to be wearing their fur monkey suits on this Halloween a few years ago, but they would be perfect for tonight!

The Rest of the Story

In my last post, I told the story of the little log cabin quilt that recently came home to me after thirteen years.  Here, as Paul Harvey would say, is "the rest of the story."


As I mentioned, my father and mother were both excellent dancers.  In addition to ballroom dancing, they participated in square dance and round dance after moving to North Carolina.  In fact, they met at a school dance back in junior high, and were sweethearts ever since.


Here is a picture of my father next to the portrait he painted of my mother wearing his favorite red dress.  As I recall, he painted this while she was still living.  Dad looks like he is wearing a tuxedo with a snappy vest- perhaps to the wedding of one of my younger siblings.  The note on the back says 1996.  Mom was taken from us way too soon from cancer in 1984.

I actually got to wear this dress once.  Charlie and I got married while we were still college students.  I had a great job working at the student bookstore on campus at North Carolina State University for about three years.  Shortly before his graduation, Charlie landed a job at the university business office.  That Christmas, the chancellor invited the entire business office and their dates to his lovely home for a party.  I made a panicked call to my mother because I had nothing appropriate to wear.  She brought me the red dress and, I think, even took a few stitches in it to make it fit me a little better.  When we arrived at the door, Chancellor Caldwell greeted us himself, and seemed confused about which one of us was the business office employee!  But he gave me effusive compliments on my "beautiful Christmas dress."


As I wrote previously, Dad brought me the dress in 1998 to see if I could make a quilt from it.  The first attempt was a colorful wall hanging, but it was evident that he really wanted a snuggle quilt.  So, with lots of fabric left from this floor-length gown, I began again. 


You can imagine how hard it was for me to cut into this dress the first time! I remembered the gown as being sort of a polished cotton, dark red with a border print.  Of course, the garment was around thirty years old when I started the  project, so it may have faded a bit.  But it was a shiny, thin fabric, sort of a silky polyester, perhaps. And it definitely looked more orange than red.  I used a French-fuse interfacing to back the parts that I used.

The blocks are Album Blocks, and the orange center of each is from Mom's dress.  The rest of the block fabrics are hand-dyed or commercial cottons. 

Here is the second quilt made from Mother's Dancing Dress.

This one has been hung on the wall over Dad's bed, used as a lap quilt, tucked over his recliner...but always lovingly used.  The other quilt got packed away when he sold his house and moved to Boone, and was not unearthed until he moved out last spring.

A final funny end to the story:  when my sister Katy went up to Boone to get Dad out of the nursing home, she went by his apartment to get a few things that he would need.  The first time I visited Dad at her home, he was still mostly bedridden.  She made a point of mentioning that she had brought his quilt, thinking how pleased I would be.  Unfortunately, the quilt she retrieved from the apartment was a blue Wal-mart patchwork bedspread!  Oh, well, he's got his paintings and his books and his quilt with him now.  And he is doing much better, and that's all that counts!

We Finally Gave in to the Urge for Internet

Charlie and I headed into West Jefferson Friday morning and signed up for Internet service here in our mountain cabin.  We resisted for a long time, but now we can bring our laptops and keep up with the world.

While we were in town, we stopped by the Ashe County Cheese Factory.  They have painted the milk tanks in front to look like Holstein cows! 

                    

                     

We went up the mountain on the Gators Friday afternoon, and the perpetual mud puddle on the dirt road at the top has turned into a sinkhole of mud.  Which did not stop the dogs from jumping in and cooling off in the skanky water.

                        

In fact, Roo was positively giddy about his mud bath!

                       

We have a big group up here between our three houses on the family compound.  Here is the youngest, precious little Shelby, with her Mamaw Mary and my sister Katy.

                           

And here is the oldest, my father Pete Turner.  He decided he wanted to paint, so I set up a table in the shade of our garage looking out onto the woods.  He made a small 4" x 6" abstract mountain scene in watercolor.  He makes color copies of these and mounts them on greeting cards.

                     

I painted along side him, and will post my painting later when it is dry.

My nephew, Donnie, and his family are also up for the weekend.  Here is his basset hound, Rooster!

                      

He actually has two basset hounds, Rooster and Dixie, who are supposed to make little Basset puppies one day.

My brother Chris came over from Banner Elk after doing a little fishing.  His hip waders looked a little suspicious in the back of his car.

                                 

It has been a nice day with family, dogs, sunshine, and beautiful scenery.

A Little Artwork

Today I graduated to walking with no crutches once I got downstairs.  With the ankle brace they gave me at the ER, it was not painful, as long as I hobbled without bearing full weight on the left leg.  Much better!

I located my watercolor paints and the instructional materials I purchased from Karlyn Holman.  I spent some time working on a sunflower painting from one of her kits.  She provides a line drawing, a reference photograph, and a few step-by-step instructions.  Here is how it looks so far.

The lacy look in the foreground is from sanding watercolor pencils over a piece of lace.  The sunflower center had a piece of gauze in the center to create some texture, but I think mine was too thick and I did not get the desired lines.  I may do this painting over, because I haven't done any serious watercolor in several months and am quite out of practice!

 Here is a Zentangle sampler I did on a blank page in my Moleskine journal.  There was some heavy painting on the pages behind, so I only wanted to use markers on this spread.  (Blogger decided to change the orientation of the photo!)

Finally, here is a delightful sketch that my father, Pete Turner,  did while we were in the mountains with a big group for the Fourth of July weekend.  First he made a list of everyone who was with us.  Then, he somehow managed to draw a  caricature of everyone on a tiny piece of watercolor paper that fit inside a greeting card.  He sent it to his sister Jeanne, who was born on the Fourth of July.

It was great to see Dad enjoying some art supplies after his recent deathly scare with pneumonia.  He looks better each time I see him!  Here he is painting at the kitchen table at my sister's mountain place.



His sketch of the people of the Fourth of July was my inspiration for the Dogs of the Fourth of July journal page.

The Best Birthday Gift Ever

If you have been reading this blog recently, you may remember that my father, Pete Turner, has recently been very ill with pneumonia.  After a week in the hospital and a month in a rehab center, he was not showing much sign of recovery of strength.  My sister, Katy, moved him into her house to take care of him several weeks ago.  What a difference a little TLC has made!  From not being able to sit up by himself, he made it down to the beach with us on Tuesday!

We thought the stairs up to the beach cottage would be a problem, but he made it by himself with just a cane.

We went out to eat each night.  On my birthday, we drove to Ocean Isle to meet my uncle Jerry and his wife Missy for dinner.

Dad got to play with his newest great-grandchild, Jake Turner.  In this picture, Jake is with two of his great-grandfathers!

As if all this were not enough, Dad asked if I brought any art supplies to the beach.  Oh, yes!

His first painting since he got sick was a birthday card for me, complete with poem!

None of us would have believed all this would happen just a few weeks ago.

Here is Baby Jake in the Hawaiian shirt I brought home for him...

and here is my daddy in his.  I wasn't sure he would ever get to wear it!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and good wishes.  They worked!

We are home now, tired but happy and feeling very blessed.

Art From the Heart

I would like to share with you a wonderful gift from my father to his family.  My dad, Pete Turner, is a retired commercial and fine artist who really does not do much drawing or painting any more.  Once in awhile I get a special card or postcard with his artwork, which I treasure.  If you enter "Pete Turner" in the search text box on my blog page, you can see more examples of his artwork.  This year, my father began a project during our week at Sunset Beach, NC.  My sister-in-law suggested that he make drawings to turn into a coloring book for the great-grandkids. 

The result was a very special book that went not only to the great-grands and grands, but each of his seven children.  I think he made 40 copies in all!  Each contained line drawings in a loose-leaf notebook.

Here is the cover, with a delightful caricature of the artist.

The first page brings back memories of when we moved from the New York area to Cary, North Carolina.  We had a pop-top Volkswagen bus, just like the hippies but without the Flower Power.

I think there is one too many dogs and a few too many kids in that picture!

When my father first began his career as a commercial illustrator in New York, one of his first jobs was to paint Elsie the Cow, the trademark logo for Borden's Dairy Products.  Elsie makes an appearance in the coloring book, as well she should. Part of our family history!

Some of the drawings reflect what Dad was doing at the time...like these sand buckets and shovels that take us back to our beach vacation days.

I am committed to scanning all the pictures eventually, so Dad does not have to keep making hard copies of the pages as new great-grandkids arrive.  My granddaughter, Lily, started working on hers immediately!

Here is another new bit of my father's art.  He has been making Christmas cards every year since he and my mother were married right after WWII.  I heard stories that he used to silk-screen them in the bathtub of our apartment in New York.  Everyone looks forward to his annual Christmas card, wondering what the inspiration will be each year.

This one is a pencil drawing with watercolors added.  I can't tell you how much I love it. 

The retirement community where my father lives in on a very busy highway in Boone, NC.  That these deer find their way to graze outside his window is rather miraculous.  They must know the back way!

Speaking of deer, we have had quite a few sightings lately.  No, not in the many acres surrounding our mountain cabin.  We didn't see even one last weekend.

The last time I took Kasey to the greenway near our neighborhood, we saw four deer cross the trail not ten yards from us.  I had heard them crashing about in the woods, so wasn't too surprised.  But Kasey was on alert long before they crossed.  Yesterday, we went back to the greenway behind Heritage.  When Kasey starting straining at the leash, I thought there might be a deer in the woods. 

Yup.

Can you see her big white ears sticking up to the right of those birch trees?

She stood there and let me take her photograph until I started moving closer.  When she ran off, I saw two white brushy tails running through the woods.  The other one was hiding!

I think they must have followed us home. When Charlie came home from work, there were two deer in our front yard.

And when I opened the garage door to let Kasey out, there were four in our back yard.