Little Trees Quilt

I finished my first quilting project of 2018 this week!  I really have not been doing much sewing since we moved to the mountains, but finally I have unpacked everything in the basement studio and uncovered the Gammill longarm.

Little Trees quilt, Jeanne Turner McBrayer

I paper-pieced these trees for another project back in the nineties.  My mother-in-law had painted her kitchen and asked for a wall quilt to go over the breakfast nook.  I bought a pattern and made lots of these little trees and some very nice flying geese blocks.  Then she said, "Never mind, I bought a wreath to go on the wall."  End of project.

Until we rearranged our living room last week.  We got some new furniture and found a place for a nice reproduction wooden ice chest between our recliners.  New problem:  when the cabinet was pulled away from the wall, we discovered this on the back.

So, it was either paint it, decoupage, or cover it up.  I looked in vain for a small quilt already made that would work on the back of the cabinet.  So, I put together the little trees.  

It was gratifying to dust and oil up the Gammill and crank it up with good results after almost a year.  It had to spend a week outside under the front porch last year when they installing the basement floor.  Other than a little dirt on the wheels, it seems to be fine.

If I get tired of looking at little pine trees, I can turn the quilt over use the side with cute little owls.

This week we have our grandsons here for Spring break.  We drove to Charlotte to pick them up.  This weekend their parents will come for the weekend.  It is nice to have them here.  Here they are at our local cafe, waiting for their breakfast to arrive.

A Few New Things

It has been a little crazy for the last month.  Many doctor appointments and trips to the hospital.  Charlie's blood counts got so low that he had a blood transfusion a couple of weeks ago.  That is probably due to all the radiation and the drug Xofigo which is radioactive.  After getting two units of packed red cells, he was a new man.  Amazing how bad you can feel when you are anemic.

                                                    

We are continuing to enjoy our new life in the mountains, and trying to get our house organized.  It has taken awhile because of all the furnishings we brought from Raleigh, and because the new basement was just a big room that I am trying to make into a usable studio/laundry room/office.

I managed to make an Auburn Angel for my daughter-in-law Melissa's birthday.

My brother Jeff and his family from Florida came up for a week in August.  We had multiple family gatherings.  They are the ones we stayed with in Ft. Myers for three months when Charlie first had radiation at the Dattoli Cancer Center.  We love them bunches!

We celebrated Jeff's birthday while they were here.  I gave him a little remembrance of the North Carolina mountains to take back to Florida with him.

My sewing stuff was fairly organized in bins even when we lived in Wake Forest, two houses ago.  It has been easy to find stash fabrics.  Everything else, not so much.  I recently tried actually sewing an eight-inch Sister's Choice block for a quilt for a friend, and it took me eight hours by the time I found the power cord to the sewing machine, some rulers, cutting mats, etc.

Here is a little watercolor sketch I did in my art journal.  It is the Sarasota skyline as seen from across the bay at Longboat Key in the last afternoon sunlight.  The city looked golden in the last rays of the sun.

My littlest granddaughter, Layla Grace, turned one on Saturday.  She had a rubber ducky birthday party.  I made painted a yellow duckling for her birthday card, and a little one with blue and green highlights framed in a floating frame.  Both paintings were inspired by photos on Pinterest.

And here is my little Ducky!

Family Fun

Lily's Birthday card...one of my watercolor prints with a few additions!

Our family has been with us in Florida for almost a week now!  We have had so much fun.  Four extra adults and five extra kids, including nine-month-old Baby Layla.  Lily turned eleven on Tuesday.  We have had great meals, fun at the beach, and trips to the park.  The weather was rainy only one day...the rest of the time we have dodged the showers and even seen rainbows.

Our family...fighting cancer together!

Before they arrived, I ordered bracelets from a company called MudLove.com, with the word Together on each one.  I had bought one at the Mast Store in Boone that said Hope.  When I went to the MudLove website to order more, I found out that you could have the bracelets customized with the word of your choice.  Together has been our family codeword for fighting cancer for the last two years.  

Baby Layla has been delightful.  Baby Kasey is a little jealous.  She thought she was the baby.

Well, it is hard to blog when you have four extra adults, five kids and a dog in the house.  They have all gone back home today.  This house is very, very quiet.  

Happy Easter!

We had a very enjoyable Easter with our family this year.  After church and brunch with family on Sunday, we brought our two grandsons to the mountains with us for their Spring Break.  They have been enjoying a lot of fishing and Gator rides.


Here are some Bible journaling pages that I made for the Easter season.

 

Amelie's Quilt-Finished!

Those snow days last week were very productive for me.

Amelie's Quilt has been mailed to California for my little great-niece.

I started this one a year ago at the Charity Sew-In day with the Whacky Ladies Bee.  Donna Sontag lets us meet in her shop, Whatever's Quilted, where she taught me to use her Accu-Quilt to make scads of 5-inch squares.  I used fabrics in lots of different widths to make rows, which I alternated with white sashing strips.  

The backing is a coordinating print, and I made a label from a novelty fabric with hummingbird hearts.

I still have to put the binding on the other quilt I made that day, which will be donated to charity.  It looks almost the same.

And for your daily dose of cute...here is my little granddaughter, Layla.  She is happy, even though her quilt is not finished yet!

Basement Studio Progress

A lot has happened to the basement area of our mountain cabin...which will become my sewing/art studio!  It now has drywall, electricity, and heat.  Charlie and I painted a primer coat on Wednesday until we ran out of both paint and energy, and our family arrived for Thanksgiving.  Besides painting, it will need a ceiling, floor, and light fixtures.  I ordered the bathroom vanity, faucets, cabinet and lights already.

If you want a preview, here is the laundry area just at the base of the stairs.

 We are going to add a utility sink in this area with the furnace.  That will be great for rinsing dyes or cleaning paintbrushes.

Under the stairs will be a closet.

The front room is the whole length of the cabin.  Right now it has my Gammill machine in there, which we have just been working around.

I am looking forward to having these beautiful views when I sew or paint.

You can see the Christmas tree farm across the street from the corner windows.

Here is the door to the bathroom.

The tub is in place, but nothing else.  But walls and a door are good!

After we finish painting, my brother-in-law says he will help us put in the suspended ceiling.  He has done one in his own basement room.

Once we get the sewing room/studio done, we will be making the move to the mountains full time.

And here is your reward for reading to the end...my two precious little turkeys who were here with us for Thanksgiving!

Layla was a good mountain baby, and Charlotte is a great big sister!  We have much to be thankful for.

Atmospheric Watercolor Practice

In my last post I wrote about discovering Jean Haines work through her book, Atmospheric Watercolors.  I finished several of yesterday's practice projects.

Two washes became some new friends I am calling "Shorty" and "Lefty."

Shorty

Lefty

I also finished a practice page of anemones using Jean's guidelines from the book.

One of Jean's recommendations is to start each day painting three loose and juicy washes in different color palettes.  You can come back to these later and make finished paintings.

So, today I did a spring, summer, and autumn wash on small pieces of Arches 140-lb. paper.

Spring Wash- with cellophane and salt

Summer wash with cellophane

Autumn Wash with cellophane manipulation

And for those anxious for more pictures of the new grand baby...here are Charlotte and her new sister, Layla!

SaveSave

Great News, a Fun Week, and More Great News!

We have just returned from a week on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  The purpose of the trip was to revisit the Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota for my husband's six-month check-up.  If you have experienced cancer in your family, you know there is always a bit of anxiety when you go back for tests or exams.  Fortunately, Charlie got the all-clear:  he is still in remission.  Yippee!  Charlie had Stage 4 prostate cancer that had spread throughout his skeletal system and lymph nodes.  We are still numb with shock that he is in remission.  Thank you, Dr. Dattoli and your staff!

On to a week of fun in Florida!


We stayed in Sarasota for two nights and enjoyed great dining, the pool, and some sunsets.  Then we spent one night in St. Petersburg on the beach.  Great sunsets!

On Thursday we drove south to Fort Myers to visit my brother Jeff and his wife Anna.  We had some great meals, a beach day, and a boat ride.  

We left on Monday, and got home before Hurricane Hermine would have affected our flight.  

After that we planned to go to our mountain place for Labor Day weekend.  Instead...my daughter-in-law went into labor!  She was about a week early.  Maybe the change in barometric pressure from Hermine had something to do with it.  

Now I am proud to present my newest granddaughter, Layla Grace McBrayer!

We kept big sister Charlotte all weekend, and then had a family day on Sunday.

Of course I have not finished Layla's baby quilt, but I have at least started it.  Here are some patchwork strips and pieced butterflies.