Under the Sea at the Mote Aquarium

Today after radiation was over we took a field trip to Longboat Key, Sarasota, to visit the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium.  And look what a treasure I found inside!

Under the Sea, by Raynore Pope



The quilt is large, bright, and full of dimensional marine plants and animals.







The two lower corners are anchored by tall ships with billowing sails.

Well done, Raynore Pope!  What a wonderful gift to the Mote!

I liked these seahorse sculptures aside the doors.

                                                 

But the real stars of the show were the flora and fauna of the ocean.

Lion-fish

 Carolina Diamondback Terrapin

They have two male manatees on display, Hugo and Buffett.  Only one was receiving guests today...the other was napping in a back room!

OOPS!  Not that one!

 Here we go.  These very peaceful creatures, sometimes called Sea Cows, are vegetarians that live in the shallow coastal waters of Florida.

 There was color inspiration everywhere...

Lots of wonderful creatures...

And even a beautiful setting on Sarasota Bay.  A very nice morning!

Revisiting Two of My Art Quilts

As I mentioned in my previous post, my husband and I will be house guests in Ft. Myers, Florida for the next six to eight weeks while he undergoes cancer treatments.  It is fun to see examples of both my father's and my contributions to the decor of their house.

This is our bedroom, recently the repainted room of my niece Laura.  She has graduated from Florida State University and is living in Kansas.  And here is a shout-out to two of her friends who had actually heard of me from following my blog!  Hello, Wichita!

I love the tropical foliage glowing out the window over the bed.  It almosts looks like an aquarium.  I did not make the quilt on the bed.  But I did make this one on the wall.

Florida Visitors, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2003

I started with a Ricky Tims pattern called Harmonic Convergence.  I added some borders, appliquéd stems and folded flowers, and some hand-dyed fibers.  The tropical colors look good in their house.

 In the same bedroom they have some rustic frames with postcard-size pictures that my father, Pete Turner,  painted over the years.  I have taken his cue and been making some 4" x 6" paintings to use for greeting cards. 

In their living room is another quilt that I made for them.  

                                                    

For this one I used the watercolor method of blending 2" square prints.  The trees are fused separately over the patchwork.  The border is made from an assortment of green and blue hand-dyed fabrics.

This quilt was a gift after Charlie and I visited their former home in Camano Island, Washington, north of Seattle.  

View from Camano Island, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2000.

The label I made for it has a photo transfer of the bay and landscape.  

In their dining area is a very nice stained glass window.  It faces the same exterior as our bedroom window.  The afternoon light is just beautiful.

That's it for today.  We got along fine on our trip to Sarasota today, with a little R&R at Lido Key after Charlie finished his radiation this morning.  How nice to have a lovely location to get well, and good family to offer us their hospitality.

A New Journey

I have not been very faithful in posting to this blog lately.  Much has been happening in my life this year; some good, some awful.  I have not mentioned the bad part until today.

My husband Charlie was diagnosed in April with a very aggressive form of prostate cancer.  It had already spread throughout his skeletal system and some lymph nodes.  We were told by his doctor in Raleigh that the only treatment was to slow it down with a hormone regimen.  And that would only be effective for a limited time.

So, we have spent lots of time on the computer doing research.  And spent lots of time with family and friends.  We have been to Sunset Beach, NC; our cabin in the North Carolina mountains; his brother's family home in Rutherfordton, NC; and recently Alberta, Canada!  It was cool and beautiful up there.  I have about a thousand photos.  More to come!

Bow River, Banff, Alberta, Canada

Anyway, the good news is that through networking and research, we think we have found a place that can treat Charlie's cancer and allow him to achieve permanent remission.  We have been getting ready since the beginning of July to spend a couple of months in Florida while he receives radiation treatment at the Dattoli Cancer Center and Brachytherapy Research Institute in Sarasota, Florida.  We came down on Monday August 10, and stayed in Sarasota while they did more exams, tests, and simulations for the radiation treatment.  

Charlie and me in front of the Miracle Machine!

Monday was Day 1 of treatment.  We had to be in Sarasota..86 miles away...by 7:40 AM.  We left at 5:45 and made it with 20 minutes to spare.  It was a long, dark, boring drive.  Only 41 treatments-more or less- to go!

The upside is that he was done by about 8:30.  Then we went to Lido Key for a few hours of R&R in the Gulf of Mexico!  We have been to three beaches so far and liked all three.

We ate a nice lunch in Sarasota and then headed back to my brother and sister-in-law's house.  They have generously offered us a place to stay for the duration, as well as a car to drive back and forth.  They live in a very comfortable home by a lake.  It will be a good place to unwind from all the driving and medical stuff.

The lake behind my brother's house just after a thunderstorm

So, that's what is happening.  We feel lucky on many counts, and have been very blessed with many prayers and well wishes.  We can do this!

Finishing Up a Visual Journal

I have been trying to put the finishing touches on a 9" x 12" visual journal that I started last year.  It is a Strathmore Visual Journal for Mixed Media. 

I used some of the printed/painted papers from the Traci Bautista Strathmore Artist's Workshop to make the front and back covers and inside covers.

Front Cover

Inside Cover and Title Page

This spread had remained half done until today when I added a lot more collage elements to make a "Spring Fever" spread.  There are more of my printed/painted/stamped papers at top. Hopefully the photo will enlarge if you click on it.

This one features a print of one of my watercolor figure paintings on the lower left and a silly painting doodle on the right.

This one is a hot mess.  Had too much stuff going on in the background, so I added some white elements (dogs and clock) and large text on vellum.  Still not crazy about it, but it looks better in real life!

I've been adding finishing touches to a few other pages.  Forgot to take pictures of the back cover and inside pages.  Next time!

Artsy Stuff

With all our travels and company this summer, I have not been very productive.  But here is a little watercolor page from my journal.

I worked from a painting by Karlyn Holman in her book Watercolor:  Fun and Free.

And yesterday I got my Marsh Sunset painting back from the framer.  It looks so great in that gold frame!  I hardly recognized it!

Here is a Peace Pole that I gave my husband for our anniversary.  It is in the rose garden at our mountain cabin.

I love the colors and whimsical designs.

Baby Quilts

Hello out there!  I'm still here.  I actually did some long-arm quilting recently!

First up is a baby quilt that a friend asked me to quilt for her.  It is what is known as a "cheater panel" because the top is actually just printed with the quilting design.

I love the colors and the Noah's Ark theme.

I decided to use swirls and curls free-motion quilting.  I try to find something in the quilt top to echo in the quilting.  In this case, both the sheep and the clouds had the curly design.

Love these little cuddly animals!

The backing is a pastel stripe.

Next is a baby quilt for our mountain neighbor's new grandson.  His father is the one for whom I recently repaired the binding on his high school graduation quilt.  The baby's nursery decor is puppies  with lots of light blue and tan.   I had the perfect top...which I did not even have to sew!  I purchased it online a couple of years ago.

This one is not a cheater cloth.  The top is actually pieced from Minkee, flannel, cotton, and some sort of soft fleece for the puppies.  But it came already assembled.  Woo hoo!

The puppies are adorable.

This quilt is so soft and cuddly!  I just did some loopy free-motion quilting since the border print had big dots.  The back is blue Minkee, and I chose not to use any batting so it would be super soft.

We have been gone so much in the past month.  We spent ten days in the mountains over the Fourth of July.

 We took the grandkids up Grandfather Mountain, about an hour's drive from our cabin.  It is famous for the mile-high swinging bridge.  Here are my hubby and I just after crossing the bridge.  It was so gusty and cold up there that I had to stop at the gift shop and buy myself a warm hooded sweatshirt.  My husband Nanook, on the other hand, was perfectly comfortable.

We all had a great time at this fun family attraction.

The next weekend we went back to the cabin, this time babysitting for our youngest grand baby.  Her parents were at a destination wedding in Mexico.  We had such a good time with little Charlie!

I have lots more to show you and will try to be more faithful about blogging.  It was kind of hard while playing with the grandkids non-stop for a couple of weeks!