A Cautionary Tale!

                                      

So the Queen Mary flimsy is done and temporarily parked on the pool table.  I catch it staring at me and making rude comments every time I'm downstairs.  

"Hey, c'mon, lets get going on quilting this thing!"

I've loved designing and making this quilt.  Normally I can't wait to get going with the hand-quilting and finishing.  

To get started with the quilt basting, I first make a list of things to stream on TV and find all the remotes (not a trivial pursuit).  I make sure I have new Audible book selections downloaded and ready to start.  I've bought unsalted peanuts, grapes, stick pretzels and other clean finger snacks.  Tea bags are plentiful.  Oh, and I check the 'fanny ribbon' supply in the downstairs bathroom...I mean, I try to think of everything that would interrupt me and hinder my progress.

(Hand-quilting the music quilt (2014) all those years ago!)

Once my creature comforts are in place, I gather my basting supplies.  The best part of that particular chore is deciding which color of  'naturally sun-variegated' polyester thread to use in my basting needle.  (My mom used to keep a large, clear jar of thread in a place that got direct sunlight.  It was never moved or disturbed...or dusted.  I saved a few spools because I thought it would be hilarious...and useful.)

My grandmother...and her posse...hand-quilted everything, their own and each others' projects.  They pieced their tops themselves at home, then got together weekly at the Beulah, AL Community Senior Center, where there was always a quilt on the quilt frame!

(My grandmother, Bertie Yielding, was my quilting idol!  She never met a fabric scrap she couldn't or wouldn't use.  She even used 100% polyester scraps (no need for batting with those tops) from dresses she made for herself, my aunt, and me.)

I'm procrastinating with this project because for the first time in my life I don't know how to proceed.  I've always thread-basted my quilts WAY more densely than ever needed.  Then I would get started with those hand quilting stitches!  

I only ever won hand-quilting ribbons when there was just one or two of us old-fashioned dinosaurs doing it in a show.  I just liked the peace I felt after a quilting session.  The thought of ten to twelve stitches per inch is a myth and harshens my buzz.

But I am coming to terms, as we all do, with worrying about whether my fingers can do it anymore.  When I have not hand-quilted for a while, there's always that period of getting up to speed, getting stitches consistent again...you know the drill.  I'd just start 'in-the-ditch' somewhere until things started to click.  

You can hide a multitude of sins 'in-the-ditch.'

But the tiny needle, the ability to actually keep grabbing it (plus knowing I'm holding it), and trying to get 3 to 4 stitches on the needle before pulling it through is getting harder and harder.  Then there's the start of arthritis and some neuropathy...  

When I taught hand quilting, I was always reassuring students that it's not the size of your stitches, but the consistency that is important.  I'd take their hoop a few feet away and get them to re-evaluate their efforts.  The distance of 12 to 16 inches (eyes to hoop/frame) is not the normal perspective of looking at hand-quilting stitches.  Just cruel!  So are the quilt police counting those stitches per inch, haha.

Once students get over that initial awkwardness, the serenity and peace of the repetitive movement is so sweet.  Then, there's the feeling of running a hand over the area just finished and delighting in the slight 3-D feel of the design...magical and joyful.  

The feeling makes me dream that my quilt has left the 2-D, flat sensation of earth to become something else.  Weird, huh.  Maybe that is why quilts are roped off in public...we all want to experience that feel, that connection.

("Contentment," our 25th anniversary quilt, in Houston in 2017.)

(Excessively echo-quilted!  Normally I echo between 1/4 to 1/2 inches.

Upside to echo quilting - no marking for quilting!)

I love the idea of hand-quilting a hand-applique project!  I am pretty simple about it...I strive to have an unassuming background pattern that showcases the applique designs, often just diagonal cross-hatching or echo-quilting.  I want the background quilting to stay in the background...not compete with the artistic elements.  I outline-quilt each motif to make it pop!  I most always quilt areas through each motif as well to emphasize petals, feathers, leaf veins, etc. 

I even hand-quilted my husband some 'six-pack abs' a few years ago!

(OK...I think some context is in order here.  Steve jokingly says "all quilts should be made from scraps and old clothes."  Well...it was time to replace his old, ratty boxer shorts.  I thought I'd show HIM!  It was a small wall hanging I called "Boxer Rebellion."  He's a good sport...he hung it in his computer cubicle at work until we moved down to Alabama 12 years ago!)

Here are a couple more pics of it...most 'cheeky' quilt I ever made!

'Butt' I diverge...

I have not ruled out quilting by checkbook.  I don't really know anyone who does this desired simple, minimal custom machine quilting.  And why would I try to find someone?  Custom quilters are artists, and I would feel so insulting and embarrassed asking for something so simple, but well done.  What's the fun of that for them to do?  

An all-over, row-by-row style is perfect for my level of machine piecing but is out of the question after all this hand-applique.

I think I am going to just go for it!  Longer stitches, a larger needle, snacks with more fiber, and as many magnifying glasses as I need is hopefully enough.  This old dinosaur will try to get it done!  

(I'll just leave an extra eight inches or so of backing all around so it can be put on a quilting machine, if necessary (and I'll start with the outline stitches around the motifs...the very edge is almost as forgiving as the ditch!)

Don't save your dream projects until you retire and 'have more time.'  The more time thing is just a myth anyway.  I just now turned 65 and never dreamed that some things would get harder this soon!

Don't stop stitching!

Teresa

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - Introducing (finally) the Finished Flimsy!

 

Not the quilt roll-out picture I would have hoped...but if I wait until I have a better photo-taking arrangement, it would be after the first of the year.  I took this at retreat.  

I have not even completely trimmed the borders!

The quilt is bigger than I thought it would be.  My muse sort of took over and all common sense went out the window.  I was just so glad the muse was back.  I decided to go along for the ride.

I have so much to be thankful for, including finishing this top.  I am so grateful my muse is back, even though she's a complete nutter! 

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - Some of my Favorite Things

In order to balance all the chirpy border birdies, I ended up adding some filler motifs.

It was a selfish way for me to add some of my favorite things, like little fish, water waves, radishes, blueberries, and mushrooms with friends.  Mushrooms...very 1970's.

This mushroom's friend needs a French knot eyeball!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  Off to the Christmas races we go!

Teresa  - - - - - - - - -

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - Introducing Queen Mary and Her Beautiful, Beaky "Pets"

This is Henry and he has a bird origin story that is actually true.

When I was in high school, we lived up against the woods that buffered the Birmingham Zoo (Alabama) from suburban surroundings on one side.  We were close enough to hear the lions and peacocks at dusk and other animals almost any time.

Well, one day this beautiful male peacock just showed up in our suburban yard.  My step-mother fed him some leftover scrambled eggs, which he gobbled up gleefully.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Somehow he ended up being called Henry and the neighborhood thought of him as the collective pet.

He roosted on my toddler sisters' swing set, which made them lose their interest in swinging immediately.

He decided to hang around, hoping for more left-over scrambled eggs and vegetable trimmings/leftovers, which were always offered.  Our yard was used as home base for this bird of beautiful plumage.  He would slowly strut around, visiting other neighbors, probably also mooching vittles from them.

Oh my!!  Was eating scrambled egg leftovers cannibalism?

We were building a new wing on our house, and I spent a lot of time outside working.  Henry was a confused boy, mistaking us for female peacocks, I guess.  He would come right up close, shake his feathers erect, and turn in slow circles displaying his prowess and annoying ego.  He was trying to entice us to...what?

Henry was so beautiful and I gathered many long, colorful feathers with "eyes" on the tips as he shed them.  He would roost on the swingset with his long mass of feathers hanging down and would vocalise every day at dusk.

My dad was concerned that the zoo would miss him.  He managed to catch Henry and carefully cram him into the back of our 1973 Chrysler Town and Country station wagon (the ugly beige model with fake wood side panels...ick).  He would then drive the short distance to the zoo and deposit the freeloader at the back service gate.

Dad tried this personal taxi service 2-3 times and each time Henry beat my father back to the house.  I never saw the bird fly, but he must have been able to do so.  I guess he liked scrambled eggs over Purina Peacock Chow.

Our street was very quiet, and soon everyone knew to drive carefully around both children and peacocks.

My family moved to Mobile when I went to college.  I drove by the house a few years later and saw that the name of our street had been officially changed to Peacock Lane!

Queen Mary's ostrich is named Ditsy (and no, we did not have a pet ostrich when I was growing up...).  Ditsy was sent to Scotland from England by Queen Elizabeth I (Mary's cousin) after England's first sponsored sea voyage to the African continent.  This was when they were still on speaking terms, before insecure Lizzie wanted to cut off the head of her kin.

Ditsy got her name from continually, and clumsily, running into trees, large rocks, people, carts, and other animals when she would run too fast in confined spaces.  Outside the castle grounds and gardens she found a nearby loch where she learned how to fish for herself.  I'm not sure Ditsy ate many fish on the plains of Africa.

Mary, Queen of Scots is in the Garden!  She tries to walk in her garden at least twice a day.  She tosses crumbled oat cakes for the birds and presents special treats of pink berries and little fish for her two favorite companions, the peacock and ostrich.  Henry and Ditsy are really quite spoiled.

All hail Queen Mary!

Teresa  - - - - - - - - 

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - Bun-Buns and Fishies

Festus cannot stop trying to eat everything grown in the castle gardens. The gardens are supposed to feed everyone in the castle, the birds, and the handful of garden critters.  He shamefully takes much more than he needs and actually uses the carrots in his workout regimen during his leg lifting reps.

Festus is a sly and slick agent.  When Mary is walking or sitting in her garden, he tries to be cute and charming toward the Queen.  He flops down, right in her path or practically in her lap, and exposes his tummy for scratches.  Mr. Charming is a fake and a prat.

Leroy is, well, literally 'cute as a button.'  He behaves in the garden and is a faithful, kind friend to all the birds and critters.

 

Leroy is so sweet...he hides Easter eggs for all the children in and around the castle, painting at least half of them himself.  Bless him.

There are a lot of little fishies that live in the garden and one very large fish that has recently been removed (and eaten)...by Stretch.

Teresa  - - - - - - - - 

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - More Frogs and a Lizard-like Thing...

Pappy is an old, wise frog. There is a small streamlet of water running through the garden, and that is where you will find him.  He gets terribly annoyed by Floyd, the croakiest frog in the Highlands.  Pappy's abnormally long legs allow him to make a fast get-away whenever Floyd starts to sing vocalize.

Nervous Karl, a chameleon, is a real basket case. It's a good thing that his super power is the ability to blend into his environment so nobody can see him.  That means nobody bothers Karl, which makes him very happy.  When revealed, this social dud makes everyone else extremely uncomfortable.  He's a real party pooper.

Can you tell by his color which bird strutted by him recently?  Yep, Henry the peacock.

Zapper has such a long tongue that he can't reel the whole thing into his mouth...ever.  He's great at flicking and catching flies and other bugs.  He can actually get those tasty morsels into his mouth easily, but he just can't seem to wind that thing up after eating.  It is so sticky on the end that Zapper gets stuck to rocks, grass, twigs, and leaves.  No one can understand a single word he croaks.

Teresa  - - - - - - - -

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - A Smart Cookie and Three Questionable Friends

Rosie is a friendly, caterpillar-chewing, stylish gal from the West Coast...of England.  But don't let her valley-girl chirpy chatter fool you.  She's probably the brightest bulb in Queen Mary's backyard.

Leftie is the kind of guy who is always looking back over his shoulder.  He's done some things and played some pranks in the past of which he's way too proud.

Now he's always worried that his past is going to catch up with him!

Pee Wee is a garden favorite!  This wee beastie birdie was born tiny, tiny, tiny but has a sunny disposition that is giant, giant, giant.  She scoots around under the the foliage without ruffling even the smallest leaves.  When Pee Wee is air born, she is often mistaken for a hummingbird or a horsefly. She likes standing on the rumps of horses and cows, whose coat hair gets nice and warm on cool afternoons, making dozing off quite cozy.

Light as her feathers, she hangs out on her lazy, grazy friends without discovery.

Fruit Loops is completely nuts.  You might say that she is a bird brain, yuck, yuck, yuck.  She forgets that she is a bird, gets into big trouble on the ground, and can't remember that she knows how to fly to get out of danger.  Jackson and Proud Mary try to keep an eye on her, but her protection is a big job.  It takes a village.

'Kooky Loopy' stands out in the pouring rain, can be found roosting in the hen house, and runs around in circles during thunderstorms.  The other birds have tried teaching her things during the daylight hours, but to no avail.  It seems that she has a very short memory that literally erases itself every night. 

She is cuckoo is for Cocoa Puffs.  Fortunately, her feathers are the color of the actual Cocoa Puffs cereal, which makes her easier to see and be rescued in the pouring rain.

Teresa - - - - - - - 

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - Truth or Consequences?

Mac thinks he's God's gift to all of Mary's garden chickies.  He just perches and preens all day long, imagining himself too handsome to get his precious plumage ruffled.  This makes all the other male birds even more prone to tease and play tricks on him.  He has the looks, but not the confidence.  

The gals can see right through him.  Mac is fooling no one.

Kiwi is the main object of Mac's affliction affection. They are, literally, "from the same tropical stock," so he says.  She's not impressed and barely notices his winks and pathetic advances.  

Moses, who is as old as the Bible, keeps an eye on both of these tutti-frutti poofies.  He's not above "accidentally" knocking a sleeping Mac off a tree branch.  Kiwi just laughs and laughs... 

Since I put zero forethought into the hatching of each bird-brained sketch, I felt a little stymied after most of the birdies were hatched and I remembered why I had made them.  I had been like a little kid with a handful of feathers, sitting in the mud, making pies.  Whoopie! 

I had agonized so long as to what to do for the borders of this quilt.  I was so careful to draft the 16th century flower slips without changing too much of the drawings, even when the stitchery was so farcical.  

(I know what these are, but seriously?)

Looking back at the flower/fruit blocks now, maybe I should of left all the ambiguous drawings as they were, letting pears look like weird breasts, etc.  I did leave the more unusual blossoms as they were, but gave them weird names.

I substituted flowers that probably didn't grow in England at the time, and created some completely out of whole cloth.  My collection needed more fruit.  Lemons, but no limes?  Cherry tomatoes, but no strawberries?  No watermelons or pineapples?  Water Lilies?  Oranges and Peaches, but no Apples?

In fact, don't go looking back at previous posts to find flower names thinking you are going to trot over to the Seed and Feed store to get ready for next year's plantin'.  I got more and more creative with the naming as I went.

The crazy bird sketches of the time were so playful and cartoonish.  I resisted the mutant bird/animal/human mash-ups.  These are fun, but probably more appropriate in another quilt.

I thought I would draw a couple of 100% birds and just think about it.  Before I knew it, I had a pile of appliqued, dorky birds in front of me. 

Some looked to the left, some looked to the right, and Hooter just stared at me like a deer caught in the headlights.  I had thought nothing about whether birds should be looking in all directions, be cross-eyed, or all focused toward the flowery center.  Sigh...

(I took these pictures in the middle of the night at quilt retreat a few years ago.  No one up but me and the birds!)

Flying by the seat of my pants has its truths and its consequences...

Teresa  ---------

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - " Excuses, Excuses, Excuses..."

Blossom feathers her nest with flowers.  It's a constant job, refreshening her home base, but it's worth the time.  Her hard work yields a big payoff.  The fragrant blooms attract small bugs for a constant supply of little snacks. She's a grazer where food is concerned, just like me.

Sneaky Pete is a bird of short stature.  He sneaks, he grovels, moving slow and quiet.  He seems completely tuned out, but is the biggest gossip in the yard.

I think Doodle Doo is confused, probably from a few too many topples out of the nest as a new chick.  All the other birds defend her chirping, "she's young, she'll grow out of it."

Well, now she is no spring chicken.  Doodle Doo is the first bird up and blabbing in the morning as if she is the rooster of the neighborhood.  She just throws that empty head back and lets it rip.

For me, the birds weren't easy to place around the borders.  They all had very particular notions of where and by whom they should be sewn.  I moved them around for so long before finally making a  decision, taking a photo of each try.  I hate making decisions, so this took way too long. 

The collection of slips I loved were never meant to be taken as a whole tapestry, just cut apart for other projects.

Thus, no original borders!  Sometimes, animals and birds were stitched at edges of slips, but again, closely packed with no artistry, no direction, no vines, no nuttin'.

The line above shows the light ink sketch.

Designed and stitched in the late 1500s, the center flower blocks I chose to adapt were most likely sketched by a member of Mary's inner circle, probably a man.  The Queen and her ladies (the four Marie's) and a circle of besties were the lucky recipients of his duties.

This line points to the same sketch with black silk outlines, most likely stitched by the sketcher so that his drawings were accurate down to every stem and petal.

I wish there was a color picture of this, the final line points to a finished slip. You can see that the waste canvas was complete rubbish. The gauge of this weave worked well to guide the needlepoint-ish tent stitches they worked with the finest of silk threads.  Afterall, these were motifs meant to be cut away.

But they also sewed tapestry scenes on the finest linen to be hung on walls, made into pillows, etc.

The one below was found incomplete.  You can see the guiding outlines.

Even smaller motifs were stitched for royal gloves, purses, cuffs, and book covers.

LOVE the book cover!

The artist provided simple inked outlines and was called...well, I don't know what he was called.  Was his title an inker, sketcher, doodler, artist, Courtesan?  He was probably present every time this sewing circle met, so he was an intimate presence in the Queen's privater outer rooms.  

This guy probably heard quite the gossip from Queen Mary and her close ladies of the court, the four Marie's, and others such as Bess of Hardwick.  

Bess was a great lady and true friend with a grand house.  She stayed with Mary much of the time the Queen was hidden in 45 different castles and great houses in her last 19 years of life to avoid the British monarchy's fear of her and her religion, Catholicism.  

While indisposed with Mary, they primarily worked on the more elaborate, historic designs that have lasted and now appear, sparsely, in the Edinburgh and Holyrood castles and great houses of Scotland. These contained emblems and symbols of their lineage and Scotland.

Mary's personal symbol for herself was "A. Catte," an orange cat. Cute!

Sorry so wordy, but I am just fascinated to follow and try to understand her whole story and how it influences my journey.  

I just don't want to follow the whole "off with your head" thing.

Teresa  - - - - - - - -