"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  - - - - - - - -

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - "Something Smells Fishy!"

Stretch looks like the result of an unholy union of a 16th century manuscript drawing of a shore bird and Mr. Peanut.

                     

For no particular reason, I think Stretch is a roadrunner.  You might argue that the long legs, knobbly knees and choice of entree display more surf than turf.  His dinner does look like something that lived in a neighbor's Koi pond at some point.  

When we look away, he'll probably spit out the fish nibblet and look for a small lizard.

This next wise guy, Pretty Boy, is a Mallard wanna-be.  He was extremely proud of his conspicuously swanky new head-feather color, until he realized that it made him a floating target on the lake.  Now he understands that his 'dye job' made him a 'die job.'  

He is currently laying low in a local duck blind, mixing with new friends in the Witness Protection Program, hiding from the well-armed and camouflaged Tortellini crime family.  When this hunting season is over and he survives this undercover operation, he will be taken to an undisclosed beauty salon to complete his new identity.

Next, we have Lynn Swann.  She is a former professional football player, born in 1952.  This future Hall of Famer took ballet and dance as a young girl on the advice of her mother.  Feeling awkward to begin with, she began to enjoy it, especially recitals and summer shows, like "Swan Lake."

Ballet was the gateway drug that led to jazz and tap.  When Lynn made the football team in high school, she found that the dance background helped with balance, strength, control, and fluidity of movement.  

In high school, she literally lost an eye!

She played college ball at USC and was drafted as a first round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1974.  She was named NFL All-Pro three times and won four Super Bowls.

During her nine-year career in the NFL, Lynn still danced.  She performed on TV,  ballet on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and tap dancing with Gene Kelly.  

She currently enjoys a quiet life of country swimming and a healthy diet of fish and marsh grasses.

All true.  Google it.

Everything has to be special and just so for Pinky.  She always wanted to be a Broadway dancer, but her legs were too short for high kicks and too uncoordinated for tap and jazz.  She maintains an optimistic personality, her signature pink plumage, and is hoping to obtain a fragrance branding endorsement.

While on blogging hiatus, the Queen Mary's Garden borders were beginning to materialize in my brain.  After that, it was all about the bits...

and the bits...

and even more bits!

Have fun playing with all of your bits!

Teresa  - - - - - - -