"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  ---------