As if my days needed to be s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out anymore...

The slow boat from China finally got to the USA, so I have elastic!  I have managed to make a little dent in the spool since it arrived.

Each week seems like a month for me...anyone else?  It's not that I am bored.  There is certainly plenty to do.  I am stuck in slow motion and the earth seems to be spinning slower.  

Meh.

I even made a couple of science-ish masks for myself.  And, one with a dark blue background and a flowery print.  That is going to be the one I use when I mow all these acres every week!  Hopefully wearing it will help with dust and allergies...and be stylish at the same time (and hide dirt/sweat.)

I mailed out 72 of these yesterday to my extensive family, and kept a few for us.

I still have about 6 more to make in this round, then I can blog about Queen Mary for a while.  I have more blocks finished!

I have not bought novelty prints in a while, but I am finding that I wish a had bought more than a FQ with some of the ones I like the most.

(Wow!  I REALLY need to re-cover my pressing board...that is embarrassing!  I tried to cover up the the more disgusting areas with masks.)

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

Leaving the 1600's for a crucial 21st century project...

How is everybody doing with social distancing and being under house arrest?

I decided to make some fabric masks for my daughter, her two roommates, and my beloved, feisty aunt. 

Protecting the Riley's roommates protects my daughter (and, I love her roommates!).

Let's just say that a handful of masks became 91 really fast...family, family, family.

So, I decided to make the masks with crazy, cheerful, novelty fabrics.  I went on Pinterest and found, and read, a few of the mask-making free tutorials.  The one I decided on required a main fabric and a coordinating strip.

Well, I forgot the first rule for tutorials, or really anything.

Don't cut out 60 sets of fabrics for projects/blocks without making one first.  It may be inaccurate or not be a good approach for you.

Trying to make the main part was not that bad, but then there were the short strips that were to go on the pleated edges (to be turned and flipped to the back while securing the elastic).

It looked like crap.  Layers were too thick for adding the strip and all top stitching was impossible.  I was even using my Featherweight, which can sew through a motor boat.

There had to be a better way.  I sort of came up with an easier way, but checked out Pinterest to see if anyone was doing it my way...not really.

Originally I really enjoyed matching up scrappy strips with my larger rectangles.  It is always enjoyable to jump into a pile of really fun fabrics and match things up, thinking about the fabric theme and personality of the recipient.

Now I have the unused matching scrappy strips.  No problem.  I went through all my little folded mask rectangles and removed those tucked-in coordinating strips.  I ended up with this pile, which isn't a bad thing.  I love scrappy projects.

Disaster number two.  I only had enough 1/8 or 1/4 elastic for a dozen masks.  I went on Amazon, JoAnn's, Michaels, Craft Direct, Nancy's Notions, Google...there was none anywhere in this country until the end of April (I ordered a big spool weeks ago).

Apparently in addition to not making enough PPE and ventilators in this country, we don't make elastic anymore.  My huge spool is coming from China.  America's manufacturing is messed up!

Judging from the number of Etsy sellers offering masks and the stories/blog posts about volunteering to make masks, I can see why there is no elastic in the USA!  I wonder where they are getting their elastic?

I wish I hoarded dress-making materials like I hoard fabric.

I had also planned to make these for all my siblings and their families, planning two masks for each person (wash one, while wearing other).  They were also in sorted and labeled into piles, ready for a couple of good DVDs and a lot of chain piecing.

Anyway, I continued with my first dozen, three a piece, turning under the ends, marking and pinning the pleats, tucking in elastic, and top stitching the whole thing.  It worked pretty well!

I hope I get faster with the remaining eighty-seven!

Voila!

Stay safe!

In stitches, 

Teresa   :o)

On another thread...

My Aunt Katrina is 91 and acts like 70 or less.  She drives, mows, does yard work, and she is used to getting out and going anywhere she wants (usually in her sporty little Mazda Miata). 

She is totally behaving herself, though.  She is my hero and my last "parent."  I love her so much, and I am so glad she's being a good girl.

My daughter and her two roommies are trapped in their apartment in Atlanta.  Riley is laid off, Katharina was working from home (now back at a law office), and Joe kept his chef job at a pizza place 4 nights a week, but currently acts as indoor host for pick up.

I worry about K and J going out to work and bringing virus home.  They have been taking turns going out and foraging for toilet paper and groceries, so basically once every three weeks.

I wanted Riley to just come home to Yeldell, but she wanted to stay with her buds.  They have been cooking together (and learning so much from each other, which is awesome!) and catching up with a lot of TV series/movies.  Then there's the online D & D with friends...NERDS!  And ZOOM gatherings...I need to catch up with the new technology.

I don't think they thought they would be doing social distancing and being so careful for so long.

I think Riley is afraid at this point she would come home and infect her old parents (65 and 59).  She is almost overly careful, which I am glad of.

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" - BLOCKS 8, 9, 10, 11...fake names and false claims...

Yes!  More blocks for "QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN."  It has been fun cranking up the brain and thinking about all this again.  It's amazing what the brain can do during long car trips.

I mean, we are all on some degree of house arrest with this horrible Covid 19 virus.  It gives me an excuse to ponder the important things in life...like, what the heck is up with the flora nomenclature in early 17th century stitchery?!?

I look through the motifs above and there are definitely things I recognize, like tulips, daisies, lilies, and pears.  But then there are some completely wacko flower items.

I read that even though the "Herbals" were being illustrated and published at the end of the 1500's, early entries weren't in color and perhaps not quite true representations of shapes and attributes.

Then, of course, the man whose job it was to draw the thin, black outlines on the canvases for Mary, et.al. might not have been completely accurate in his interpretation.  These black and white pen and ink drawings were adapted by him for the embroidery canvases.  There were men like this working with circles of royalty and noblewomen all over England and Europe, and they had their own discerning eyes and imagination as well.  

The following is what Mary and her merry stitching group had to work with (the heavy lines are already covered/outline-stitched in black, thinner ones are inked and ready to stitch).

It was probably just like getting a coloring book and a 64-count box of unused Crayola's (with a sharpener)!  Yahoo - lets make up some flowers!

And certainly Queen Mary, her close ladies of the Court, and attendants were not familiar with many of the flowers depicted on the waste cloth.  The herbalists sketched plants and flowers from many places, not just Scotland.

When they tent-stitched the flowers, more often than not they picked colored silks that they liked or what would fit well with colors nearby, not what actually appeared in nature.  And the blooms with which they weren't familiar just gave them more license to use any color desired.

Sometimes the canvas engraver would paint areas he thought needed to be certain, perhaps in graded colors for shadowing.  Not saying the ladies followed these suggestions...

Well, I thought that I would be really smart and try to identify all the fruits and flowers and get the colors as accurate as possible.  Well, you can guess how that went.

Inspiration for these four blocks...

I had no idea about this first one.  I looked online trying to find out what it was and failed.  Then, of course, being frustrated, I changed the color to something I really liked to make me feel better and made up a name (blue is my favorite color - not enough blue flowers in nature).

Baby Blue Eye

So, the Genie is out of the bottle, my friends.  I felt free/justified to just start making things up...even names.  I decided that even though there aren't tiny leaves drawn at the base of every bud, I would name it with a real flower's nickname, hoping that the bud looks like this?  Absolutely crazy.

I was really close on naming the next one; blossoms were right,  but then the leaves didn't match up.  Oh well, I'm still calling it a daisy. 

Marguerite Daisy

Then heck, I thought I recognized pears (although the ones on this stitchery looked a little too much like boobies).  I redesigned the pears, brightened up the drab colors with unnatural blue blossoms, and noticed, again, the leaves weren't correct.

Concorde Pear

So now I just don't care.  In Michigan I had some little dwarf lilies like the next one, but my leaves were blade-shaped.  Meh...I call it a lily. 

Little Dwarf Lily

I did a great deal of "research" today (wink, wink), and I have come up with real names/varieties and nicknames or completely made-up nonsense.  Oh, it took thought...I had to pick names that would work in the early 1600's (no "Georgia Peaches").  I tried to pick varieties that grew in Scotland, Britain, France, Spain, or Italy...not easy to do since some motifs are tropical, and unspoiled shipping was impossible from tropical growing regions.

So now I finally have 52 names.  Some are completely crappy names, but it was a fun exercise either way.  I have gone back and named the other 7 blocks you've seen...enjoy the nonsense where it happens...it will most likely only increase from now on.

I'll never tell.

In Stitches,
Teresa   :o)

On another thread, it is good to be home.  Steve's Dad died, peacefully, nine days ago in PA.  Late Stage Parkinson's is supposed to feel like being in a body that is becoming evermore rigid and entrapped, and accelerating.  Swallowing became impossible, followed by the inability to get enough breath.  Every time I would come home to AL for a few days, I would return to PA only to notice faster decline, which was really a blessing at that point.  Thank God for morphine and the encompassing love of his three kids and spouses.

Getting ready for the auction, we found letters that had been saved (someday, our kids and grand kids will be presented with a flash drive containing our emails and passwords to our social media apps).  We all read letters on our "shifts" and re-told funny times we all shared.  Steve, David, and Sue saw a whole, beautiful side of their parents and grandparents they had never seen.  Everyone got to share everything they wanted to say.

I missed that with my parents.

Then the virus emerged.  I was supposed to drive from PA to Atlanta, picking up Steve from his pre-arranged flight, and we were to go our little actress daughter's opening of the play "Helvitica."

Well, he definitely wasn't going to fly, so we drove south together.  The show closed before it ever opened.  We were there on opening night, and they, quietly, did it for friends and family.  It was so good!  I feel so sad for them.  Somehow, they videoed it the next day to stream on UTUBE, with permission from writers, etc.  They all worked so hard, and this virus has hit a terrible blow to all small-venue arts all over this country.  Really, to everyone in ways we have not thought of yet.

AND she got laid off, of course from her barista job at an ultra fancy dessert/coffee establishment ($15 per slice or serving of dessert, then there's the coffee).  BUT, she is holed up with 2 roommates she loves, has provisions, and texted me today that 'she is constructing a new character for D and D gaming'.  NERD!!

Her roomie Joe still has his job at a pizza place, for pick up only, for now.  So, he brings home a pizza every now and then.  They try out recipes, hold Katarina's emotional-support-cat, watch movies, etc.  They understand how serious this all is...but they are just having a ball, in quarantine.  Depending on age group, everyone will have different memories/experiences from these terrible times.

Memorial Service will be postponed for a few months...will have to go back for our tool auction and house emptying, but everything is off for now, so who knows.

Be safe out there and just treat it like a sewing retreat.  If husband/family becomes a little much, just a fake cough or two...

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN © 2019 - BLOCKS 4, 5, 6, and 7

She's still alive!!!  Not Mary Queen of Scots, but me!  More on me later...

I feel like I need to "reintroduce" my introduction to this current applique project, "Queen Mary's Garden."  Just a quick recap of the first three posts.

I am recreating an early 17th century embroidery piece into an applique quilt.  The piece appears as motif blocks embroidered very close together, worked on loosely-woven waste canvas with a tent stitch (like modern day needlepoint.)  

There is not even enough of a margin between the motifs to cut the "squares" apart.  The ladies cut around all parts of the flowers, fruits, leaves, and stems (leaving just the barest amount to turn under). 

The motifs were then appliqued onto a larger fabric piece, often overworking the appliqued edges with more decorative embroidery stitches.

These motifs were called "slips" due to the Herbals beginning to be published at that time.  These books contained sketches and descriptions of herbs, flowers, plants, and trees.  The "slip" is where the plant sample was cut from the plant, removing it before sketching. 

Larger motifs were most likely applied to bed drapes, larger outer garments such as capes, and wall canvases.  Small ones were used for garments and accessories.

Ha!  Applique!   

Even though the beautiful embroidered "sampler" I am using as inspiration appears planned as a wall hanging, experts are doubtful of that conclusion.  The motifs are so close together, perhaps to make the size of the canvas smaller to fit on the frame.  Also the outer edges are raw and there is no stitching covering the background waste canvas.

Someone had the job of drawing representations of the sketches from the Herbals onto the waste canvas.  He inked them on in black, then they were outlined in black silk on the ink, and worked in colorful silks to fill.  

The early Herbals were black and white...ladies filled in colors that pleased, not necessarily colors that were actually biologically accurate.

Lighter lines are ink, darker lines are silk stitched.

Filled with tent stitches.  Background waste canvas left unstitched/unfilled.

Whole piece.  Notice there are extra flowers crammed into empty spaces.

They took advantage of every inch of waste canvas.

My inspirational embroidered piece was stored away and unused for some reason, along with other bits and pieces.  The one below is full of the same motif repeated several times, obviously for a project that required several of the same.  Stored away from sunlight kept the colors fairly vibrant for 400 years.

Before I fell off the deep end last year, I had blogged about the  first three blocks.  They are pictured below, followed by four more.  I tried to describe, in a grid pattern, which motif was my inspiration for each block (referring to above photo). 

Damson Plum

Lazy Lily

Honey Belle

Now, the next four blocks (but first, their inspiration)...

Bleu Columbine

Country Rose

Rain Lily

Sugar Snap Pea

I was very faithful to reproducing each block...for the first couple. Some design changes had to be made to accommodate using fabric applique rather than embroidery.  The edges of the sampler are trimmed for photography, framing, and/or crookedness so I guessed on content of some blocks.  

I also decided there were some flowers that were too similar to others.  I have also taken some liberties, changing colors, inventing colors...and even adding additional blocks!

The original piece contains 42 "blocks."  I have added another seven to make it 49 blocks, 7x7.  I wanted more fruits!  

There are still other blocks I want to add, and may...they could be free, bonus blocks in the final retail patterns (yes, I will be offering a pattern of this, maybe starting soon!).   :o)

I'm still contemplating borders, as this piece has none.  I am studying other linens and art from the early 1600's for this.  Little hearts and swags will not do!  I am also trying to decide how much space between the blocks...a sliver, or more?  I'm not planning on sashing.

Finally back in stitches,
Teresa   :o)

On another thread...

For the curious, WHERE HAS SHE BEEN?  I have really appreciated all the emails of concern.  I apologize for not answering in a timely fashion and causing worry.  

It has been a difficult year, which has made me isolate and focus on one step at a time.  Eyes and finger have been unusable for some time, so no sewing, typing, holding a pencil, playing piano...no fun at all.  Thank God for the occasional puzzle!

• Riley graduated from college in the spring, we got her moved to Atlanta in the fall.
• I had double cataract surgery, and am having trouble going from being extremely near-sided vision to a little far-sided.  I can probably thread a needle at 20 feet (if my arms were longer), but I need so many different reading glasses for anything closer than 10-12 feet.  Sewing, piano and computer require three different strengths.
• I had a second surgery on my "Weasley-bite finger."  I had high hopes before, from the surgeon, but results were not what was predicted.  Instead of being bent at a 90 degree angle as before, my right index finger is at 45 degrees.  I will have to work hard to keep it from scar contraction back toward 90 degrees.
• My father-in-law in PA is suffering from advanced Parkinson's.  He's had to go into a facility...three years of one aide per shift at home was no longer enough to help him.  Clean out of his home, auction in a week or so, and then on the market.  Plus we've been spending a lot of time visiting with him at his new home.  He is in hospice care.  Steve has been there since Christmas, since he has the ability to work from anywhere.  I have been back and forth, coming home for short bursts to check on the property here.

This is the same kind of thing most everyone has been or will be going through.  It has been a gut punch for me.  It has been almost 6 years of life-altering events.  But I have hope for the future.

See ya soon...really!