"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - It's All About the Plumage...

Welcome Ringo!  He may look dainty, but he's no lightweight.  He tops eleven inches and inhabits the southern border of my united quilt.

Ringo's flamingo ancestor actually appears on a stitchery credited to Mary Queen of Scotts and her "four Marie's." 

There isn't too much of him pictured on this snip-it piece of tapestry to use as guidance.  This could have been an ostrich, or more appropriately for Scotland, the Loch Ness monster!  I chose to adapt it into a flamingo.

There was a person in royal courts such as Mary's who inked outlines on the tapestry waste canvas for the Queen and her ladies to stitch.  

People drew what they knew.  In the year 1600, not many had traveled to faraway lands from the British Isles to bring back nonvoluntary tribute and vague sketches of flora and fauna for the court.

Somehow the court had heard of big cats from places unknown, but it was too early in the spreading of knowledge to know the facial structure of a lion.  

They drew what they knew..the face of a man.  The one above looks like Hannibal Lector.

Thus my Nessie became a flamingo.  I had a scrap of this great peachy-pink swirl fabric in my stash.  It spoke to me and said, "this!"  The swirls said feathers and the colors screamed flamingo.

Porky is a fancy bird of the bush, according to him.  Fabric selection for everything entertains me, but I sweat over the process so much because I have a terrible time with final choices.  That is why I love scrappy.

Fabric selection for this birdie was easy for me.  Moda 'Crackle' to cover his paunchy body, spotted feathers for his beefy thighs, and a kaleidoscope of fictionally-colored plumage.  You are welcome, you handsome beast of puffery!

 

Floyd, one of Mary's frogs, hangs out with Mary's birds.  He thinks that his croak is bird choir worthy, but he would be wrong.  I pinned him to the background, auditioning his location before stitching, but he didn't appreciate the pin through his skin.

He looks like he is sending me a finger gesture in response...sadly, none of the song birds wanted to be stitched anywhere near his vocal contributions.

During the blogging hiatus, I did some different, overdue, but very satisfying silk tie sorting and de-constructing/dissection.  I have been collecting and given old/gently used ties for years.  

I started with ties from the men in my family, then word of my collecting got out through the ladies at the church.  Rather than discarding their loved one's ties, the idea of them becoming something beautiful, or more likely a few something beautifuls, appealed greatly to them.  

As I work along on a project, I want to make some angel ornaments for the church to sell in their Small World shop for Mission work.

Some of these women volunteered at a local thrift store.  One day a year, the store would offer a sale unofficially called 'everything you can stuff in a used plastic grocery bag for a buck.'  

My sweet friends would proudly haul the crammed and knotted trophy bags to me on Sundays. 

I greatly appreciate the gifts of ties over the years, but have waited so long to find the exact, perfect project for them.  Maybe we don't recognize that project until we just...start...something.  Then, we realize what we just started IS the exact project we were meant to do all along.  

What are we waiting for?  Use that stash!  Cut into that piece of fabric!

The flood gates are opened.  Do you know how much silk you can stuff in a bag?  

The ties were too precious to use before but definitely ready to have new life now.  

Do you think men fantasize about being birds, choosing to wear a  colorful necktie as fancy plumage?

Ridiculous.

When men stop wearing suits completely, do you think they will miss wearing a beautiful tie?  Maybe, occasionally, adding a silk tie to a match a sweatsuit ensemble?

Ridiculous.

I needed to dismantle those ties...quickly, before I got weak.  Handling lovely, soft silk for hours on end?  

Yes, please!

Now go, handle some nice soft cotton for hours on end, and start something.  

Yes, please!

Teresa - - - - - 

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - "A Predatory Bird, Large and in Charge"

Property predatory birds, yeah, we got 'em.  We live on part of the Hawk Pride Mountain range(?) in extreme northwest Alabama (more like a molehill really, but it is on the map as such).

This is Proud Mary.  She's a killer, but this predator in our backyard valley has a sweet side...occasionally.  No giggling, Sue.  There are swarms of them soaring on the hot air thermals (again, remember we are on a molehill trying to BE a mountain).

Every now and then she likes to dive bomb toward her earthbound prey, only to let up at the last minute.  

She thinks that is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!!!

If she wasn't so absolutely cruel and terrifying, I would bare my little feathered chest and look vulnerable just to get an up-close look.  But that greatly increases my odds of getting maimed.  All of these potential killers look exactly alike!  But there is no hope in Hell or Heaven that she can lift me and fly away.  Ha!

Even though most my feather color palette is completely absurd, I've been trying to use fabrics for bird bodies, feet, and some wings that actually look like bird parts.  I've been collecting small pieces of tone-on-tone possibilities for a long time. Here are a few of my favorites.

Swirly... 

Feathery...

Grassy...

Occasionally, a fabric line will come out with pieces depicting shingles, tiles, stones, and bricks that are appropriately vague enough to pass as bird bodies.

Stoney...

Spotty, woody, geometric, woven, animal, ordinary...

I like to use a funky tone-on-tone fabric instead of a solid.  It creates movement across the quilt, snatching the eye from motif to motif.

This next little fellow just has Short Stack written all over him (yes, that is his name).  He just looks delicious, in a jelly bean, Trix Cereal, breakfast pancake kind of way.  Haven't seen one?  That's because he is so small...and mute, maybe too quiet to be nibbled.

Mr. Fabulous is below.   He is very showy in all the wrong places.  This beaky fellow has a loud, braggadocious call, hence a short lifespan. 

This is a Gerbera Sparrow and she is why I can't grow daisies on the property.  The blooms disappear before I ever see them.  Bad birdie!

While waiting for inspiration worthy of blog posting, I managed to catch up with a few things.  

I love brite and scrappy!  These 4-inch blocks, with no internal matching seams, are one of my easy 'therapy projects.'  I can't help but feel sunny when I play with brites, blacks, and whites.  I have a lot of pieces cut and ready to go when there's a cloud hanging over me.

I can just stop when I feel that enough is enough.  The setting I have in mind works with any number of blocks finished.  It's not a race.

We enjoyed theater in Atlanta with our daughter playing the cruel school matron, Ms. Trunchbull, in "Matilda, the Musical."  Who knew she was raised to act so mean and nasty?

I prepared my initials and year of completion for "Queen Mary's Garden."  Of course it wasn't quilted in 2024, but finishing the top was close enough for me.

I spent a lot of time with my fabulous Aunt Katrina who will be 97 years young in October.

I worked on some pieced utility quilts for nieces and nephews...waaaay overdue.

Until next time, beware of Proud Mary!!

Teresa - - - - - - 

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - "Feathers are flying!"

Howdy, Birders (hi Sue)!

I think this bird looks a little turkey-ish.  Tom Turkey's feathers are fun and not as hard as you might think.  I love to play with as many fabrics as I can.  It gives me a little thrill to use all the snips and strips that I can't keep from curating over time for my applique.

My fingers are complete rubbish at handling the little pieces, always have been. Tweezers, like the one shown below, are an extension of my fingers, especially now that age is starting to creep up on me.  Lessened manual dexterity and some numbness are bothering my 12-yr-old personality, and I throw a lot of pre-teen tantrums.

Like all of us, right?    

The tweezers help me fork and chopstick my way through the little scraps and tiny freezer paper pieces that I insist on handling.  Also, my short fingernails have always made it difficult to scrape up little freezer paper giblets I drop on tables and floors.

Tiny pieces with a few glue dots are my building materials.  Tweezers have always made handling them possible.

I love the weight of an old iron and pattern weights to keep things tight and where I want them. When the tiny dots of Roxanne's glue baste are set just enough, I can continue with the next piece of the pattern puzzle.  Pure joy!

Glue basted and ready for stitching!  I stitch the individual motifs together before applying to the border background.  I can move the birds and beasts around a few times as the ambiguous design process continues. Having already stitched motifs before, I'm free to make last minute changes.

He just needs an eyeball!

The Tom Turkey's very tall friend is sort of road runner, maybe?  Hellon Wheels has a lean body for speed, freakish long legs because I could, and big feet for the fun of it.  

Big feet are so comical to me, but they also allow me simplicity and ease as I lightly glue and turn under the edges. Dainty, skinny, difficult, wire-like bird claws are for, well, are for the birds!  

Next, a fish dinner for a never quite full pelican.  Mr. Tubb's tiny eye was a fun challenge.  Fabric with tiny- to medium-sized black dots make the reverse applique easy.

I call this one my Firebird...mostly because she looks like she's on fire.  She resembles Henny-Penny in my mind, who thought the sky was falling in my childhood.

As I said before, there were some other things happening while away from the blog the last 5-6 years.  Sometimes the creative mojo just isn't there and I need to hippity-hop to something else for a bit.

Here are some more things and projects I was doing while waiting for the mojo...and birds...to fly back for the season.

I made twelve different sampler blocks for my retreat group, The Magnolia Quilters, challenge.  Ha!  The non-piecer finished them first!

We went up to our family property in Grass Creek, Kingston, Ontario, CA for a better view of the 4/8/2024 total eclipse.

It got pretty dark!  This was mid-morning at corona. We met up with immediate family from all over.  There may not be another total eclipse in mine and Steve's lifetime (but one for our daughter in 2035, I think).

If you can enlarge pictures, you can actually see the dark moon right in the middle of the sun!

TOTALLY worth the long drive from Alabama!

I finally succumbed to the seductive Kaffe Fassett and started another project.  USA economy, you are welcome.

I performed doll amputations for future weird crafts (Barbie and her friends donated heads for the pincushions I distributed at the retreat of March 2025, gals).

Until next time, don't lose your heads and have a good time!

In stitches, 

Teresa - - - - - - -