"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  - - - - - - - 

"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 - - - - - -