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

Howdy, Birders (hi Sue)!

I think this bird looks a little Turkey-ish.  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 Turkey's very tall friend is sort of Road Runner, maybe?  He 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 the Pelican.  The 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).

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 - - - - - - - 

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - Tweet-Tweet!

Incoming!  More birds have landed  I don't know how many cases of bird violence happened in the Middle Ages, but there are so many pictures of birds biting themselves in old manuscripts, or other creatures/people. 

They must have been hungry...

For a single motif, I've been applique-stitching all the little pieces together as a unit, finishing most of the awkward, remaining process as possible.  

Then, once I figure out where I want each border item, I glue- or thread-baste it to the border strip.  This makes it much easier to finish the application of the motif...just stitching the outside.  

I only have to hold that awkward border strip mess long enough to stitch around the perimeter.

  

I can also play with motifs, laying them and pinning on the empty border strips.  I can visually judge how size, variety, shape, and color play with each other.  I want things 'balanced' so my eye bounces all over the finished quilt, rather than 'pull focus' to one area.

Movement over a quilt surface is a good thing!

I have been using reverse-applique for most of the bird eyes because it makes them 'sink below' the surface, recessed, like a real-life eye socket.  Owls always seem surprised and eye-prominent, so I stitched them on the motif surface so they pop!

It's the difference between this...

And this...

Or, this (remember the song?  "She's Got Bette Davis Eyes")...

Ok, enough of THAT!

I've been up to other things as well since I seemingly fell off the face of the earth...

I'm finally basting my version of "Bunnies Prefer Chocolate"...

 

I got a Squamous Cell Carcinoma removed...

Steve turned my plastic folding table into a fantastic ironing station...

(The quilt pieces in the background?  Projects temporarily take over part of the family room from time to time.  When I go down to the walk-out basement, I find that cotton stuff has just opened the Quilt Cave door and exploded out of the Cave.  I don't know how that happens?!)

Crossword puzzles...

More later.  Until the next post, happy stitching!

Teresa   :o)

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2024 - Back to Queen Mary's Garden

 

SHE'S BACK.   SHE'S BACK?   SHE'S BACK!!

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" borders are designed, glue-basted, hand-appliqued, soaked to remove glues, trimmed to fit, embroidered, and FINALLY sewn surrounding my 49 flower blocks...for better or worse.

Now I need to take pictures of the top and get on with organizing backing, batting, and binding.

I really had trouble deciding on what to do with the borders for Queen Mary.  Designing by the seat of my pants gets me in trouble most of the time.  My naughty, undisciplined brain gremlin falls in a ditch and I'm unclear on how to get out and make the best of things.  Then I remembered what was hinted on the panel of slips below...

Birds?  Hmm...are these more practice/practical motifs, crammed on the edge of the waste canvas stitching already in progress?  They are closely placed, with no stop border or boundary.  

Getting to design fun birds?  Deal me in!

Lots of design fodder out there...some pictures are creepy.

Some of them are very creepy...

The types of antique stitcheries that survived and inspired me are thought not to be finished pieces or samplers, but just collections of stitched "slips" that were meant for applying to clothing, large bedding, tapestries etc.  Most of these were lost to fading and poor storage.  

Finished bug motifs, edges ready to be applied to clothing, bedding, tapestries...

Backside of a floral slip, ready to "applique"...

Waste canvas panel of repeated motifs (from the year 1625)...

Stitchery found at Traquair House is credited to Queen Mary and her ladies (the "four Marie's").  These noblewomen were in her court and went with her everywhere, especially in her last months.  Traquair House, in Scotland, was one of the many large/small houses or castles between which Mary traveled to hide from her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Cousin Elizabeth ended up beheading Mary, afraid that she would ascend to the English throne and unite England and Scotland under Catholicism.

But I digress, I decided to try birds, mostly, with bugs, snails, butterflies, and a few small garden creatures.  Here's a weird turtle...

  

As posted above, I did not get my inspiration from this depiction.

Legendary beasts of stories and fanciful imagination were still being used...unicorns, griffins, dragons, centaurs, mermaids, serpents, and big cats like lions and tigers.  There are lots of "grotesques" (that's what they're actually called) combining animal parts with some human parts.

Lions were often depicted with sort of human faces...along with owls, for some reason.  I guess if you had seen an owl in the year 1600 or earlier, you would draw the best sketch of what you had seen in person.  Some of these really creep me out as well!  

But, they are fun (the one above reminds me of a former boss.)  Many birds depicted in old illuminated manuscripts and musical scores, sacred and secular, are extremely whimsical, and I am addicted to their big feet.

Well, I've chosen a whole sanctuary of birds on the wing chasing each other around the perimeter of my fruit and flower blocks.  These whimsical, fictional, preening fluffers are drawn in the style of early bird drawings.  There were lots of giggles from the Quilt Cave while drafting them.

Since my flower/fruit blocks are based on the drawing style of the year 1600's, it didn't make sense to try too hard to draw realistic birds.

I have always thought of these texts as a real art form...beautiful calligraphy, rich colors, flora/fauna, and either religious art or simple, pious souls depicted.  Butt, (literally)...

I'm hoping these are secular...

Wow!  I think scribes in the abbeys and artists of local humble villages were drinking a little too much of the proverbial "ceremonial wine." 

Looking closely, there are a lot of weird, shocking details in most of the music scores and manuscripts that I came across.  Very entertaining.

Stitcheries of the time depicted a fanciful version of nature.  The "Herbals" were books containing sketches of plants that started appearing in the later 16th century.  As time went by, early naturalists journeyed far and wide, sketching more realistic images of flora.

Actual, reasonable depictions of birds, beasts, and sea creatures...ahem...came later.

I definitely went overboard with the birdies.  It was just so darned entertaining to doodle them!  Now my quilt is HUGE!

I will post individual birds until I get pictures of the finished flimsy.  It's difficult because the top is bigger than I thought (too many birds).  There's no good place in whole house that is tall or uncluttered enough to get good shots.

My brother visited and suggested making some more design wall panels so I can hang it sideways for pictures.  Why not?

In stitches,

Teresa  - - - - - -