Introducing…Lord Stanley.
This guy is hot off the quilt pattern presses. But why call this a great blue quilt?
(And what’s with that name, you might ask?)
Of course, Lord Stanley is a Great Blue Heron. I met this guy on the beach over a year ago. He was hanging around the fishermen and didn’t mind a bit that I got close to him. That’s when I started sketching a heron quilt.
To understand this “blue” thing, you gotta know a bit about my family. We used to live in Pensacola (twice). My husband, a former Marine fighter pilot of F/A-18 Hornets, introduced me to air shows and the Blue Angels thirty years ago. The “Blues” do a beach air show every year on Pensacola Beach- the best air show EVER. So the beach and the Blues are a thing for us.
Do you get the feeling this could be like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon? See It’s a Bear Out There.
Enter Lord Stanley. Last year while I was creating this beach bird quilt using BOTH beautiful sides of one feather focus fabric, the St. Louis Blues hockey team were in the playoffs for the coveted prize…the Stanley Cup.
When the Saint Louis Blues WON and I needed a name for this guy, well…”Lord Stanley” stuck!
The traditional prized cup now known as the Stanley Cup was purchased in 1893 by Canada’s governor-general Lord Stanley of Preston.
Now anytime my family sees a Great Blue Heron, they tell me they’ve seen Lord Stanley!
Use both sides of one focus fabric for Lord Stanley (bird body), his throat details (reverse), the borders (reverse), and the binding! Make an easy, scrappy background beach scene for this guy and he’ll be right at home, wherever he’s hanging.
