Installing the Rowntree Park 100th Birthday Banner

Happy 100th Birthday Banner with Butterflies & Bees

The Happy 100th Birthday Banner and some ginormous butterflies & bees went up in Rowntree Park, York yesterday! The car was loaded with everything we needed for the installation...

Loaded up & ready to go

Once we got organised at the park, Deborah & I installed it with the much appreciated help of Geoff, who we stole from the volunteer gardeners...

Geoff hard at work with those cable ties

and here are Deborah and I doing some finishing touches - thanks to Mary Whitehouse (@yorkstitcher) for the pic...

Deborah & I installing the birthday banner
Photo credit: Mary Whitehouse - @yorkstitcher on Instagram

Here are a few close ups of the finished piece...

Giant crochet butterfly

A trio of giant stitched bees

Slightly smaller giant crochet butterfly

Flowers, butterflies & bees

Info sign

To find out more about the making of the banner (thanks go to Edna Shilleto for all the crochet squares - what a star!) look here or for the making of the giant bees, look here.

This is the first stage of the Butterflies & Bees and a Happy 100th Birthday Yarnstorm.  You've still time to join in with the Butterflies and Bees Yarnstorm.  All the details are here and the patterns are here or use your own patterns if you prefer.  All makes have to be in by the end of July 2021.  You can leave them in the collection basket at Rowntree Park Cafe.  

Collection Basket in Rowntree Park Cafe

The butterflies and bees will go on display in time for the August Bank holiday and will be in place till the end of September after which they will be sold to raise money for the Friends of Rowntree Park, who work hard to help maintain, improve and promote the park for everyone's enjoyment. 

So, go take a look at the Happy 100th Birthday banner, & keep a lookout for the Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm at the end of August 2021 and for the sale dates in October 2021. 

Donation tin in Rowntree Park Cafe

Donations to the Friends of Rowntree Park

The Friends of Rowntree Park have sponsored this yarnstorm.  So, if you've enjoyed this project and would like to make a donation to the Friends of Rowntree Park, click here or pop into Rowntree Park Cafe (which is now open until 6pm for the summer) and leave a donation in the Friends of Rowntree Park tin.

Crafting a Birthday Banner

Happy 100th Birthday Banner

It's Rowntree Park's 100th Birthday this year.  To celebrate, with the help of the local community and anyone who wants to join in, Deborah New and I are making a Butterflies & Bees and Happy 100th Birthday Yarnstorm.  Part of that involves crafting a Happy 100th Birthday banner which will go on the tennis court fence in the park in York.

Edna Shilleto and her crochet

We have been very much helped in this endeavour by Edna Shilleto who gave us myriads of her lovely colourful crochet squares in two sizes.  Edna is a member of the Fairfax Court Yarnstormers and has been a stalwart of our yarnstorming projects over the years so it has been great to have her squares for this project!

Edna's crochet squares in 2 sizes

Putting these together to make the birthday banner has proved quite a task involving roughly 15m of plastic fencing which acts as the backing onto which the crochet squares are fixed.

Plastic fencing

Here I am attaching the squares...

Making the banner

There were even enough crochet squares to make a large butterfly too...

Large crochet butterfly

and a second smaller one!

Smaller crochet butterfly

It looks like the banner is going to be almost 11m long and about 1.2m tall.  The large butterfly is about 1.45m by 1.35m (including antennae) and the small one approx. 1.20m by 1.07m.  And so far it's used 49 large crochet squares and 205 small ones - thank you, Edna!

Birthday Banner with Butterflies & Bees

It has taken about 75 hours to put together (not including the giant stitched bees which you can read about here).  And that doesn't include all the time Edna spent crocheting the squares in the first place or the time spent planning out the design and choosing the colours and working out the layout.  

Here's the information sign that will accompany the banner...

Info sign to accompany the banner

The banner goes up on 13 July weather permitting - in time for the park's birthday on 16 July 2021.  Do take a visit to the park and check it out.  

You've still time to join in with the Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm.  All the details are here and the patterns are here or use your own patterns if you prefer.  All makes have to be in by the end of July 2021.  You can leave them in the collection basket at Rowntree Park Cafe.  

Collection Basket in Rowntree Park Cafe

The butterflies and bees will go on display in time for the August Bank holiday and will be in place till the end of September after which they will be sold to raise money for the Friends of Rowntree Park, who work hard to help maintain, improve and promote the park for everyone's enjoyment. 

So, as well as the Happy 100th Birthday banner, keep a lookout for the Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm at the end of August 2021 and for the sale dates in October 2021. 

Final Butterflies & Bees Workshop at the Trafalgar Bay, York

Trafalgar Bay Workshop

We held our final  workshop for the Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm for Rowntree Park, York at the Trafalgar Bay pub on Nunnery Lane in York.  We were made most welcome and had a whole room to ourselves.  There was some terrific making going on and a great atmosphere...

Workshop Butterflies & Bees

Some flew home to be finished off and some flew in to join the growing swarm.  Check out Val's gorgeous makes...

Val's butterflies, bees & flowers

and Janet's..

Janet's butterflies, bees & flowers

not to mention enough bees to form a pyramid - all made by Linda...

Linda's knitted bee pyramid

Thank you to everyone who came along and thanks also for the extra makes that flew in - we love them!  Thanks too, to Sarah & Elizabeth at the Trafalgar Bay for making us so welcome.

There's still time to join in with the Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm.  If you want to find out more, take a look here for details and patterns. You can join in by making at home or with friends.  You've got till the end of July 2021 to get your makes to Rowntree Park Cafe.  All the patterns are online here or use your own.  

Giant Bees Swarm in Fabric & Stitch

 

This week, as part of the Butterflies & Bees & Happy 100th Birthday Yarnstorm, I have been making giant bees!  In fact I have been stitching them. They are part of the Happy 100th Birthday display for the tennis court fence which goes up on 13 July 2021 (weather permitting) in Rowntree Park, York as part of park's 100th birthday celebrations.  (The Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm goes up at the end of August 2021 so you still have until 31st July 2021 to keep making butterflies and bees for that! See here for patterns or use your own.)

Fabrics used for the bees

I made my bees using a variety of yellow, black & shiny white, mixed fibre fabrics, heavy weight vilene (both sew in and iron on), bondaweb and some ribbon tape.  Ideally I would have used iron on vilene for all the bees but the largest bee used vilene that I only had in the sew in variety as it was over 90cm wide.  With this vilene, I used bondaweb (a paper backed fusible fabric glue) to bond the yellow fabric to the vilene which made it like the iron on sort.  I used bondaweb to stick the black stripes and eyes onto all the bees and used bondaweb for the largest bees wings with the sew in vilene and iron on vilene for the smaller bees.  Here's Maxi Bee all bonded together and laid out ready to stitch...

Maxi Bee ready to stitch

Once Maxi Bee had been stitched together I added some ribbon tape loops along some of the seams so that the bee could be attached to the fence on installation. (Hope it works - I haven't tested it - fingers crossed!)

Back of Maxi Bee showing ribbon tape loops

Then I made Midi Bee and Mini Bee.  In the picture below you can see a 2 metre ruler to give you an idea of scale.  Here are the approximate sizes:

Maxi Bee - 134cm x 90cm
Midi Bee - 104cm x 68cm
Mini Bee -  70cm x 46cm

Giant Bee Swarm - Mini Bee, Midi Bee & Maxi Bee

Not long now till you'll see them in the park.  Find out all about the project here.