The theme for the Historical Sew Monthly 2015 Challenge #2 is Blue: make something in any shade of blue. I knew it would be a popular colour challenge choice because blue is simply the most popular colour: it’s more peoples favourite colour than any other. Historically, it’s also been one of the most desirable colours in many historical periods and cultures, because the dyes used to achieve it were comparatively expensive and finicky, and the harder something is to achieved, the more expensive it is, and the more people want it. In addition to being an expensive dye, blue acquired even more  cachet in Europe in the Middle Ages when it became the colour associated with the robes of the Virgin Mary in devotional art.  Mary was painted in blue robes partly because blue was the colour of the heavens, but mostly because the most expensive paint available was ultramarine blue.  Mary was deemed worthy of only this rarest hue, this colour ‘from beyond the seas’, so was depicted in blue robes, often highlighted with …