Tea Quiltie

I was giving a talk at the Glasgow Embroiderers' Guild on Saturday where it was also my pleasure to meet some of my regular blog readers (you'll know who you are!!). I had not posted much last week at all and it dawned on me that people actually notice and in fact miss it. What a responsibility!! Normally it means that I'm either not here (away teaching etc) or I'm quilting a large quilt as then there is not really much to say or show you! But I will try harder, promise!!

It did spur me on to finish this quiltie which is double-sided and is a sample to be displayed in the Purely Patchwork shop in Linlithgow where I will be giving a class on quilties on the 19th April next year. It has to be with them before the end of this month as their next newsletter advertising the class will be out shortly afterwards.

I had made a good start but as there was still plenty of time I prevaricated and just added things as and when inspiration came, but yesterday and today I managed to pull the whole thing together and finish it. I'll probably indulge in a visit to Linlithgow to deliver it, a daring undertaking as Linlithgow has a quilting shop( Purely Patchwork), an embroidery shop (also selling knitting wool) as well as a beading/stamping shop and another fabric shop. Too, too much of very good things!!

The quiltie is 8" square and double-sided, and inspired by the marvelous new collage sheets Tea #1 and #2 from Alphastamps. On one side it features a vintage lacy glove (thanks, mum!!) which I cut to size to fit into the corner and adorned with a couched pearl string and flower trim. The background for this side is a batik fabric with goldy bits. I added a bit of chocolate themed ribbon (also Alphastamps), a fabric tea cup image (Alphastamps Tea #1) which I adorned with turquoise beads and texts about tea (Alphastamps Tea #2). I added lots of echo quilting with a silk embroidery thread as well as beading around the main text with size 11 seed beads.

For the other side I started with a hand-dyed fabric, stamped with images from Alphastamps Teaspoons Clear Stamp Set, in a variety of colours and using Versacraft inkpads. I added an image from Alphastamps Tea #2 fabric collage sheet, which was layered with the batik used on the other side of the quiltie, and a teacup image (also fabric and from Tea #1 Alphastamps collage sheet).

I added buttonhole stitch with a silk embroidery thread to the image as well as running stitches elsewhere on the quiltie. At the top a piece of vintage lace trim was stitched down and adorned with size 11 seed beads by hand. Flower trims were also added as shown.