I'm rather partial to tea cosies, are you?
Today I started on a new one. In my stash was some lovely green linen which I'd originally purchased to make an apron, but then decided it was too dark for my style so popped it away until another idea came to mind. Which it did this week.
Recently I received an advance gift bundle of the new Tilda line 'Gardenlife' from the Australian distributor to design with. Now, all the prints in this range are large so I've had a real brain freeze how to use them. As a stitchery designer I tend to choose small prints otherwise the fabric takes over and the stitchery is lost...so how do I feature these larger print fabrics, I asked myself? And then I was tidying up the sewing room and picked up the green linen I'd purchased a while back...yep, it would match perfectly with some of Gardenlife. Yay!
I made a template for the tea cosy after measuring the pot I'd use it on, fused Parlan behind the front and back pieces for insulation, then sewed that pretty teal and green floral print along the bottom.
Next I made some paper pieced hexagons to create flowers which I'd applique to both sides of the tea cosy.
Then I cut a hole on one side of the leaf, pulled the leaf right side out and pressed the leaf flat.
Next, I stitched the leaves in position beside the hexie flowers using a blind stitch.
Can you see that I positioned the flowers and leaves differently on each side of the tea cosy?
That's as far as I got today, after all, there's more to my days than sewing - but I did thoroughly enjoy taking a few hours out for myself to make something new.
I'll complete it tomorrow, though how it will finally look I'm still not sure. There's a few ideas competing in my imagination! In Friday's post you'll see which idea came to pass.
A trip to the op shop after doing groceries on Monday yielded a bargain! The Ashdene tea pot, tea cup and saucer above are gorgeous and when Blossom and the children were over for the day on Tuesday we enjoyed numerous cups of Vanilla Tea from that pot.
This pink tea cup and saucer were also an op-shop find; in fact I deliberately drop in to op-shops when I'm out and about to look for pretty tea things.
Notice the tea cosy behind the pink cup? I shared a tutorial for this one in 2015 when I did my first Tea Week series, and it's still my favourite cosy. I used just one pretty Tilda print to make this one, adding vintage lace and ric rac as embellishments.
To be honest, I miss the old style of Tilda fabric - they were unique and sublime. The fabrics of the past few years just haven't won my heart the way those beautiful older ones did. Have you found that too? Perhaps that's why I love this tea cosy so much.
If you'd like to make this tea cosy just pop over HERE to the tutorial blog post from 2015 and it's all there for you.
HIGH TEA
Blossom, Rosie, Rosie's daughter Barb, and I, enjoyed a sumptuous High Tea together at a cafe in town a number of years ago, and sometimes Blossom and I would go there for High Tea alone. The beautiful little shop who hosted these teas closed due to an illness in the family and never re-opened again, so we've never attended one since. One of the things I loved about that shop was choosing your own vintage tea cup as they had many to choose from and all of them so pretty, old and dainty. And of course there were the tiered displays of various cakes, desserts and sandwiches! Oh my, how incredibly delicious. and I cherish the memories we all made.
So what exactly is a High Tea?
I found this information on the website of my local tea centre the other day and thought you might like to know the history of High Tea. Here's what I discovered...
Have you ever wondered why high tea is never referred to as high tea in cities like London and Dublin? That’s because Australia is one of the few countries in the world that refer to afternoon tea in this way!
One of the biggest misconceptions is that the ‘high’ in high tea is a reference to the upper classes, and in extension, fancier tea affairs. However, it’s actually a historical reference to the height of the table that afternoon tea was originally served from.
Back in eighteenth-century Britain when afternoon tea was synonymous with dinnertime, the term ‘high tea’ was used to describe formal meals served on high tables (think a dinner table) as opposed to more casual morning tea served on low tables (like coffee tables).
While contemporary afternoon tea is now understood as a light repast enjoyed around 4:00 pm (coming from a twentieth-century shift in cultural norms), this historical connotation plays a lot into why Australia and other former British colonies like New Zealand and South Africa still call this meal ‘high tea’.
Perhaps I need to make one of those tiered cake stands and host my own High Tea? I surely miss attending them...but that's what was so lovely too. I was being served the tea and treats, not making them. You know, it's nice at times to be the one at the table rather than the baker and hostess. So maybe it would be wiser to find another cafe which hosts High Tea in my area...hmm...??
Now on to something new I learned this week!
That's it for today my lovelies. It's taken me hours on and off to finally finish this post and we had dinner half way through, but now there's apricot pies cooling on the kitchen bench for dessert and I might just make a pot of Vanilla tea so I can show hubby how to hold the cup. Oh wait, that won't work. He only drinks tea from a coffee mug! Sigh.
