Tea Reading: 2009 (Started: 1999)
My favourite quilts are made with scraps. This one is made from a mixed bag of left-overs, charm squares and friends’ donations. The background is made up of a selection of “scrap” creams too, some from a tea dying episode. This quilt, though not huge seemed to use an enormous amount of fabric – probably because of the shaped piecing. Not that that is a bad thing; one just has to work harder to keep one’s stash at a healthy level!
Once
basted, I started to hand quilt the plain background pieces, but cotton wadding
makes for better machining, so I did a small stipple using a variety of cream
shades. This had a nice effect of
accentuating each tea leaf shape as I left them unquilted.
Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 177x 200cm
Block Size: 12“ circle
Cut in: 1999
Pieced & Basted: Hand 2005
Quilted: Machine 2009
Quilt Type: Group
Quilt Finished: 2009
Exhibited: Australia Day 2010
Collection: Home# 034
Pattern Name: Tea Leaves
Pattern Source: Judie Rothermel
Fabrics Purchased: Stash
Fabric Design: Mixed
Fabric Style: Cotton
Materials Type: Cotton
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Cotton
My favourite quilts are made with scraps. This one is made from a mixed bag of left-overs, charm squares and friends’ donations. The background is made up of a selection of “scrap” creams too, some from a tea dying episode. This quilt, though not huge seemed to use an enormous amount of fabric – probably because of the shaped piecing. Not that that is a bad thing; one just has to work harder to keep one’s stash at a healthy level!
This traditional tea leaves pattern by Judie Rothermel in “Aunt Grace’s Scrapbag” was sourced by Erica (who incidentally made
2 quilts of this particular pattern in lovely 30’s prints no less!) and they
were my inspiration to try one. The top
is all hand pieced and kept me busy during those long hot Delhi summers!
For
the backing, I used a cotton sarong I had purchased in Kathmandu, and a
complementary fabric purchased in Mr Singh’s store, Nehru Place.
This
quilt allowed me to try a scalloped edge – and thus the need to cut & make
miles of ½ inch bias for a pretty binding.
It wasn’t as difficult as I expected and the bias sat nicely in the
tight curves.
I
put my Tea Leaves on show for the Dangar Island Australia Day celebration in 2010. One of our visitors said that the pattern was
an ancient design called “Flower of Life” and is heavily symbolic.
 |
| Australia Day Quilt Exhibition Dangar Island 2010 |
Quilt Finished Size: 177x 200cm
Block Size: 12“ circle
Cut in: 1999
Pieced & Basted: Hand 2005
Quilted: Machine 2009
Quilt Type: Group
Quilt Finished: 2009
Exhibited: Australia Day 2010
Collection: Home# 034
Pattern Name: Tea Leaves
Pattern Source: Judie Rothermel
Fabrics Purchased: Stash
Fabric Design: Mixed
Fabric Style: Cotton
Materials Type: Cotton
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Cotton
Lessons Learned:
I hadn’t hand pieced a quilt for ages and this one seemed to take forever ; ). The blocks were very “portable” however, so this became an easy project to work on in those spare moments when life can be dull (eg driving 12 hours to visit relatives in another state). I also seemed to use up heaps of fabric due to the shape of the leaves, which wasn’t so bad for the scraps but somehow I was always scavenging for backgrounds as I didn’t want them noticeably different from each other.
I hadn’t hand pieced a quilt for ages and this one seemed to take forever ; ). The blocks were very “portable” however, so this became an easy project to work on in those spare moments when life can be dull (eg driving 12 hours to visit relatives in another state). I also seemed to use up heaps of fabric due to the shape of the leaves, which wasn’t so bad for the scraps but somehow I was always scavenging for backgrounds as I didn’t want them noticeably different from each other.
