I felt so upbeat and energized after posting yesterday. (Thanks for the lovely comments.) I got inspired to get back to the sewing machine.
I've been thinking about doing a patriotic teacup quilt for awhile. That probably sounds bizarre, but there was the Boston Tea Party and I happen to love tea and love the shape of teacups (or more like mugs, which is how I drink my tea) and it all works for me. (Here's a previous piece on the same theme.) I started the quilt about a year and a half ago as an applique project. Don't think I finished even one block.
So yesterday when I was going on about what other lessons I want in the book, I was thinking of teacups/coffee mugs. And I still had that patriotic tea quilt bubbling in the back of my brain. So I made a patriotic teacup.
I stole letters from out of my lower-case tutorial pile. (I had really been dragging my feet about making them into a sampler, even tho I'd made all the letters of the alphabet already.) I took apart the j to get an i and the q to get another b. Grabbed the leftover L from the Noel Sampler. Then I just had to make two more letters from scratch and I had all the letters I needed to do this:
My letters were definitely getting bigger and bigger as I was going along on that tutorial. That "liberty" just gets big and loud at the end. Decided on a 3" unfinished height and really whacked some of the units down, the t in particular.
I do have all the letters sewn up into words, even tho I'm not sure how I'm going to use them. They may go in a border around teacup blocks or they might be in the interior of the quilt, like they are now. Anyway, I like seeing the words all together and if I decide that part of a word needs to shift elsewhere, it's not a big deal to pick out a 3" seam. Next up I'll make a few more teacups, maybe some fireworks and take it from there.
I love this combination of colors.
In other quilty news, I'm still chugging away on the Terms quilting. It is soooo not fun going over all these stinking seams. I finally decided on the spiral pattern so I'm just going around and around and around, needing fewer fan units every time. I'm halfway up the left-hand side now. I'm amazed at how the fans just disappear into these blocks that have the embroidery floss words quilted in. I was afraid there might be a bit of a clash there, but so far there hasn't. In fact, it's not even worth taking a photo of, cuz you wont' even see the fan quilting.
9 comments:
Yes you're so right Tonya - there is nothing quite like a good cup of tea :o) Teacup idea really looks fun
Book Decision comment which Blogger ate: I left you such a nice comment yesterday, only to have the you can't view this page message come up, and the message to fly out into cyber land.
I love the idea of lots and lots of pictures...and anything you want to include. What I was saying is that is what I love about K. Fassetts book..and also looking at the Gee's Bend quilts. I don't want intstructions, I want inspiration...I think we are on the same page..*VBG* Do what your head and heart tells you and do it your way...I'll be line to buy a book, and one for Betsy too!
Love your new quilt. Isn't it great how you can use left over letters later! I am starting to have a box of them. Maybe a crazy word quilt.
Liberty Tea comment..LOL, I love how you just grab and idea and run. The colors have soooo much impact visually. Can hardly wait to see what come up next in the tea cup catagory..*VBS*
I like this concept. The Liberty tea quilt is wonderful. Do the book, I need the book for a reference. We all need a good reference once and a while, if you don't do it someone else will. DO IT!!!
Teacup...coffee mug...as long as it has caffine it's good by me! I like the way this one is coming out! Glad to hear you are excited about the book again!
Siobhan
You know, you never cease to amaze me! What a WONDERFUL idea! And I LOVE that red T with the blue letters for the theme! Sooo cool!
I LOVE the teacup!!! I want to race right off and try one out myself. I can see how easy it must have been and I wonder (as much as I love tea) why I never thought to do one before. Inspired once again... Thanks Tonya!
Hmmm... maybe I never thought of it because I'm a big, fat, copy cat!!! ;o)
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