Friday, June 16, 2006

Liberty Tea

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:

Unknown said...

Yes you're so right Tonya - there is nothing quite like a good cup of tea :o) Teacup idea really looks fun

Finn said...

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!

Joyce said...

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.

Finn said...

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*

dot said...

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!!!

YankeeQuilter said...

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

Quilts And Pieces said...

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!

Lois R. said...

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!

Lois R. said...

Hmmm... maybe I never thought of it because I'm a big, fat, copy cat!!! ;o)