And All is Revealed...

Tea, Anyone?

As promised in my earlier post (2 weeks ago)...the latest 15 x 15 Group "reveal" has been posted!  The theme for this latest challenge was "East Meets West" and, true to form, each of us has created a unique and interesting interpretation.  You can see my piece and all the wonderful work HERE.  Enjoy!

WIPs That Work

Every once in a while (which, for some of us is not quite as often as for others!), one has a day of sewdio time that just....flows...

3" hexagon background -
English Paper Piecing

Today was one of those days pour moi.  Some time ago now, I posted about the background I was creating for my next 15 x 15 Group piece with the theme, "East Meets West".  It was a series of 3" hexagons, English paper pieced.  Until some time in the middle of last week, I was pretty certain it was going to take forever to create!  I needed to cover at least 16" square to allow for quilting and trimming, and I began to wonder...

"Japanese" print backing (stash)

But by Monday, all had come together.  First I sandwiched the quilt with a great "Japanese" background.  Then I quilted it, tone-on-tone, with straight lines top-to-bottom only.  After that, I was ready to plan and work out the foreground.

I knew I wanted tea pots.  I'd collected photos of a variety of styles, purportedly 'English', 'Chinese' and 'Japanese'.  From these I traced the shapes...and from there I planned to create them in fabric.

But...what colour?

Enter "Inspiration" in the form of Linda Kemshall, and one of her latest DMTV videos, in which she's doing a sketchbook study on the colour RED.  Aha!

Based on her suggestion that one research one's colour, I looked into the significance of red for the Chinese and the English (I couldn't find much re: the Japanese but perhaps I wasn't looking in the right places).  Regardless, RED has served as a colour associated with royalty (Imperial China), revolution (as in the rise of "Red" China) and the military -- as in the English "Red Coats" who fought (in vain) in the American Revolution.  Those same "Red Coats" played a part in Canadian history...and then there are our RCMP "Red Coats"...and red is the dominant colour on the Canadian flag...not to mention the Japanese flag... (sorry; I can't seem to draw a 'border' around that circle to clearly delineate the Japanese flag...nonetheless...

I rest my case.

Today, I auditioned three batiks (from Hamel's Fabrics' Show Special in Red Deer last year -- thank you!)...traced the tea-pot shapes I'd found...and auditioned them in place using a Teflon sheet, because the plan was to fuse each grouping and then fuse the grouping(s) to the background.  I'd not used this technique in a while so have to confess...this is the first time I really got the concept!  Who knew?!

Pieces fused together on Teflon sheet

Next I placed them on the pre-quilted background. fused them down and quilted them -- using machine applique on the raw edge and a tiny blanket stitch (1.5 long by 1.5 apart on my Husqvarna Lily 555).

Tea, Anyone? - Detail 1

Tea Anyone? - Detail 2

That's all you'll see until the 'reveal' at month-end...but that's a pretty good "hint" as to what I've created, don't you agree?  ;-)

I just love it when everything comes together...especially on a Wednesday, generally the "odd day out" in my week.  What about you?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network...

See you later!

Time for Tea

I've spent much of this past week thinking about tea: its origins in China; its migration to Japan and from there to England via India.  

I've not drunk much tea since I "discovered" coffee on a trip to Italy in my early twenties. Nowadays I generally drink tea only when I have a cold -- because when a cold happens my taste buds reject coffee entirely in favour of tea with honey.  So why is this 'royal' libation, soother of nerves and calmer of coughs, currently on my mind right now, when I am -- to all appearances -- hale and hearty?

Blame it on my 15 x 15 Group!  :-)  Hot on the heels of our latest "Reveal" ("Mono-print"), we have our next theme (deadline: the end of March) -- "East Meets West".

What arose first in my mind was TEA...a beverage believed to have been first developed in the Orient, in China, thousands of years ago, that made its way Westward in the seventeenth century A.D. (or C.E., if you prefer) to the British via Japan (which had imported it from China even earlier -- in the ninth century).  The Brits introduced it to India (we won't go into Imperialism and all that!)...and India is now one of the largest growers and exporters of tea in the world.  (For a long time, India out-stripped China in this; in recent years, China has reportedly regained its supremacy.)  

Tea at the Empress Hotel, Victoria, B.C.

In Canada, due to strong British influence, tea was the hot beverage of choice for a very long time...but after World War II, Canadians as a whole began to drink more coffee...apparently under the growing influence of their neighbour to the south (the U.S.)  There are still, however, many tea-drinkers among us -- whether of British, Chinese, Japanese or Indian heritage and others -- and I suspect that even those Canadians who are avowed coffee-drinkers are hard-pressed to pass up a "true English tea" -- meaning the beverage and all the attendant goodies -- when invited!

In recent years I've witnessed the rise of tea shops in malls in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton.  There one can purchase a hot cuppa (to stay or to go), and/or all the equipment and accoutrements to make one's own perfect pot at home.  My son has developed a taste for Japanese tea (indeed, he has a fondness for all things Japanese), so for his birthday a few years ago I bought him a cast iron Japanese-style pot (similar to the one in the photo at right) and some tea for brewing.  

For years, along "Gasoline Alley" at the southern edge of Red Deer, there's been a shop that's a favourite with tourists:  "Cindy's Tea Room & Gifts".  When I needed to replace my only tea pot  --purchased by a long-ago suitor in Montreal's 'China Town', its top had been broken -- I went there and found my "Blue Betty" (cousin to the traditional "Brown Betty" and, I think, prettier!).  This is a very British-looking pot, eh?!  I may no longer be an avid tea-drinker, but I love this pot's curves and it's classic over-all shape, and its beautiful deep blue colour.

Blue is a colour that, in part, symbolizes peace and healing.  In the stash of fabrics I've been using for the Japanese-style taupe quilt I'm making I have some lovely blues, blue-greys and greys that I don't plan to add to the taupes and browns in that quilt...so I decided to use them for the background of my 15 x 15 piece, which I wanted to piece.  

As to the type of piecing, I've decided on hexagons -- and English Paper Piecing.  Though the piece is relatively small, I'm using 3" hexies -- in part to make the handwork go more quickly.  In another effort to streamline the process, I decided to use freezer paper as the template material so I could simply fold and press the edges of each hexagon prior to stitching them together.  First, though, I drew out a schematic for the layout:

15" square; 3" hexagons

Then I traced the shape onto freezer paper and ironed it onto the back of each fabric:

Next I reversed the freezer paper to make it shiny side up, and pressed the edges over:

I think they're so pretty -- in a tranquil sort of way...

Finally, I laid them out "in a pleasing composition" on the original schematic:

That was Wednesday.  I've now begun to piece them together, which is equally soothing,  and to ponder exactly what I'm going to place on this background once it's finished.   True to the original inspiration, it will have something to do with tea...

Meanwhile, let's both grab a cuppa (make mine decaf coffee, black, please!) and head on over to see what Nina Marie and friends are doing at Off the Wall Friday, eh?

Have a great weekend, everyone!