Mexican Teaparty Cosy- commission for friends.

I started this tea cosy in 2007, I think, and it was supposed to be a quick project 

for friends of mine who were moving inter-state...and four years later, Voila!!

This is the final item in my 'Mexican Teaparty' series, where I made woollen scarves, garments,

tea cosies & embroidered purses with imagery based on this theme, lots of skulls and flaming hearts!

This cosy is a very simple one in structure. I started with a base of wool I bought from Waverley Woollen Mills in Launceston, and lined it with another layer of old wool blanket and cotton fabric I had printed by Spoonflower with a photo I took in Paris of an enamel 'fire hydrant' sign (Bouche D'incendie), which ties into the friend's new second home in the South of France!

When I rediscovered the unfinished tea cosy in a pile of half-started projects awaiting my undivided attention to complete, I remembered why I'd left it alone for a while (I didn't intend to leave it this long!)- it hadn't been 'working' visually because I'd not put enough colour on it. So I ransacked my scrap bags and found the most Mexican-colourful pieces of silk and linen I could rummage out of the bags and once I started pinning them onto the cosy everything fell into place and I knew how it ought to look!

I've covered all the seams with fancy embroidery stitches and added 'Tea Party" and embroidered in Spanish on one side. I had a tiny piece of German cotton folk ribbon left over from a series of cushions I'm working on now, and this has tied a small brass 'tea bell' onto the top of the cosy.

So what started out as a guilt-ridden rediscovery of a belated and uncertain tea cosy, has turned into a colourful celebration of stitch and textile!

Olé and

					beber té más beber té más!

The Queen was in the Parlour, eating bread and honey...

With a special and glorious cup of Mariage Frères Happy Queen tea!!

Seeing their new tea for the Queen's Silver Jubilee has inspired me to make a collection of elegant and Queenly tea cosies, to add some sparkle and lusciousness to the gloomy grey of winter...

I'm not really 'into' the Royal Family from a moral standpoint, I'm more interested in Australia being a Republic; and yet, I am REALLY into dress-ups, which the Royals do well!

Now to look for some diamonds, diamanté beads and anything sparkly...

TICK TOCK its Tea Time again!

Finally I'm posting something after a motherhood-inspired absence of half a year!!
Time really does fly, and luckily I'm still making work!

A recently finished tea cosy which follows on from the other Sugarpink Colonial cosies I've previously made, will be featured in the Sunday Age's 'Sunday Guide' on the 6th May.
Here is a peek of the cosy, up close and personal...

 Rosettes are featuring heavily in my work at the moment- inspired by a strong memory from my childhood! I was obsessed for a time with awards and prizes and it probably stems from trips to the Deloraine Agricultural Show when I was little. The embroidered silver jug on the rosette side of the cosy is inspired by the glorious collection at the Allport Museum of Fine Arts in Hobart, Tasmania.

I've run out of transfer printed silk 'people' and so I freehand machine embroidered this soldier, based on a drawing of 'early years of the colony of New South Wales' I found in the Australian fashion history book titled 'Parade'.
The star pin is an Etsy find from America.