Tea Party Wall Quilts

I completed two quilted wall hangings as birthday gifts for my daughters while I was restricted by a back injury this winter. My girls grew up having tea parties with their friends for special occasions like birthdays. As adults we have continued to have tea parties for occasions like bridal showers and church fellowship ladies meetings. One of my daughters collects teacup and saucer sets and I knew she would appreciate a wall hanging with this theme.

 I started out with hand appliqued teapot and teacup blocks that I pieced with a strip piecing method using fabrics I had in my stash.

 I then practiced some machine quilting techniques I learned in a workshop at my quilt guild last fall.

To make these small wall quilts into "art" pieces, I decided to embellish with tea party type additions-- a pretty napkin with a blue embroidered border, tiny teacups (souvenier finds from second hand stores) and a pair of lace gloves.

This little teapot with lady bugs was found by a friend (who knew about my special project) at a second hand store. Both wall hangings for my two daughters included a tiny teapot, a lace glove, tiny teacups, napkins, a lace tablecloth ruffle and a silver teaspoon. Silk flower embellishments were reminders of the fancy hats ladies would often wear for tea parties.

I even added some silk fabric tea bags that had contained Chinese tea leaves. I removed the dried tea leaves and replaced them with bits of fabric and hand sewed them onto the wall hangings.

Each wall hanging had one little cup from a tea set that I had as a small child. How fun for each art piece to have a fifty year old tea cup!

 Alyssa recently moved into a new house with her husband and baby. She is excited to hang this above her sideboard "tea station" in the dining room.

Katie's wall hanging will take up less room but should go well in her newly painted kitchen.