Fatima: Dancing Tea Cosy

This tea cosy reminds me of the dancing hands of one of those Turkish restaurant belly dancers...

Hence the name.

So, Fatima was largely stitched and created overseas- in Seoul to be precise..

So - she is a very well travelled tea cosy indeed...

She was made from the felted body of an Aran jumper, pieced together with equally felted fabrics from scarves and other jumpers.

Nothing is really a scrap, in my book.  Everything can be put to another purpose, and given the opportunity for a new life.

And yes, I am a sucker for a stray dog or cat as well...

Anyhoo... meet Fatima.

She's just been listed for sale, if she takes your fancy...

She fits from a 4-6 cup tea pot upwards...

New stuff to show you...

I've been a bit quiet lately...

Well- online only...

In reality I have been head-down bum-up trying to get some work done for my new startup business.

Here's a snippet of some of the productions which I have just listed in my Etsy Store...  

All are a combination of vintage blankets...

hand dyed laces and linens...

hand felted wools...

all stitched together...

and then lined....

All are available through my Etsy store, or are made to order.

Piece worked coffee cosy...

You know how I love tea cosies...


Well, I'm experimenting with optimum shapes for a coffee cosy...


This is the first attempt, and although I will change the base pattern I am pretty happy with the result...


I have used my hand dyed doilies and vintage fabrics on a felted woolen ex-jumper, and backed it with a vintage blanket...


...et voila!

Pieced tea cosy...

While I have been procrastinating over my Flora paintings, I have not been idle!


No- it has been a very busy procrastination indeed...


Check it out...


It includes some of my hand dyed doilies, my mother's scarves and pullovers, and lined with a World War II blanket.

Prototype teacosy...

I've been playing around lately with piecing and applique...


I've recycled one of my daughter's angora cardigans, used some of my stash of hand dyed doileys and felted wool, and this is what I came up with...

More blanket work

Well....


It's been such a long time since I posted...


I hope you have all had a great time over the holiday period.... 


I must admit I have been busy populating and getting obsessed with the two other blogs I am writing (see post below) - Dad gives me such a lot of things to write about! 


But, I have been working on a piece for my blanket, and took some shots to show you!


I am doing the blanket in sections.  I find it easier to work with as I need to be able to get "into" the pieces to add sections.  Plus, the piece gets pretty heavy to work with...  Not to mention it's pretty hot here, and I'm working with felted wool!

First- the new piece:


Here is a shot of the piece in its entirety....

And now a few close ups of the individual sections....

Then I laid the two pieces together to see how they will look...


Obviously I have a bit of tidying up to do...

And Larry decided he needed to keep and eye on my progess as well....

He just loves me....


What can i say???  I'm adorable apparently...

 Here's a better shot of it all....

Coming together nicely...

Out of not so good comes something else

Or a door closes and a window opens....  You know all those old sayings....


The stimulus for these ponderings is that, unfortunately, I dislocated my thumb.  It keeps popping out of joint and I have to strap it up.  An injury from recent overly vigorous knitting.


Now stop laughing.....

Anyways, sadly, I have a basket of unfinished, nearly finished and waiting-to-be-sewn-up offerings to the knitting gods.

However, because of this threatening injury, I have taken up other exploits while the healing occurs.

Firstly: progress on my quilting piece I posted about recently....  I have kept decorating and adding pieces, and I think it is coming along rather nicely!

And I have finally got back into the studio and started a bit of painting.


I'm doing a separate post showing the progress there...

Quilted Recycled Felted Repurposed

I moved over from Melbourne 2 years ago to help my folks, as Dad had been diagnosed with Alzheimers and Parkinsons and Mum was not coping as she wasn't well herself.  My wonderful mum died in late June, after a long battle with various primary cancers (5 different ones over 33 years in fact), but succumbing to uterine carcinosarcoma (a nasty nasty type of cancer) which she had been fighting for 2 years...  She left an array of beautiful jumpers, cardigans and scarves which so remind me of her.  I couldn't bear to part with the really special ones, but they weren't really me and I didn't want to just stuff them in a suitcase and put them in the attic.

So- I took a big breath and took the scissors to them before I could back down (it felt sacrilegious really) and cut some into blocks, and felted others.  I have started piecing them back together and wanted to share my efforts to date - I have also decorated some of the patches with some of her doilies, napkins, lace, buttons and brooches.  It's like a celebration as I do this, and all the memories of her wearing these items come rushing back.

I'm not sure what I will do with this piece when I finish it- the choice as it stands at the moment is to either do more on this piece and make a throw, or leave it this size and make a tote bag.  Time will tell.....