Wednesday, June 13, 2007

A Cup of Tea and some Rusty Nails

Recently there has been a lot of talk about rusting fabrics and then what to do with them later.
I thought I would show you what I did with mine several years ago.
I have called this Art Quilt "A Cup of Tea and some Rusty Nails.
It measures 85 cm x 5o cm .
The base fabric is a piece of recycled fabric left over from a skirt. The blocks are made from used tea bags -which I wove into a 9 patch block and adhered to a fine iron on interfacing.
I ironed on some gold foil to give another dimension and I then bordered the blocks with the rusted fabrics.

Other sections were hand stitched with either the thread that I had tied around the fabric when it was rusting or a tan broder cotton.

I have also attached a verse to explain the process of how the quilt was made etc.
About used tea bags--what you do is save the teabags with the tea still inside and leave them to dry(on the window ledge).
When they are almost dry you open them and removed the tea from inside and there should
be a lovely brown mottled tea bag left--that is if you don't squeeze all the liquid out into your tea cup before hand.
I probably should have treated the tea-bag section in some way to preserve it but I didn't so who knows how long it will keep - but what the heck it is a good talking point anyway.

10 comments:

Micki said...

Doreen, this is wonderful. Looks like you got great results with the rusty fabrics. I love the design of this and the explanation of how you created it was a great addition.

Purple Missus said...

Doreen this is fantastic. Trust you to have done something really good with it already!! I want to come over and go through your cupboards to see what else you have stashed away in there :)

Anonymous said...

Very cool stuff Doreen! By the way, I got the fabric charms yesterday - I love them. I like the way you mounted them on the tag - I've actually been using the whole thing as a bookmark and it works perfect!

Dianne said...

This is great Doreen!! Done several years ago - it all just keeps going around doesn't it! I bet your cupboards are full of wonderful, interesting pieces (as Lynda mentions)....

Janet said...

Beautiful! I'm always in awe of anyone who works with fabric and you do it so well. I would never have guessed this was tea bags!!

Unknown said...

I also want to come over, same as Lynda, maybe we could have a large meeting and you can give us your own Show and Tell :-) It looks great, and I never have thought those are tea bags.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Tea bags? Thanks Doreen...now you're starting me off on another tangent! Maybe it's a good thing it's summer and I don't drink hot tea then.
P.S. I'm enjoying your blog and trying to browse thru the archives. Love your work!

Digitalgran said...

I just love what you have done with these Doreen. If Lynda and Jaqueline are coming over, can I come too please?

Penny said...

Isnt it incredible that we think we have a new idea and then it gets used again and again, i have used tea bags but rusting was a new idea to me, now to find some nails, not hard to find here.

Marie said...

Hi Doreen - thanks for the contact - have enjoyed seeing your work - totally love this idea!!! Why don't we go for a two ATC swap....