Tea on Tuesday- Constance Has Arrived.....

Wouldn't it be lovely, if we could all start our days with a cup of butterflies? 

To flit thru' our day with nary a care or worry, going from flower to flower, and floating below the clouds..........

                                                          ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

I thought I would share with you a bonus box I received in the mail the other day, from my dear friend Teresa, who travels constantly, and collects teas for me from each of her stops! Baggies filled with teas and jams from Japan, France, England and Spain this time!

 

And, spices from Istanbul and other exotic realms - with a lovely little blue, hand made Turkish spice bowl!

                     My choice of tea this morning is a toss up- both from France.
                                                                       Hmmmmmmm......

                                                  And, may I introduce........................  


                                                                   CONSTANCE     

....who joins us for tea this morning! Constance was spotted in a charity shop in England, trying so desperately to get Teresa's attention. Her sharp chiseled features and old English or Marie Antoinette style attire was eye catching, to say the least.  Altho' she is not as old as that (ssshhh!)- Constance appears to have been born circa 1950's- dressed for a costume ball.

Obviously, she got her message thru' to Teresa- that she soooo wanted to leave England, and travel across the pond, to the colonies! Her first stop was Georgia, and she has arrived at her final destination - in Virginia, one of the first original colonies.

She joins me for tea this morning- (guess I should have served something very English!- instead of French, oh, dear!!!)

As we leave you this morning, Constance is surveying her new domain, from her aerie perch. I hope she likes it here........

Please leave a comment- it would please Constance so (and her new "landlady" would be happy too! LOL)

Please feel free to join us ever Tuesday for tea - drop by Patty and Kim, for a list of other tea fanciers!

Tea on Tuesday

                                New teas, new toys, new places to explore!!!!

Having my favorite Inkivaari Tee- ginger tea from Finland, in one of my favorite mugs- handmade by Richard Busch of Glenfiddich Farm Pottery in Leesburg, Va. I have several of his pieces, and love his work!!!

Atop the mug, is one of my new "tea toys"!!!  It's a solid cherry tea strainer/infuser, hand made in America (!) by Moon Spoon.

The other little tea toy I have is a teabag tweezer, made by Stan and Sue Jennings of Alleghany Treenware.

I found these at a wonder-full shop in Elkton, Va called SoLace Studios.

SoLace is owned by Barb Polin, and it is her working studio as well as her shop. Barb is a fiber artist, who creates beautiful hand marbled silk and leather clothing and accessories. This eye candy store carries all sorts of tantalizing, must -have creations by many talented artisans.

I must have one of these mirrors - very soon!! 

The old tin ceiling is to die for....!!!

.........sensory overload.....

a serene shopping/browsing experience

Some of Barb's fabulous silks......

So, if you are in Elkton, look up Barb's shop- she is also on FB!

Now, back to my tea - I started inside, using my "new" upcycled indoor coaster!

Now, I am heading out to the garden, and here is my perfect sweetheart of an outdoor coaster!

Here's who joined me for tea - her first appearance of the season, looking like she might have had a nest of babies somewhere earlier..

Who's joining you for tea today??

Drop by Kim and Patty, for a  list of other tea lovers!!

Etsy Shoppe Open Again!!!

                                                          FYI- 

           FINALLY started restocking inventory in my Etsy shoppe!.

Check it out if you get a chance, add me to your circle, and I will add you to mine!!!

                                                          Please??

 

Ooglebloop's Treasures 

also

River rock hearts, limited supply- made to order

Quilters' UFO's

As if I don't have enough UFO's of my own, I was quite happy to inherit someone else's!

Yesterday, a friend gifted me with a bag full of quilt blocks. She had bought these at an estate sale or auction 10 years ago.
They were done by a woman in the next town, who was going into a nursing home.

The colors are, for the most part, a little drab- but, almost all the blocks are hand pieced!!!

I could never do this - nor would I have the patience!!!

I am most in love with the 45 star blocks! The muslin is stained in some places. On one here and there, the center point might be a bit off, but they look pretty perfect to me!! All that work - and never finished!!!

My question is- do I clean the blocks before I put them together? What would be the best way to do that, AND, would this fabric hold up to being a bed quilt? My thought is it would be best as a decorative bed cover in a guest room, or hung on a wall. Machine quilting would hold it together, but am not sure the fabric would withstand much washing.

The fabrics look like a combination of feed sacks and old shirting and dress materials. Exact date or origin unknown.

Any thoughts from you quilt experts out there?

These were hand pieced, and it looks like she started to put the blocks together in two rows. Of course, there is no more matching fabric to continue the rows. 40 blocks in all

                                                        These stars are my favorite!!!

45 hand pieced blocks- unbelievable!!!

Some of the squares are not perfectly square, with points very close to the edge, some staining/age spots - but, overall - impressive!!!

Hand stitched - every one!!!

These odd pieces look like she was practicing paper piecing (?) by machine. All stitched on to a fabric back.

I just put this on the floor in a random pattern

Dark blue is the backing fabric

reverse side

these all seem to go together- but what to turn them into is my question?

The stars are a little rough, but pressing them might make them look better - all this hand pieced too!!! Amazing!

back view

I guess I better get busy and start putting some of these together! I have some other old feed sack blocks that may even match these. I will have to pull them all out and see what I can create - maybe (?) even in time for my  Mountain Meadows Quilters Retreat      with Pat Sloan on August 25th!!! Wishful thinking.......LOL


And, here I am, "artfully" posing for an upcoming newspaper article on the quilters workshop. This was not the best shot, (a bit fuzzy) so probably won't make the cut - but we took a few!  The requested pose was of me quilting, and not looking at the camera! Pretending (sshhh!) to work on one of my vintage Dresden plate thrift store finds.....

Tea on Tuesday

I am enjoying some ginger tea, all the way from Finland.

Pulling out a rarely used teacup- Foley English china from Cotswold....I do have some Finnish Arabia teacups, which might have been more appropos- oh, well!!!

I had a bag of this ginger loose leaf tea, sent to me by a friend (Teresa!), and my bag was almost empty, try as I might, to make it last forever!!

Another friend, who is Finnish, went home to Finland for a 3 week vacation. I was watching her baby lambs (100 lb babies!) - socializing them, being a lamb whisperer. All right ! I was playing with them- while she was gone.  LOL

From left:  CJ, Spiderman, and Gaga (red on CJ is from rubbing on the red gate)

I think they are Suffolk, altho Spidey may have a little of a fleece sheep mixed in

Spidey, wondering where his after lunch clover is

The fabulous freckles that are Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga foreground- she is a sweetie and quite a looker!

CJ (aka Calamity Jane) is the one with the best conformation and show quality, and of course, the one who was the least friendly of the three( and most camera shy)!! She has come around - and towards the end of the vacation, would come to me looking for her treats,and would permit full body rubs!! I understand she is now walking on a lead, in preparation for her County Fair debut! I told myself at the onset, NOT to get attached to them - but I think I failed......

I have to admit, my favorite is Spiderman (named that because he was caught eating spider webs)- he is a love, very affectionate, and would fall asleep in my hands while I was petting him. He would also ba-a-a-a when he realized it was my car that pulled up, and ba-a-a plaintively when I left. The lanolin in the sheep's wool is so good for your hands - and made the leather in my old work gloves so supple!!!LOL I can't think of anything worse than being a lamb in the hot humid weather of Va- but surprisingly, they fared far better than I did with the heat those 3 weeks!

Spidey napping

Back to the tea - I asked Jo, if she saw any, and had a chance while in Finland, to please bring me back a bag of that wonderful ginger tea.

Well!!! Look what I got, very unexpected - all for having fun with 3 lovely lambies!!!!

3 bags of ginger tea - obviously, one from each little lamb (!), and some lovely Marimekko goodies and chocolate!!! That purple suede Marimekko wallet with goblet design is wonderful!!!! Thank you Jo!!!

On a different "note" - please enjoy this group - called - appropriately enough for today's post - 

                                              THE TEACUPS!!!

Please join us each Tuesday for tea - drop by Patty and Kim for a list of other tea lovers!!!

Tea on Tuesday- Vintage Style

I am sipping a new sample tea I got in the mail (it's delicious with local wildflower honey!).

 Even tho' my Irish mug is definitely NOT vintage, while sipping a new Twinings Orange sample tea I got in the mail (it's delicious with local wildflower honey and the pictured Beekman lemon creamed honey!), I thought I would share some vintage black and white photos found on the internet, of teas gone by..........

My grandparents used to have a swing like this at their country home in Rhinebeck, NY

 

Tea for two, on two..........!!

Please join us every Tuesday for tea! Share on your blog what you're having and what fancy cup or mug you are using, or just peek at what we are sipping. 

Don't forget to  leave a comment, and visit Patty and Kim for a list of other tea fanciers!!!