Patchwork, Please! :: Lettered Tea Cozy and Teabag Pouch

I'm still a little leery of paper-piecing and I don't really drink tea. But something about the Patchwork, Please Tea Cozy and Pouch called to me. Most likely, it's our family history. I started collecting china tea cups when I was a teenager, and when daughter dear was a little (and even half-grown) girl, she loved her tea parties. Even the expanded family would go out for high tea occasionally, so over the years we've enjoyed it a lot.

I can't say piecing the TEA and cup blocks went 100% smoothly, but I did really enjoy picking out fabrics. The 'backgrounds' are all of shot cotton, in vivid colors I really enjoy. Thanks to a text charm swap a while back, I had odds and ends of delightful text fabrics that I certainly would not have had otherwise. The main body of my cozy is Essex linen in natural. The lining, which unfortunately is hidden, is the gold leaf print from V and Co.'s Simply Color; the binding is pb&j from Basic Grey. Quilting is an organic wavy stitch using a new-to-me Auriful thread, #2326 {Sand} 50wt, which I think is a perfect partner for that natural Essexn. I'll definitely be using them together again, as the thread adds just a bit of a sheen to that matte linen. And that little tab? A snippet of Echino.

Now I'm a very visual person, so a couple of times I needed a diagram of a specific step. The one that I really stumbled on was step #9 - placing the template to cut out the front and back main panels. I goofed - on the front, of course(!) - but luckily figured out my error in time to cut out the back correctly. The problem I created was too wide of a batting-only strip below my pieced letters. {It should only be 3/4", just as the instructions indicate!} So what to do? Luckily it came to me right away: sew a strip of Essex below the letters and matchstick quilt it. Perfect. I'll confess I am glad I goofed, as I really like my fix!

When it came time for the Tea Pouch, I wanted to echo that matchstick quilting, so I cut the outer fabric piece (more Essex), fused the batt, and quilted it. Then I trimmed it to size. The inner fabric is also Essex, and the pockets more of the Basic Grey (thanks, Jenn!), trimmed with those shot cotton solids. Instead of string and a button, I used lengths of natural sisal twine, so I could tie the whole little package closed.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed these projects. Quilting on Essex is always a joy, fussy cutting for the paper piecing was especially fun this time, and a couple of new techniques - that wide binding on the cozy, and the contrasting top edge of the pouch pockets - were good ones to add to the ole repertoire. This was definitely my cup of tea!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday!