TEA PARTIES

I was recently invited to participate in a Round Robin to produce a fabric book. The Round Robin involves 7 women from New Zealand, Australia, and England. This has been organised over the Internet.

We have each chosen a theme, and produced one page of our book before sending it on to the next participant to make another page, using our theme and dimensions, but using their own style and interpretation.

I chose the theme of "Tea Party"...why do I always end up in a nostalgic vein, I wonder??

Today...1st March..is the day we are to post off our first page, and I did not think I would make the deadline. But I have just completed the final stitches, and it will be heading off to England tomorrow, which is the earliest mail.

For the front cover, I have done some Crazy patchwork.

And for the reverse side, I used an old photo from Bernie's family album. It shows afternoon tea on the lawn of "Hillcrest", which was the home of Bernie's great-aunt Maria Heaps and her husband Dick. We think it was taken in the 1920' or early 30's.

I had a better photo, of a smaller group, which showed Maria actually pouring the tea, but it would not reproduce as well. Bordering the photo is some fairly old lace which probably dates back to that era

As a border, I have collaged recipes from old cookbooks, plus some handwritten ones, including some in my mother's handwriting.

The RR will be quite a challenge. We have a month to work on each page. I am looking forward to receiving my first task from Carol in Townsville. Carol's theme is "Horizons", and ideas for how to interpret this in fabric and stitches are occupying much of my waking thoughts. I am determined to try at least one new technique each month.

The other themes we will be interpreting include "Trees", "Openings", Catholic Saints", "Autumn"and "Architecture."