Monday 8 February 2010

Tea Strainers and Neat Corners.

I saw loose tea being served for the first time in a long while last year when a friend and I met up for afternoon tea at hotel in a nearby town. We were seated at a little table in the dining room at about 4pm on a Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a 3-tier tray piled with many kinds of dainty sandwiches and cakes. If I remember correctly, there were almost 10 different cakes and as we both like our food and couldn't decide which ones to NOT have, we even cut a few in half so we could have a little taste of each one!!
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Anyway, I degress, my point being that you don't see loose tea around much these days. This lovely tea set that I had for Christmas included 4 little tins of tea which on closer inpection contained celophane bags of loose tea. As it's been a little while since we owned a tea strainer I haven't been able to use the tea.............until now!
I had a browse on ebay the last week and saved a few tea strainers to 'watch'. The ones I liked the look of most were designed with two little handles to sit on the rim of the cup but my cup is huge so they weren't suitable. I ended up winning this one, which encloses the tea in the spoon part and says 'Southsea' on the handle, for 99p plus postage. I was disapointed in the dirty condition when it arrived but a soak in an aluminium foil 'bowl' with hot water and soda crystals fizzed off most of the dirt and it came up nice and shiny.

The squares I had cut out ready for my quilting day on Saturday have now become the block below.

Not a very interesting design I admit but the method of construction was a revelation to many of the ladies present. Although I've seen the method described I hadn't tried it until now. Do you see how neat the whole thing is and how well the corners meet.............well that is nothing really to do with my skill and everything to do with the method used. I think this post by the lovely Posie gets Cozy is where I saw it first. I'm sure there were more comprehensive instructions somewhere but quite frankly I was lucky to remember seeing it there. I'm not sure how this will affect trying to hand quilt but I'll give it a go.

And here's a picture of the back if you need any more clues as to how it's done.
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Bye for now
Teresa x

4 comments:

Lis Harwood said...

Your post reminded me of a chat I had with my daughter last week. Why do we leave a little tea in the bottom of the cup? Well I do it because I always did when I had tea leaves as a child and she does it because I do! Tea made with leaves tastes so much better. We have mugs and bags in the morning and leaves and a pot and cups and saucers in the afternoon!

Leslie said...

I haven't had loose tea in a long time, but I think I have a strainer or two somewhere. They are fun to play with, aren't they? I've been drinking tea instead of coffee this past week. Mmmmm...I love the taste.

Gina said...

That takes me back. My great Aunt would only have loose tea. She refused to have anything to do with Tea Bags as she decided that you couldn't make a proper pot of tea with them.

Love and hugs Gina xxx

Mary said...

My parents always use loose tea in a teapot with china cups and saucers after meals. They only buy teabags for when we visit!

I just had a look at that quilting technique - it looks very interesting - I can't wait to try it!