Tea Time with the Bunny Family!

It was easy to decide what I would make for tea today! I recalled those wonderful cupcakes that my mother would make when we were little (1950's) and could hardly wait to taste them!

I am sure many of you have made cupcakes and topped them with icing, then coconut and jelly beans so I don't need to take you through the steps for that recipe. Just in case, though, here are the steps to delicious Easter cupcakes. Start with your favorite cupcakes. I baked up a batch from Pillsbury's German Chocolate Cake mix (my mother, of course, did not use a mix and I will offer up her chocolate cake recipe for a post later this year) and then frosted them with Pillsbury's Chocolate Fudge frosting. I added green food coloring to Baker's coconut and mixed it up really well, then dipped the frosted cupcakes in the coconut mix (same way I did for my white Snowball cupcakes in January). Then I added old-fashioned jelly beans. Didn't want any fancy flavors or colors. I was going for great taste with a dash of 1950's memories tossed in!! I was not dissappointed!! Oh, they were yummy!! Just so you know, I did not eat the entire plate full of cupcakes. They are a treat for the Easter weekend. :-)

The tea I chose for today was a sample packet I had in the cupboard and I thought I would give it a try. It's Lipton's White Tea with Island Mango & Peach Flavors. Oh, did it smell delicious. But oh, it did not taste delicious. Sorry but it was a dissapointment. To my tastebuds, it seemed a bit tart and I like my tea more sweet. I think I am very happy with my Irish Breakfast tea or Earl Grey blends and will probably not stray again.

There are a few items in my tea setting that I will tell you about. This little miniature setting is one that I did in the 1980's. It was first a candy jar and then it took on new life when I placed the floor in the jar, then added the table and decorations.
The cake is a plastic bunny that I covered in glue and then rolled in glitter to make it look like a coconut bunny. The little eggs are made from Fimo clay and if you click and enlarge the photos, you can see that I painted Happy Easter on the egg that is sitting on the table. The tiny basket is made from needlepoint canvas and the bunny is just made from pink pom-poms.

The bunny family that watched me eat my cupcake were made in the early 1980's. It's a little pattern I drew in 1970 and made the larger size for my daughter Collette when she was a baby. She would suck on the ears of the thing as if it were a pacifier. I made a number of them for baby shower gifts and little ones all did the same thing. They loved those ears!!

I decided to make up a set in pink and a set in blue sometime in the 1980's and there would be one that could go to my daughter and one to my son someday. There were four of each. During our move a couple of years ago, the tiniest pink bunny became seperated from her family but I am sure she will one day pop up in a box of craft and holiday items. On my "drawing board", there is a quilt design that incorporates these bunnies. Maybe I'll get to it by next Spring!!

Hope you all enjoyed today's Tea and Stitches. Have a wonderful spring weekend and a Happy Easter, too!

Sandi

Hopping down the Bunny Trail looking for an Easter Basket....

.......and here it is! This month's Tea Time project is just a little Easter basket sketch that can be done many ways, just like those in past months.

You can trace the design and stitch it in Redwork or trace it to muslin, then color it with crayons or colored pencils (I like this method but does not withstand washing too well) and embroider outlines. You could even trace the design onto wood and woodburn the design to a decorative piece of wood or trace it onto wood and use acrylic paints for the sketch.

Or, you can do as I am in the photo above and cut out the basket, bunny and egg pieces and trace to cotton fabrics backed with fusible web and press to backing fabric. I am going to use some of the new threads that I received from TheGentleArt. I love the names of the threads. The brown thread that I will use for the chocolate bunny is appropriately titled "Dark Chocolate"! The lighter brown that I'll outline the basket with is called "Maple Syrup". Makes me think that since we live on Maple Ridge that perhaps there are some trees we should be tapping for syrup! The colors that I will use for the eggs are Butternut Squash, Blue Jay, Rhubarb, Grape Leaf and Punchberry. Most of them sound good enough to eat except that Blue Jay. I would think that pretty soon there will be a few Blue Jays in our backyard. This morning I could hear the Cardinals singing some spring love songs so little birdies are coming soon. :-) Even the black has a cool name - Black crow. There are always a lot of them around as there is a marsh area across the street and they love sit in the tall grasses out there. Instead of cotton fabrics, you could also do this piece in wool or woolfelt. Just get creative!! And if all you want to do is color the picture, that's all right to!! Print it out for the kids and keep them busy while you are cooking for the Easter weekend.

Here's a little update on previous projects..............the snowman couple are still in progress although the Tea Time heart stitchery is finished. I am almost finished stitching the Irish Blessing and now here I am starting this one!! I will probably finish both of them this weekend but the Snowman couple will continue to be a "work in progress". All of these designs could be placed in an 8 x 10 frame so I am on the look-out for a really cool frame where I could change out the design each month. I'll bet I'll find something at spring garage sales or the next thrift shop stop I make. LOL!!

Now it's time to post tea and goodies...........Yum!!!

Wishing you a...............

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!

I have a little surprise........ I hosted a giveaway and you didn't even know it. And here is the prize I prepared for one lucky person who has commented here on "Tea and Stitches". I gave you a clue at tea last week when I showed the little book "Tea and Friendship" and said I would draw a winner from those who had commented from January through March and that there might be just "a little bit of green fabric that will come along with it, too. " And here it is............


This little bear is bringing someone a cup filled with three lucky green fat quarters! I selected the tea cup from my box of favorite thrift shop finds and then cut the three fat quarters from my St. Pat's fabric stash. I tied a piece of vintage green ribbon about the little bear's neck and place him upon his very own little doily mat. He will be on his way to a lucky someone and who would that be................

Well, I printed out all the comments posted up to March 16 and I cut and tossed them into this little pincushion box (more on that in a minute). Then I drew out the name .......... and it was "Quilting Nana" (go here for her blog)!! Now she already knows she won because as soon as I drew her name, I e-mailed her that she was a winner. I decided to do a giveaway in this fashion because I wanted to show appreciation to those who leave comments and regularly stop by. I so appreciate your comments because they let me know if I should continue sharing my thoughts and projects. So right here and now, I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who visit here (and my other blogs, too). I will be doing this again, but I won't announce when I'll be doing a giveaway. It'll just happen. And that's a special treat for all of you who stop by to read and comment. :-)

Now to that pincushion box. I was needing to do something totally creative to release some stress. I wanted a box to put the comments in because only the winner's name was removed and the rest of the names are there for the next time I do a giveaway. So I had this paper mache box that I had rubbed with walnut stain and thought........hmmmm.........and then I had this little teacup Christmas ornament that I used to hold my tape measure............and an idea was born. I took some woolfelt that I also colored with walnut stain (I have a whole pile of multicolored woolfelt that I have dyed with all sorts of stuff) and cut a circle, sewed a running stitch around the edge and then stuffed with polyfil. I secured the stitches with a knot and then left some thread that I could use for the string for the tea bag. I went to the Twinings website and printed out a page (actually two for a front and back) with Earl Grey tea on it. Then I cut little squares of it for the tea bag and glued a piece of fluff between the layers, then glued the "bag" to the little bit of thread for a tea bag. Then I added a dollop of glue to the bottom of the felt ball that simulates tea (and looks more like hot chocolate). I found a scrap doily and glued it to the box lid, the glued the tea cup to that and there it is.........a pincushion on top and a place for your comments inside the box!!


Congratulations to Kathleen of Quilting Nana and good luck to the rest of you whose names are in the box. And here's a little perk.........if you've commented more than once here on "Tea and Stitches", your name is in the box with each of your comments so your luck is doubled, tripled, etc. So may the "luck 'o the Irish be with ye" when I decide to host another surprise giveaway. :-)
Hope you all have a great St. Patrick's Day!!
Sandi

A Little Irish Tea!

Remember last month when I made what looked like tasty sugar cookies? And then I had to let you know that my cookies turned out to be more like biscotti? Well, this month, I have made something that is very tasty and came out just as good as I hoped it would. Here is what I enjoyed......my own little recipe for what I am calling Irish Tea Cake.

And here is why and how I did it........
When I was a kid we were often assigned those reports where you had to tell your heritage and so, we would ask our grandpa "what's our heritage" and his answer was usually "Heinz 57". Then a few years ago at our Linn family reunion, a relative who had moved out west sent along the death certificate for my grandpa's grandpa (my great-great grandpa). There, on that sheet was the answer to "what's our heritage"? Noted on the certificate was the name of my great-great grandpa's father - Issaac Linn and place of birth was Ireland. How about that? There's a wee bit 'o Irish in me! But wait, Issaac was married to Mary McVey of Scotland! Wow, we have a wee bit 'o Scottish heritage, too. No more "Heinz 57"!! So with that in mind and St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, I felt I had to share something really tasty and a tribute to that heritage.

I needed inspiration so went to the cupboard and got out some cookbooks we picked up on a trip to England and Scotland many years ago (we never made it to Ireland). I found one that sounded tasty called "Jam Sandwich Biscuits" but I wasn't in the mood to roll out cookie dough. I was looking for something different. I decided to draw on some ingredients from the Jam Biscuit recipe and a cake recipe in one of my favorite vintage cookbooks (several without covers from the earlier 1900's). The names and measurements in the English books were very different from the terms in our U.S. cookbooks and when I saw "Castor Sugar", I wondered what kind of sugar is that? Then I remembered my gift from Shelly in Chookyblue's Secret Santa exchange and found my answer. It's granulated sugar. Simple. Shelly also made a mitt and apron for me. I put on the apron and with spoon in hand, I was ready to go.

I didn't take pics as I mixed this time as this recipe is quite easy and anyone can make this one.

You will need a 9 x 13 pan. Mist with cooking spray and set aside. Set oven temp to 350 degrees. Find a shot glass. You'll see why later.

Ingredients needed are flour, sugar (dark brown and granulated), eggs, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla.

You will also need your favorite jars of jam for filling and some white frosting for icing (I turned to Pillsbury for their vanilla frosting).

Cream together:

1 stick (4 oz.) butter

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

To this mixture add two large eggs and blend well.

Add 1 teaspoon real vanilla. Set aside.

Mix in bowl or in a paper lunch sack ( I do this all the time for my dry ingredients. I get a better blend of ingredients.) the following items:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Add this dry mixture to the sugar/egg/butter mixture. Mix well.

Add 1 1/2 cups Oatmeal (quick-cook variety) and mix until well blended. Dough will be stiff.

The final ingredient is 2/3 cup evaporated milk. Mix carefully until you get a creamy dough/batter that looks like this............and I am here to tell you, it smelled good enough to eat at this point!!

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes in 350 degree oven until cake is golden......... or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (you can't beat those time-tested tricks!).

While cake is still hot take your shot glass and press 12 evenly spaced indentations in the cake top as shown in the photo above. Let cake cool. You thought I was going to tell you to fix a little drink with that shot glass, didn't you? LOL!!

When cake is cooled, fill those indentations with a spoonful of your favorite jam, any flavors you like. Take one cup of white frosting and microwave for 15 seconds. Then drizzle over the cake top and you will get the delicious looking treat in the picture below and at the top of this post!!

It was so tasty, if I do say so myself. My tea choice for the day was Celestial Seasonings English Breakfast Black Tea. It was also really good with a little milk and a dash of sweetner. Now I know some folks say tea isn't tea if it comes in a bag, but this was quite a fine break for what was a very cold day here in Minnesota!! So cold, that later on tonight, I am going to have that Irish Creme hot chocolate mix you see in the photo. And also in that photo is one item for one of you. It's that little book "Tea and Friendship". I am going to take all the names of those who have commented from the January and February teas, add them to the names of Tea and Stitches Followers and those who comment on this tea and I will throw them in a basket and draw a winner of the little book. There might just be a little bit of green fabric that will come along with it, too. Hope you enjoyed today's tea. I'll be posting this month's project next (you'll find it below). It works better to do two posts sometimes and this is one of those times. :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Sandi

Blogger making me sad.......

Blogger is currently not letting me load the pictures for my tea I prepared for today. I have all the text ready and had part of the photos loaded and poof! no more ability to load photos. I tried a new post and same problem. I will try again in an hour. Please come back then.
Sandi

A little Irish Tea! The Project..........

Before we get to March's project, I wanted to give a little update on the project from February. I shared a little sketch called "Time for Tea". Here it is partially finished so that you can see what I have done here. I colored parts of the design with colored pencils (more on that in a minute), then added embroidery stitches. I do the coloring then iron the design which supposedly heat-sets the color. Will this withstand being laundered? I don't know as I have never used it on a piece that I planned to wash on a regular basis. It does work well for small pieces for wall quilts or items to be framed. I like the colored pencils better than crayons as you can get a softer look and so many more colors.

If you double-click on the photo above, you can see that I colored all the little flowers surrounding the heart and the tea cup and saucer. You will also see how awful my stitching looks on the words. I used three strands of floss and do not like it at all. I decided not to rip it out. This piece will become a "teaching tool" on when "choosing how many strands of floss to use when embroidering". LOL!! :-) Three strands of floss worked well on the heart, though.

In this photo, the piece is finished. In addition, to coloring each little flower, I also traced around each petal with an 005 purple Micron pen. Black French knots give me just the look of black-eyed Susan's that I wanted. I used just one strand of floss for all the tea cup embroidery and I am liking the tea cup design so much that I want to find some really nice fabric and embroider the design on dinner napkins. The fabric used here is 100% cotton but I think I might need to look for a poly-cotton blend that might not require so much ironing. I am going to color a tea cup on fabric, then wash it and see if the color remains. I'll let you know the results.

In this photo above, you can see the tools I use when sketching a design and then coloring the piece. My clipboard is clear and so I can place it over my lightbox and trace designs very easily. If I am doing a design in Redwork, I trace the entire design in 005 Red Micron pen. I have multiple Micron pens in various points and colors that I use to trace my designs and for finalizing sketches. The colored pencils I use are Prismacolor Watercolor pencils. Sometimes I color softly with them and other times, I wet the tip on a damp paper towel to get more vibrant color when using the pencils. I also have several other brands of colored pencils but find that the more expensive the colored pencil, the better the results. I love my dollar store purchases but this is one time they do not work.

And here is the design for March........just a little touch of shamrocks. As I sketched the little bouquet, I thought that surely "An Irish Blessing" must have been said many a time by those long ago ancestors of mine. I am glad to know my heritage and share a wee bit of it with you.

This design can be embroidered or you could cut the shamrock shapes from cotton fabric backed with fusible web and then do the rest of the design in embroidery. I am going to work on mine this Sunday afternoon after church. I'll finish it and post it here on St. Patrick's Day. Till then, have a great day!

Tea and Stitches ...........

will be posted next Wednesday, March 11th so that I may bring you a little Irish Teatime just a few days before St. Patrick's Day. Then on St. Patrick's Day, March 17 I will post again with a bit of wee surprise for those of you that follow my Tea and Stitches blog.

Til then, I share my favorite Irish blessing.....

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields

and, until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.