WIPW - Flowers

Work
In
Progress
Wednesday

Regular readers know by now that WIPW for me means a report on my Kafferepet quilt.
We've come to the last kind of items on the quilt - flowers.

For the well dressed coffee party table there must be flowers. Winters in Sweden are long, dark and cold so almost every home has a selection of potted houseplants, many of them flowering. A pot with hyacinths, African violets or orchids may decorate the table.

However, cut flowers are more common, especially in the warmer seasons. They may be shop bought, or picked in the garden. Usually they are beautifully arranged in a vase, but they can simply be strewn on the table as well.

One of the most popular summer flowers is the Ox Eyed Daisy, and it is even featured on the Swedish National costume.

I come from a long line of florists, and gardeners, who cultivated new varieties of fruit and flowers. Having flowers around the house is second nature to me, and for this quilt I tried to follow in my ancestors' footsteps and bred a new 'Heart Petalled Daisy', i.e. I appliquéd a couple of fantasy flowers, ha, ha!

Flowers on the table can of course also be the edible variety. There might be crystallised violets on a cake. How about some rose jelly as a cake filling, lavender scones, lemon scented pelargonium leaves in the muffin batter, camomile tea or small frozen flowers in the ice cubes...

-.-.-.-.-.
Japan is famous for its Ikebana. You can see these artistically arranged flowers in the alcove of a traditional living room,

in restaurants and even railway stations or post offices.
However, these arrangements are not placed on a dining table. Even other bouquets of flowers are displayed on side tables, in the window or at the Buddhist altar (in this last case they are a special selection of flowers), but NOT on the table. Now here comes a contradiction: That doesn't mean that there are no flowers on the table! There are, but they are for consumption; cherry blossoms cured in salt and used for tea, chrysanthemum  petals pickled in vinegar and honey, rice steamed in bamboo leaves... Also like kitchen wizards in many other countries, a Japanese chef might carve vegetables to look like flowers, e.g a slice of carrot turned into a plum blossom.
Oh, and of course, in spring the chops sticks might rest on a small twig with cherry blossoms and in autumn there might be a red maple leaf in the bamboo basket of deep fried vegetables - not for consumption, and not in the common home, you need to go to a 'fancy' restaurant to see this.

-.-.-.-.-.
More progress on the border.

I used Sharon's CQ Stencils for the swirly TAST stems. #56 Sailor Stitch on the left and #12 Barred and Alternating Barred Chain Stitch on the right

Some stitch treatment on flower and leaves. There will be beads added later.
For more WIPW reports, visit Pintangle.

TAST #70 Crested Chain Stitch

TAST #70 is called the Crested Chain Stitch. Fun and easy.
Here is my sampler

As I didn't make a 'project' piece with last week's #69 stitch, Buttonholed Double Chain, I thought I'd make a (Sumptuous Surface Embroidery) combination piece of #69 and  #70.
My scarp bag and odd button box are now a few pieces lighter.

For more TASTy work, go to Pintangle.

WIPW - Paper, but it ought to have been...

In today's Work In Progress Wednesday 'Kafferepet' report, I want to show you another important item for the coffee party, the napkin or serviette.

These are meant to look like paper napkins (although any quilter will of course know this is appliquéd fabric, ha, ha), but they ought to have been linen serviettes.

As it stains easily, in the 1960s the linen napkin began to be replaced with disposable paper serviettes. These days they can be found in a variety of colours and patterns, often reflecting the season.

For the elegant table setting the napkins should be folded. I found this book from Ica Förlaget, printed 1969.

It shows in detailed diagrams over thirty different ways of folding. For example 'The Princess' to the left and 'The Water Lily' to the right. In the latter one can place a roll or bun.

In the book is also a good illustration of a Kafferepet table, and you might recognise several of the items I have included in my quilt.

Coffee cups, spoons,  napkins, candles, a green Princess cake with the pink marzipan carnation. Instead of the china coffee pot there is a rather ugly thermos pot.

Before we leave the subject of napkins, may I tell you a bit about the Japanese custom?
At home, napkins are seldom used, even when there are guests, you simply reach for a tissue from the box. Instead you might have on hand a small (dish)cloth, wet but well wrung out,.
Guests might each be offered a nice clean one, called 'oshibori', beautifully placed on a small bamboo tray.
It is actually quite common that you are given such an 'osibori' in a restaurant, these days they might be of paper.

The serviettes offered at coffee shops is usually a scant piece of glossy tissue, good enough for wiping your mouth maybe, but how do you protect your clothes?
Well, you carry a handkerchief of course, and spread it on your lap. Anyone who has been to a Japanese department store will know the huge selection of handkerchiefs - and they are NOT for blowing your nose in!!!

The really elegant restaurant will give you a 'hizakake', a lap cloth, often with the name of the establishment. They are quite collectable, and can be used by the ardent quilter! This one from 'Tekkinro'.

Now back to the progress report.
On the border I have been adding small embroidered branches. I used my new cq stencils, and worked two TAST stitches. #23 Cable Chain and #27 Up and Down Buttonhole:

For more WIPW reports, go to Pintangle.

The Early Bird Catches the...

The Early Bird Catches the... Worm, or in this case, the Stencils. I am of course talking about Sharon B's CQ stencils.

I am lucky enough to live in the same time zone, read her blog post when it was 'fresh off the press' and ordered the stencils quickly before they were sold out.
They arrived by post on Saturday and I have since then been playing around a bit.

First I scribbled on paper,

then made a little design which I have just finished stitching. Great fun because the stencils are so easy to use.

So these stencils are not only useful for marking fancy seams on crazy quilts, but also for marking other embroidery designs.

If you want to order your own, head over to Pintangle and leave a comment on the link above.