I am Lily - stitcher and part time bookseller. Mother to my gorgeous girl, Abigail and wife to Julian. I make time each day to let my imagination potter and add quirky prettiness and handmade comfort to our home and lives. You can email me at lily(at)blockaday(dot)com
In a Spring Garden - the teapot trivet
Nope, there’s still no spring around here today! In fact, I’m wearing a cardigan - this is utterly unheard of for Brisbane in November. Never mind, there’s plenty of pretty florals to find solace in.
This morning I was going to finish this …
But I became carried away with sewing wee white triangles to wee green triangles that were snipped off the above Mayfly blocks. And then there were 16 half square triangles squares and they were too pretty to put away and lost forever. Perhaps they’d make a sweet border. With a palest pink square in the middle - and a pretty spring plate. Yes - that would be nice!
See, I’ve become besotted with Posy’s living room and passion for Cath Kidston - but I know that floral teapot trivets will be the closest I will ever get to producing this look in my home - Julian would have a nervous breakdown, surrounded by all those flowers!)
This involved some applique …
And lots of quilting - a la Mary Mashuta’s FABULOUS new book Foolproof Machine Quilting - I feel terribly empowered already and I’m only a third of the way through :-)
And now I have a very pretty teapot trivet for afternoon teas in a spring garden. But after all of yesterday’s talking of Christmas presents, I have decided to share this one with you my dear readers! So, I shall randomly choose a reader who knows the answer to this question …
Who grumbled “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents!”
Leave your answer in the comments and I will draw a winner on Thursday morning. And once again - swamped as we are here in Brisbane with thick, dark grey skys and drenching rain - but VERY grateful that my home is intact and we are all safe and sound - and sad for those who are suffering from Sunday’s storm disaster, there’s no nice photos to be had - just these ghastly ones.
The colours of the trivet really are very pretty! And with many more Mayflys and Christmas beetles cut out and waiting by my sewing machine, I foresee more trivets for Christmas stockings. Very jolly to be able to produce presents from what can easily be dropped into the bin. -)
p.s. I now have a jar of pink buttons to add to my collection - hee! hee! hee!
18 November, 2008 at 11:32 am
Jo March - Little Women
18 November, 2008 at 12:02 pm
One of my favorite books! We’ll be reading it aloud for school this winter.
Jo from Little Women
Have a wonderfilled day!
18 November, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I have no idea but your trivet is awesome!
18 November, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I am pretty sure the Grinch said it ;)
18 November, 2008 at 12:47 pm
hmmmm - “Little Women” I believe!
This is lovely - you did a great job!
18 November, 2008 at 1:23 pm
eeek! Little women! Jo said it!
I often use the ‘it’s so dreadful to be poor’ quote when my husband tells me I can’t buy any more fabric (because sometimes he can be quite mean). I LOVE that book!
18 November, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Ho, ho, ho, that was Jo from Little Women. I see the film once a year with my DD 2! Santa is still waiting for your wishes….
18 November, 2008 at 2:14 pm
little women–Jo (I think). I need to reread that book, it’s a good one.
18 November, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I have no idea, but you are sooo creative, putting you “scraps” together and coming up with such an adorable little trivet;)
18 November, 2008 at 3:03 pm
That trivet is adorable. I am always amazed at what you come up with in a day. And I do believe it was Jo from Little Women that said it.
18 November, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I have no idea on the quote.
I just wanted to say how lovely the trivet is, and how generous you are to give it away!
18 November, 2008 at 4:00 pm
That’s what Jo said in Little Women. I even think it’s right at the beginning of the book.
18 November, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Jo March from Little Women for sure! A favorite book. :) I love the little quilt wall you’re doing!! So inspiring. :)
~Mackenzie
18 November, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Does it count if I recognized the quote but only remembered when I saw everybody else’s answers? Love the trivet!
18 November, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I’ve emailed my answer (before looking at the comments but after Googling the quote). :-) Cheerful trivet! Would definitely brighten things up around here!
18 November, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Little Women - sweet Jo. How fun. I love that book. I think I’ve read it 3 times. Everything you make Lily - jumps out of your blog. It all has such life. I love this one.
18 November, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Gosh, everyone seems to know the answer. It’s Jo, Little Women.
I once had an English test where we had to identify famous first lines of 20 literary classics. >shudder<
18 November, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Jo from Little Women, cute trivet!!
18 November, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Darling Jo from Little Women. One of my favorite books/films ever!
19 November, 2008 at 8:00 am
Jo from Little Women! I love this trivet :)
19 November, 2008 at 8:21 am
I wanted to enter…but I have to admit I cheated (It was Jo) I found it on this crazy thing called the “World Wide Web”. yes, you can just type in things that you care to know and fun answers appear. You should really try it yourself, it is great.
;)
PS
I like how you just come up with all of these things, a trivet quilt…now that is a great idea!
19 November, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Jo March, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - an unusual thing for me, for some reason I loved the movie better than the book!!
19 November, 2008 at 10:39 pm
That is such a sweet trivet. I thought Buzz said the quote in Home Alone 2. Haven’t read Little Women since I was a girl. Should try it again now that I’m a mother myself. Glad to hear you came through the storm ok. I must have been living under a rock as I didn’t realize how bad it was until the news yesterday? Just been working too hard I guess.
Cheers Shari
I visited you from Lurline’s blog.
20 November, 2008 at 3:30 am
Very pretty! I am impressed, as always, with your ability to make something useful from a few scraps. Do you teach classes, Lily?
20 November, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Lily!! The tea trivet is soooo cute - it just speaks of SPRING!!! You did a lovely job.
It’s funny you would mention 123 stitch because I was just there yesterday. I found a new designer that I like… Mon Ami Pierre - I don’t know if you are aware of her, but her cross-stitch patterns are just too French to pass up. I too have an ongoing list of patterns I would like to stitch up. An unrealistic list, but one could still strive, couldn’t one?! ;)
Take care!
20 November, 2008 at 4:40 pm
That is absolutely lovely! Sounds like another quilting book I need to look into.
21 November, 2008 at 12:32 am
Jo in Little Women !
I love your the colors you chose