Tea Party with Oreos

I recently completed a fun friendship quilt for my friend, Kim K. which features teacups and teapots. Kim and I met when our husbands were stationed in Stuttgart, Germay. We both enjoyed “hanging out” at the Patch Barracks craft store, where Kim enrolled in several of my quilting classes. We also joined the Black Forest Quilt Guild composed of American and international quilters.

The Guild had a wonderful tradition of giving quilt blocks for special occasions. For example, if you celebrated a “round birthday” – meaning a birthday ending in a zero, you could request blocks of a certain type from the guild members. And if a move was in the imminent future, you could request blocks to remember the group by. Kim requested teapot and teacup blocks.

Here’s the quilt draped over my sofa.

Most of the blocks were paper-pieced with off-white background. Kim’s vision was placing the colorful cups on a black background, so she carefully cut around the cups leaving a margin of the background fabric. She placed the cups on wide strips of black fabric and zig-zagged around them with silver metallic thread. The sashing is “Fairy Frost” with silvery sparkles. Isn’t the teacup print border fabric perfect?

I selected a dark gray thread and quilted meandering with loops, hoping the design would suggest steam rising from the pots and cups. The dark gray blends well with all the fabrics.

Another wonderful guild tradition was the refreshment table at every meeting which we sampled midway through the meetings. We Americans enjoyed tasting international recipes of salads and finger foods. And our German friends particularly enjoyed foods we could purchase in the commissary but were not available in their grocery stores. Kim’s claim to fame was bringing Oreos purchased at the commissary, all varieties and flavors. Many of the ladies affectionatley referred to Kim’s Oreo bringing tradition on the hand-signed label which I stitched to the back of the quilt.

Oreos are the perfect cookie for a tea party, don’t you think?