Yesterday friends called to visit and presented us with a wonderful surprise - a retirement gift, especially hand-made just for us. Knowing of my wombat collection (the whole world knows of my wombat collection by now) Alison painted a beautiful bowl in my favourite colours, and personalised it with a special message too.
Thank you so much! Friends are very special folk.
Earlier this month Carole posted on her blog about some lovely old and embroidered linen she bought, including a white piece that she was unsure about. It's a tea cosy, shaped like mine. This one was made by my mother's Auntie Laura (who made the lovely doyley in last week's WOW post) I am guessing in the 1930s; the outer layer is beautifully tatted lace, front and back are the same, and the lining is green rayon taffeta with a shirred panel joining the front and back pieces. Inside that is a cosy made of white cotton fabric padded to keep a teapot warm. I can't tell what the padding is as the white fabric is tightly woven, but it feels as though it may be unspun wool. It would probably fit a four-cup teapot.Somehow I don't think this was in everyday use....I think it would have been kept "for good". I also have a beautiful cloth that Laura made, with an ecru linen centre and a very wide tatted lace border. My mother always told me that one day it would be mine, and when she died ten years ago all these lovely pieces came to me. When I die.......who knows?
Jennifer
