i am tres giddy today, for we are having an easter part-tee tomorrow! i cannot recall the last time we did such a thing. i suspect it is many many moons ago and not the fact my recall skills are pants. we have it all planned out. in the morning, me and Our #4 will make easter nests, an easter cake and hand rolled marzipan eggs, no less! then late lunch we will meet up with my adopted auntie and her man at the local curry house for the lunchtime buffet. oh but that... that is just the beginning of our easter part-tee. post curry buffet, we will return to mossy shed, spend the afternoon wisely playing board games and card games and then, come tea time, with a flourish and a voila! i will make a nice pot of tea and bring out the cake, nests, marzipan eggs with thumb prints and the fabby red velvet cupcake cookies my adopted auntie prepared earlier that day in her own kitchen.
surely i say to myself, this is so worthy of a bit of giddiness, and surely i say to myself, this thrilling event of an easter part-tee... which by the way Our #3 did point out really does it count when you only have 2 guests at your party, which i promptly ignored, then a few mos later dropped into conversation 'red velvet cookies' and suddenly he was all about the easter part-tee. ha! i see where his alliance falls. not with his mother's baking, no sirree! but with his mother's adopted auntie's baking. i did not let this rain on my little part-tee parade, nope, i did not.
and so i say to myself, surely this fabby occasion calls for a fabby spring cloth for the table...
you could make one too, too, too, we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo... no, no we are not, we are going to the curry house, not the zoo, stop this nonsense Tif and carry on with clear intention as to what you are rambling on about today.
quite right, (pulls up knee socks, does a bit of deep yogic breathing and steadies her wavering thoughts)
i am thinking, (cos i do a lot of that) you could make this tres grande, or tres petite. you could make it square, or you could make rectangular, you could also make it circular if you are wearing your clever clogs. you could take a measuring board and cutting tool, or you could grovel around on the carpet with a tape measure and scissors late at night like moi. you could serge or double fold the hems over or you could just like me, leave it raw and let it fray nicely, because after all, easy peasy is the name of the game
all things left wisely up to you as only you know best how you like things made.
basically all you need to have is a nice old mish mash of fabrics, all those pieces you have left from favourites you can't bear to part with. gather them all together and then start attaching them in strips. make sure they are sort of on the large size or this will take you more than an evening of grovelling around on the floor.
so to put it in a nutshell and make it easy to understand, looking at the photos i scattered throughout this most interesting and fascinating post, you will see, one of my strips was made from the tres bright and jolly retro orange flowers, on the right side of the cloth (kindly given to me by a dearie in old blighty, "hello hello"), and the brown and blue mini floral (found at Joanns fabric store the other week). the other strip was made from the black floral (a vintage apron), a fat quarter of yellow florals (which i used the reverse for a faded look) and a bright pink paisley number (i believe also Joanns but don't quote me, as i really can't recall)
once you have your strips all measuring the same length, it just a question of stitching them together along the long sides. i also did do a bit of top stitching in a straight line along the seams just to keep those pesky raw edges underneath flat after a whirl in Miss Washer. (see photo #3)
after i had finished, i thought how nice it would be to keep going and make a lovely bed spread, or indeed a springified settee throw or perhaps a picnic blanket if i gave it a backing. oh yes i dreamed many dreams for 'my little 48" x 48" approximately sweetie' but t'was late, my knees and back were going 'yakkity yak' and also, i did not wish to drift from my path of 'cloth for easter part-tee'. so she stayed, just as she was, a perfectly patched little 'lucky happy' cloth, not just for easter but for any occasion requiring a bit of hippity happity hoppity...
now of course, some of you still awake may be noting, this little cloth is tres petite for our table, but i have a cunning plan, and my plan goes something like this. move the cloth to the middle of the table to add a dash of colour and springy-ness for the part-tee without folks being overwhelmed and attacked by too much fabric hanging around. because tablecloths can do that can't they? attack you and before you know it, you've jumped up to pass a lovely guest (one of the two you invited) a plate of easter nests, your frock gets tangled up with the hanging over the edge bit of the cloth and disaster strikes, cloth, table contents and yourself, all end up on the floor. hence my little cloth is a 'safety first' sort of tablecloth.
give us a twirl little 'safety first, lucky happy' cloth....
'perfectly perfect for an easter part-tee' even if i do say so myself.
wishing you all a bit of 'hippty happity hoppity' this coming weekend, wherever, whatever you may be up to ~ Tif
