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Teacup

by Maria Elkins

September 2002
42" high by 42" wide
Copyright © 2002, Maria Elkins, All Rights Reserved.

I love responding to challenges because they stretch me and force me to try new techniques. For 2002, my quilt guild gave us the challenge of creating a quilt using only the colors blue and white and there was one blue and white fabric that everyone had to use.

Blue is my favorite color, so I was looking forward to participating in this challenge. Not surprisingly, more than half my fabric stash is blue and white so I began by thinking of traditional blocks that would be effective in just two colors and that could make use of my abundant supply. I ended up with way too many blue and white quilts that I wanted to make! I was overwhelmed, but that led me to think of other things I like that are blue and white.

I collect blue and white, antique, calico buttons so I tried to come up with a way to display them, but I didn't like the ideas I came up with. Then I thought of my blue and white teacup collection. I thought of rows of teacups and saucers sitting on shelves. Next I thought of a tea party scene, complete with blue teddy bears but that would be too complicated for my time constraints. I decided I needed to simplify my life and just make one teacup. I did a series of thumbnail sketches of teacups from various viewpoints and I tried cropping the sketches in different ways. I liked my final sketch because it was simple and the teacup was not immediately obvious.

The simple teacup sketch evolved into a study of repeated shapes and curves. I wanted to add something inside the teacup to eliminate having a big white void. Flowers seemed to be an obvious solution so I did an internet search for blue flowers. I ended up choosing hepaticas. I had never heard of them before and I have never seen one in real life, but I like the contrast between the simple, oval petals and the weird, spiky centers.

The curves of the cup and saucer are machine pieced. The challenge fabric is the tiny print behind the saucer. The scallops on the saucer are made from a print of blue and white plates. These were selectively cut out, fused and machine appliqued. The flowers and the water surface were hand painted with Setacolor fabric paint and machine appliqued to the cup and saucer. The scrollwork was stenciled using Setacolor and Lumiere paints. The piece was quilted with metallic, rayon and invisible threads. The centers of the flowers are made by looping and couching rayon rattail cording.

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