Tea Cosy

Here at Sew HQ, we passionately believe that no crafty project is complete without a cup of char to keep you going. This delightful quilted cosy by Lucinda Ganderton will ensure your tea keeps at temperature, while giving you the perfect opportunity to practise your English paper piecing skills, happy in the knowledge that you’re making something you can show off to your afternoon tea guests.

Essentials

Fabric, cotton: turquoise floral, 45cm square; yellow spot, 45cm square; bright pink, 25cm square; white lining, two 30cm x 35cm rectangles
Quilt wadding, two 30cm x 35cm rectangles
Bias binding, pink gingham, 1.5mm x 1.1m
Air or heat-erasable pen

Sizes

24cm x 30cm

Cutting guide

Turquoise floral: 28 hexagons
Yellow spot: 24 hexagons, plus one 27cm x 32cm piece for backing
Plain pink: 23 hexagons
Lining: two 27cm x 32cm pieces for the inlay
5mm seam allowance used throughout, unless otherwise stated.

Download and print the templates from sewmag.co.uk. Cut squares of fabric and attach a paper hexagon template to each one, leaving at least a 1cm allowance around the edge of the paper shape. Stitch around the edges of the hexagon, tacking the fabric in place. Attach two fabric hexagons together with tiny ladder or slip stitches.
Take the small hexagon templates and create three bright pink rosettes with turquoise floral centres, two yellow spot rosettes with turquoise floral centres, and two turquoise floral rosettes with yellow spot centres. Stitch each set of rosette hexagons together right sides facing, then sew together the seven flower shapes, so that they match the arrangement indicated by the thick black line in the diagram from the template pack.
Press and unpick all the paper pieces in the centre of each flower, leaving the templates around the outside edges. There are still a few gaps in the tea cosy design, so fill these in with partrosettes and single hexagons, again following the diagram. Press again, and unpick the paper pieces. Press each seam allowance around the edge outwards.
Lay a piece of wadding on top of one of the fabric lining rectangles and position the patchwork piece centrally on top, right side up. Pin the layers together, then pin the template centrally to the patchwork and draw around it with an erasable pen. Hand-quilt in the ditch around the centre hexagon of each rosette or part-rosette, and around the outside edges of the rosettes. Trim the long straight bottom edge back so that you have a seam allowance of 5mm.
Neaten the edge with pink gingham bias binding to disguise the raw edges. Place the yellow spot fabric backing and remaining lining piece together, with right sides facing. Arrange the wadding on top and pin all three layers together along the long edge. Machine-stitch, taking a 1cm seam allowance, then fold back the lining so that the wadding is sandwiched between the two layers. Press.
Lay the backing fabric on your work surface with the lining uppermost and place the quilted front on top, right side up. Align the bottom edges and pin, then tack, along the side and top edges. Machine-stitch along the drawn line you made earlier, then trim the seam allowance back to 5mm. Bind the curved edge with bias binding.