Tea cosies or is it cosys?

This kind of weather is a perfect excuse to stop and have a 'cuppa' as the English say. And in order to keep the teapot warm, a teapot cosy is just the thing.

I finally finished my first 'real' project using two ties from my ever-growing collection. The horse's head was handpainted onto the tie, probably after the tie had been bought. The paint used rendered that portion of the tie extremely stiff such that I think the owner could not have been pleased with the way the tie would hang when worn. I've added free motion stitching to enliven the 'portrait and because of the trapunto quilting, it is now quite smooth & soft to the touch - almost suede-like. I couldn't resist trimming the whole affair with meadow mink from a jacket I purchased at a re-sale store.

BTW - the two ties used in this tea cosy came from Larkin Van Horn's tie donation last year.

My next project is to create two cosies using portraits of Leila & Gypsy individually on the 'front' and a combined photo of both of them on the back. What will be unique about these tea cosies is that they will have no batting, but instead have felted dogs' hair to keep the pot warm. Collecting, needle-felting and then wet felting the dogs' hair was quite the learning process which I completed last year. I now have two fairly large pieces of each colour to work with. Of course I will use the black piece for Leila and the 'brown' for Gypsy, our liver-coloured flat coat retriever.