Ever Heard of A "CRAZY TEA" ??
I am doing my homework for the upcoming
"Julie and Joe's QUILT ADVENTURE"
this Sunday (January 31) in San Jose, CA.
I found this *WONDERFUL, hilarious* passage in
Penny McMorris's 1984 seminal work, the book
"CRAZY QUILTS."
Check it out:
From the magazine “The Ladies’ World,” 1890:
“Crazy quilts, pillows, etc. are going swiftly ‘out,’ but crazy teas are a new and very pleasant diversion.”
Penny McMorris adds:
"The theme of a crazy tea was to be made plain from the moment that the guests received their invitations, for these invitations were to be written in various colors of ink on cards of different shapes and sizes and were then to be stuffed into envelopes that did not match.
The guests, arriving at the stated time, would find the hostess’s home suitably decked out with crazy quilts (“nearly everyone has friends who will lend them”) hung on the walls and draped over the doors. Pictures were to be turned upside down and rehung on the walls. Sofas were to be covered with books, vases, and fancy work (making guests sit on the floor?) Lamps, topped with shades of all colors and sizes, were to be placed in out-of-the-way corners.
The guests who were not fortunate enough to have eaten recently were treated to the following menu: baked beans covered with currant jelly, cornbread and cheese frosted with chocolate icing, tarts stuffed with chow-chow, and to quench the resulting thirst, hot salted lemonade.
Even the party conversation (assuming anyone was still able to talk after a few sips of lemonade) was made to be “crazy” by being stopped and redirected to a new topic every five minutes, at the sound of a bell rung by the hostess."
I love this ~ Let's have a Crazy Tea!
