I used to put tea bags into the recycling bin but now they sit on a shelf to dry and are then incorporated in artwork. Of course, the tea is first removed! I iron the bags onto fusible web to be used on fabric and paper and once so stabilised they can be successfully stitched.
For this piece, the teabags were stitched down with lines of quilting. I then screen printed the teasel images onto the quilt. There was further stitching to highlight some of the outlines of the images and to give depth.
The reason I like using teabags is that the patterns made by the tea are random but there is a unity in the colours - sometimes very pale, often dark and all in a beautiful palette.
The various stages of preparing a teabag hanging:
For this piece, the teabags were stitched down with lines of quilting. I then screen printed the teasel images onto the quilt. There was further stitching to highlight some of the outlines of the images and to give depth.
The reason I like using teabags is that the patterns made by the tea are random but there is a unity in the colours - sometimes very pale, often dark and all in a beautiful palette.
The various stages of preparing a teabag hanging:
 Dried |  Emptied |
 Ironed |  Finished! |