I subscribe to BH&G's American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, so somewhere along the line, I also liked them on Facebook. Some interesting projects show up from time to time and I'm faithful to download them and stash them in a folder on my computer and promptly forget about them. But a few weeks ago a cute and simple project appeared, and after downloading, I actually printed out the instructions and took them to my sewing room.
There was a wedding shower coming up at church, so I decided on a themed gift featuring the project and sunflowers. I already had an extra sunflower hot pad and I had recently finished a sunflower yellow dishcloth. Enter the project, a tea towel, and I would have a good start on a present. I machine embroidered an appliqued sunflower on a white flour sack type dishtowel and added the trim from the project, bought a Pyrex baking dish and voilà, I was a happy gift giver! And no, I didn't take a picture.
But! When Dan had his knee surgery, our friend Tina came to visit bearing a huge basket of goodies for him--oranges, ingredients for chicken soup, a bag of coffee, and a baguette. We've kind of adopted Tina since her husband Steve's death two and half years ago, and she wanted to bring her "Dad" some love. I realized later that I had kept her basket and decided that it needed to be returned with some goodies in it. So I made another towel and dishcloth. Here's the towel:
And here's a link to the instructions. The instructions call for cutting 4 1/2" squares to make the prairie points, which I did for the first one, but I thought they were a little big, so I cut 3 1/2" squares for this one and I like them better.
When I first found the project, I went looking for flour sack type towels here in town and was dismayed to find they were rather expensive. Three towels for $15.99 seemed to be a little over the top. I searched on Amazon and finally found these. I paid $16.99 for a dozen, but now that I check, I see that they are $21.99! Amazon's prices vary so much from day to day! But even at that, they are much cheaper than the five plus dollars each they sell for locally.
It's a fun project, and both the bride-to-be and Tina loved their gifts. I'm excited to make more. I can see Christmas themed ones, Americana ones, etc. The prairie points are a great way to use up small scraps. Let the stitching continue!! ♥
Thanks for showing this, Chris. I'll check it out. Delightful gifts!
ReplyDeleteI'm always excited to find a new way to use embroidery designs and although this project comes with two patterns for hand embroidery, there was no way I would do them that way. I'm not very good at hand embroidery.
DeleteI'm okay with hand embroidery until it comes to satin stitch. But I do struggle to find ways to use the many machine embroidery designs in my collection.
DeleteOh! And I meant to tell you about my stash of flour sack towels. Turns out that I have many. Over the years, I would buy them when I saw them, but I have never used them. Honestly, it's a buffalo. My mother told me that I needed to straighten the hem and embroider any towel before I use it, and that just gets me stopped.
ReplyDeleteSo are these they type that have no hem at all and you have hem them yourself? I remember Mrs. Wilfong teaching us in beginning 4-H to draw a thread and pull to make a straight of the grain edge before hemming.
DeleteOh! I have all types. Some are good, others are poorly hemmed, and still others have no hem. Yes, I remember pulling the thread, too. That's what Mother wanted me to do. At the time, I thought I had enough to do without doing that.
DeleteI don't think I've ever pulled a thread since that time. I'm anxious to get down and stitch out some more, maybe tomorrow? Sniff, cough, blech!!!
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