[StitchinGrandma]

Nope the post would be here if I had silly girl. LOL It's me that's nuts.

[susank]

Phew! I feel much better.

But Vicki - you have not chimed in with towel ideas. Do you do anything with yours?

[StitchinGrandma]

When I embellish dish towel I'm more utilitarian than you are because I normally embroider a design of some type in the bottom corner. The designs I use are most often redwork as well since dish towels aren't real thick. Then it just depends on my mood as to the rest of the decorations that I might do. I've done stitching around the entire outside of the towel using a small design or decorator stitch from my machine but most often I don't do a lot. I just know how I am and I don't really like having stuff in my way when drying dishes or my hands which is nothing against you at all. I know a lot of people do have the fancy type towels but then many of those who do refuse to use them at all saying they are for decoration only. I personally don't have the storage in my house for 'decoration only' towels as well as hand towels and dish towels. I also don't have anywhere in my kitchen to hang up decorative towels. Most of the people I give gifts to wouldn't use them either or even put them out so that's why I don't do much with dish or hand towels. Sorry Susan.

[susank]

You know before I had the cottage I had nowhere to hang up dish towels either but I still like really nice ones. I use the frilly ones mostly as hand towels in the kitchen and I often make a third simpler one with the same fabrics to use for dishes. My kitchen at home is fairly "formal" so I never leave towels, appliances or anything other than decorative things out. I am a bit of a neat freak!

You are right about some people not wanting to use things that are too pretty. I have given friends dish towels as gifts when I go for dinner and they immediately say no one is to touch them. I always let them know that I can always make more so they should use them. I feel the same way about a lot of nice things - if you have them use them - what are you waiting for. We have dinner in the dining room with china, silver, embroidered linens and crystal every Sunday. I am a big believer in using your beautiful things. Otherwise why have them!?

[Jami Johnson]

I came across this blog that has some cute tea towel ideas. Thought I'd pass it along. She has some other cute ideas as well.

[StitchinGrandma]

Originally Posted by Jami Johnson

I came across this blog that has some cute tea towel ideas. Thought I'd pass it along. She has some other cute ideas as well.

Those are super cute Jami. AND you really shouldn't need a pattern for that. They are just little quilt blocks pieced together and then attached to the towel. And the others are just quilt squares or applique flowers. Of course, buying her pattern means you would get easy to follow instructions I'd think.

[StitchinGrandma]

Originally Posted by susank

You know before I had the cottage I had nowhere to hang up dish towels either but I still like really nice ones. I use the frilly ones mostly as hand towels in the kitchen and I often make a third simpler one with the same fabrics to use for dishes. My kitchen at home is fairly "formal" so I never leave towels, appliances or anything other than decorative things out. I am a bit of a neat freak!

You are right about some people not wanting to use things that are too pretty. I have given friends dish towels as gifts when I go for dinner and they immediately say no one is to touch them. I always let them know that I can always make more so they should use them. I feel the same way about a lot of nice things - if you have them use them - what are you waiting for. We have dinner in the dining room with china, silver, embroidered linens and crystal every Sunday. I am a big believer in using your beautiful things. Otherwise why have them!?

Yea well I have seen your house Susan. I'd be embarrassed for you to see mine. And mine is nothing even close to formal. I would love nothing more than to have it look A LOT nicer than it does but not to the extent of formal. My big teddy bear husband is not a formal kinda guy and neither are my four boys. LOL Of course, I was raised by a Southern born Mom and you can't get much more laid back than southern women but we did formal for holidays and important times like that even though the kitchen wasn't anything close to formal and we didn't have a dining room in our house either.

[susank]

Jami - thanks for the blog. Those towels are really cute and give me some ideas. I hadn't thought of the quilt squares.

[LottieJo]

Originally Posted by susank

You know before I had the cottage I had nowhere to hang up dish towels either but I still like really nice ones. I use the frilly ones mostly as hand towels in the kitchen and I often make a third simpler one with the same fabrics to use for dishes. My kitchen at home is fairly "formal" so I never leave towels, appliances or anything other than decorative things out. I am a bit of a neat freak!

You are right about some people not wanting to use things that are too pretty. I have given friends dish towels as gifts when I go for dinner and they immediately say no one is to touch them. I always let them know that I can always make more so they should use them. I feel the same way about a lot of nice things - if you have them use them - what are you waiting for. We have dinner in the dining room with china, silver, embroidered linens and crystal every Sunday. I am a big believer in using your beautiful things. Otherwise why have them!?

My mother taught me to use my nice things because if I save them and die my husbands second wife will! I don't want that woman to clean her windows or wash the car with my good towels! LOL

[susank]

Too true - that's kind of my point. A friend sent me one of those e
-mails lately about a husband opening a drawer after his wife was dead and it was full of the beautiful lingerie he had bought her and she had put away and never used - what is the point? Life is short - live it. If lingerie or a towel makes you happy just use it. I have lost too many of my family members at a young age and it really makes you think you have to enjoy things. I don't apologize for being "formal" or a perfectionist - people love me for it - they call me Martha and I laugh - but I truly enjoy what I have. I think that's a good thing. Everyone knows what makes them happy and if anyone else scoffs at it, it doesn't matter - just do what you enjoy and always live life to the max. It's kind of my unspoken motto. I lost my brother in his twenties and my mother in her mid sixties- my sister is blind and lives her life knowing she could die tomorrow because of her health issues. It really makes you re-evaluate - if something makes you happy - no matter how simple it is - just do it. As they say - it's not a dress rehearsal - no second chance! So do whatever it is that makes you happy. Saving for a rainy day is not living. OMG - my trial stress is talking but I really believe this. So much more than dish towels -- but sometimes the simple things make us smile.

[katiedoodles]

Originally Posted by LottieJo

My mother taught me to use my nice things because if I save them and die my husbands second wife will! I don't want that woman to clean her windows or wash the car with my good towels! LOL

Lottie Jo,

That is pretty funny! Before we got married, I promised my husband that I would never have anything in the house that was "just for show". The only exception that I have made was a set of linen Christmas towels that I made for the guest bathrooms.

[Kim in Canada]

Hi Susan. Very, very cute tea towel idea! Love your frills....

Kim

[susank]

Hi Kim - glad you like the towels.

I was thinking about you this weekend. I went into a store in a small town near our cottage and found the magazine with your Life's a Picnic quilt in it. I was thrilled. I have not seen this magazine in the stores I usually go to at home.

[kbembroiderer]

Great looking towels, very inspiring.

[susank]

Glad you like them - that's the whole idea - INSPIRATION!!!