5/6/14

Dish Towel Doings

Fourteen years in the making.  I know, that is a long time to think about what design to embroider on a 'DISH TOWEL'.  Really, it's a dish towel!! 

I had intentions of hand embroidering a 'Weekly Set'...you know like the ones 'grandmother made'...Cleaning on Monday, Baking on Tuesday, Sewing on Wednesday...and so on.  The ones with Sunbonnet Sue or the Colonial Gal doing all those chores...you know the ones we 'DISHY Collectors' search for at estate and garage sales.

The ones we know we would NEVER use to dry a single dish.  The ones we might hang for display only.  The ones we save for our grandchildren because we love them so much...the dish towels...okay the grands, too. 

Then one day, we realize a couple of things...#1.  the Grands idea of drying dishes is the last cycle of the dishwasher.  #2.  to them a Dish Towel is made of Micro-fiber and comes in Neon Colors and Zebra Stripes. #3. for them any embroidery should say something like 'I Don't Do Dishes', and sadly, 'Sunbonnet, who?'

Coming to those realizations was what prompted today's Dish Towel doings!  Out from under the cover came my Janome 10000 Embroidery Machine and this once used Flower Collection Card.  What fun!  I hooped, stabilized, chose colors from a huge collection of embroidery threads, and watched the magic of  a computerized sewing machine stitch in 25 minutes what would have taken days, weeks, months, or in my case fourteen years to do by hand.


Pretty, huh?
I think the 'Dish Dry Guy' at my house will think so!

8 comments:

  1. Those are beautiful! My grandmother used to teach us embroidery by having us stitch fruits and veggies on dishtowels. They weren't the gorgeous creations yours are, though, but they were still pretty cute . . . cartoon peaches and pears with funny faces and silly puns written underneath. My mom still has some of them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have some of these beauties in my mom's cedar chest. Too precious to use. But precious enough to pass on.When I go to thrift stores I always look for treasures and have a nice little collection of the needlepoint pieces too. Ah...you talented girls! I love your creative hearts. Hugs, Anne

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Sue .. they are beautiful - those sorts of sewing machines came along too late for me to experiment .. ie not being arty and being older I'd had other things to do .. I might have tried otherwise ...

    I 'inherited' three Victorian knapkins, hand water-coloured painted, and had them framed up - sadly they weren't my family so the rest I suspect went the way of all things ... I've got my three ...

    Great idea though, and yes life changes each generation doesn't it ..

    Could you email me .. full name without the hyphen at gmail - it's on the blog .. I can't seem to see yours here .. thanks: I just want to ask a question re your comment and G+ .. many thanks

    Cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  4. My husband's grandmother embroidered dish towels for all her grandkids. One is totally ruined from using it as a bread basket liner, so I've been reluctant to use the others and so they sit in the closet. Now I'm wondering why -- may as well drag 'em out and enjoy them like your dish dry guy no doubt will.

    ReplyDelete
  5. lovely work and you were in charge of the machine so you get full credit. Best to use the pretty stuff and enjoy it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. **Clears throat and says, please dear, let me correct you**
    That's not a dishtowel, that's a tea-towel and no self respecting housewife would use a dishtowel instead........lint honey, lint. Oh My, do I hear my Grandmother talking right now. This brought back memories. One lady at work and I joke about tea-towels, no one else is old enough or spent enough time in a "real" kitchen back in the day to have a clue. lol Very pretty...and you have a machine that did it, wozer. I do actually have a few linen cloths, and you know what, Grandma was right, no lint on my wine glasses. Dish washer is ok by me, 99.9% of the time. Pretty colorful flowers, they'll look great in your kitchen.

    Popping round to let folks know anyone who visited more then a handful of times and left comments during the most recent challenge is added to my blog log, to share some linky love and to make visiting easier. You're one of them!

    <a href="http://travelingsuitcase.blogspot.com/2014/05/fuengierto-spain.html:>Sandy at Traveling Suitcase</a>

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pretty towels. I have some of the vintage ones, and yes, I don't dry dishes with them, I just admire them and sometimes hang one from the oven door handle.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have worn out and used up all the dish towels my mother and I embroidered when I was little. Now, it's time to make more. I would love a machine that does it for me but I also enjoy doing the work and then using what I've made. And as for the lint...they plowed the field across the street from me and lint is the least of my worries. I love to see embroidered anything and your towels are a real work of art.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your visit & comment. I'd love to return the visit...please leave your LINK or click on over and comment on Where Bluebonnets Grow.