Kitchen towel project

Kitchen towel fabrics

 I made a couple kitchen towels this week. My dad's wife has a small bed of roses in her yard. My dad had a few favorites and looked forward to those plants blooming. I've had this half yard of rose fabric in my stash for about 30 years. It seemed like a good fit for the project. 

My mom gifted the fabric to me because she thought it would make a great insert to a t-shirt. In the 90s, I inserted a print fabric into a t-shirt. I cut away the t-shirt in strips to expose the print fabric. I placed beads on the ends of the strips. The beaded strips became fringe. Now, people fringe hemlines and sleeves; but, I don't see the fringe in the shirt front.

Close up up the kitchen towel

In November, I bought a striped kitchen towel thinking it might make a good Christmas gift; but, then I got sick and there was no sewing. 

At the beginning of February, my dad's wife had a birthday. I thought that she might enjoy new decorative kitchen towels as part of her birthday gift. I used a pattern through Craft Warehouse.

Finished towels

I usually gather the edge of the towel; but, this time, I wanted to pleat the towel. That took me a lot of trial and error before I figured out the depth of the pleats. I pinned the pleats until I had the width that I needed. 

From the fabric, I was able to make two decorative towels. There were few scraps left which was great! The bias tape trim came from my grandmother's stash. The buttons came from her button jar.

I spent an afternoon working through the project. The top stitching of the handle went well. I often have a challenge with the towel not feeding when I turn the corner. 

I like the finished towels. They would look nice in my kitchen. I did gift them though. My dad's wife loved them. My dad, were he still living, would have gotten a chuckle out of the inspiration behind the project!

Spool block

I used half a yard of a scrap fabric. This brings my total to -7 yards used from my stash.  I've been working on my postcard project which was goal number five on my February list. Tune in on Wednesday to see how many I've completed!

I also am documenting a block that I made last month which was gifted at the February guild meeting to the outgoing president of the Mt. Hood Quilters guid. 

I liked the spool block pattern. I used a green and white striped fabric to represent variegated thread. It is a six and half inch block. I made it from scraps.

I'm linking to Cynthia and Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. Please check out the link as there is all kins of scrappy goodness!