Dish Towels - I must have an addiction!

I have been on the lookout lately for plain dish towels that I could spruce up a bit to add to my Etsy shop.  Everyone can use a new fun dish towel.  Anything that will brighten up the job of washing those dirty dishes or cleaning the kitchen is a win-win situation in my house.

When I recently came across some bright spring colored dish towels that were on sale I snatched up the last bundle with excitement.  They are fun spring time colors so I wanted to add something to them that resembled spring flowers.

The first of the bundle embellished.

 

The first one I made by adding a wide band of orange gingham checked fabric and a grouping of yoyo's in coordinating fabrics.  This was a simple process and it turned out sooo cute.  (It might have to stay in my kitchen.)  I have five more in various colors left in this bundle.  It will be exciting to see what ideas bloom soon for the others.

 

Yoyo's are a great way to add a simple embellishment

to many different items.

 

In my cabinets I had stuffed (I mean - stashed) some dish towels from a while back.  They are black and white.  Now black and white is a classic combination.  And if you add an additional color to that combination it is just down right fantastic.  I added a yellow flower applique to the center of the black and white striped towel and topped it off with a large black button in the center.  To soften the edge I added a pale yellow gingham checked ruffle. 

Simple and striking!

The flower applique came in a kit with several other flower appliques.

 

The next black and white towel was checked so I added some leftover quilt squares along one end.  It was quick and easy to add the squares and run a decorative stitch around the edge.

 

The four outside squares are scraps from a friends baby quilt she made.

 

The center square is from my grandmothers fabric stash. 

I have always loved this fabric and was excited to use it for this simple project.

 

Dish towels as I have stated before make a great gift for any occasion.  And if it is a personalized or handmade dish towel it is even better.  So the next time you are walking through the home section of your local store check out the blank dish towels that are on sale.  Snatch up a few and make a gift that will impress all your friends and family.  Maybe they will invite you to dinner and you can use the towel to help with the dishes.

 

Danna

Another scrap bag! - Red, White and Blue

In the previous post Use It or Lose It!  I described my new process to work through the many scrap bags of fabric in my cabinets.  This particular scrap bag was all red, white and blue fabrics that were in my friends stash and she passed it on to me. 

The scrap bag of Red, White and Blue fabrics.

 

I will admit this bag was fun to work on because the fabrics were really cute.  It did have several orphan blocks in the bag along with scraps of various sizes.  To find out more about my love for orphan blocks check out this post Orphan Blocks.

 

Some of the orphan blocks in the scrap bag.

 

I have already made several projects with these scraps and still have a few left to use up.  One of the first projects was two dish towels with pieced strips.  I took the various strips of coordinating fabrics and sewed several rows together to create a band. 

 

Various length strips sewn together to create a band.

 

I then sewed the band down to the edge of the dish towel with a zigzag stitch.  I left the raw edges showing and stitched around all four sides.  I liked the raw edge because it gives the towel a more rustic feel rather than a formal feel.  The fabrics were too fun for a stuffy feeling.

 

The raw edges secured with a zigzag stitch.

The finished towel will be festive for July.

Simple yet festive!

 

My process seems to be working well for using up scraps and getting all the bags out of my cabinets.  Don't tell my husband but if this keeps up I will have room for some new fabric!! There are several more projects in the works from this bag but I will post more about them later.

 

Danna

Use It or Lose It!

As I stretch myself to begin the process of using the things in my home that I love and tossing the things I don't I have a new approach to my craft supplies. You have probably figured out by now that I am a person who does not like to have any waste or scraps from project. I tell myself there has to be some use for those left over pieces.  This thought process has served to uproot my deepest creative ideas and bring them to the surface. I am beginning to learn in this journey that some things you really just need to use or lose.

All of my friends in quilt group know that I will take the scraps from their projects so they will bag them up and bring them to me.  I really do love this, but in the past I would bring the bag home and stuff it in my cabinets to deal with at a later time.  Well, now I am forcing myself to bring them home, sort them and decide right then in what projects they will be used.  It is a slow and steady process but I am beginning to see that it has great benefits down the road.

Here is an example of a recent scrap bag gift from my friends and my new process.  In the bag was a selection of selvage strips, some small pieces cut off the end of quilt blocks, several drop out circles of fabric and larger pieces from a baby gift, and the scraps of a twister quilt.  So my process begins.

1.  Take all the selvage strips and place them in the jars above my work station sorted by color.  I really do use these all the time to tie up gift baskets, ties for gift tags etc.

2.  Pull out the larger pieces of fabric and place them in my fabric stash drawers so I know what fabrics I have to use for future quilts and projects.

My smaller pieces of fabric.

For more info check out this post Fabric Storage.

 

3.  I took the small cut off ends and sorted them by color.  Since they were from a quilt project they already coordinated beautifully.  I cut the larger pieces down so they were roughly 1" x 4" strips.  I then sewed them together using a zig zag stitch down the center to form a garland.

 

Small leftovers from a quilt project. 

I will post more on how the garland was made later.

 

4.  The drop out circles were used to create as many Yo Yo's as I could get out of each circle.

 

Large circles left from a baby gift project.

I cut down the larger circles to create a selection of yo yo's.

 

5.  One batch of the twister quilt scraps were an odd shape cut on the bias.  I did not think these would work well cut into smaller squares so I used them to make a nice grouping of Yo Yo's.  I have a box I keep all my pre-made Yo Yo's in so when I am working on a project I can just pull one out and I don't have to stop and make one.

 

6.  The remaining scraps from the twister quilt were used to embellish a dish towel to be sold in my Etsy shop. I had just enough to create a great looking towel.

 

The blue and white fabric are the twister scraps.

The green yo yo's are from the odd shaped scraps.

 

There, all of the scraps were either used immediately on an existing project or prepared for use in a future project.  A bonus of this process is that I do not have a small bag of random scraps "stuffed" in my cabinets.  There was only a small amount of "trash" from the bag and it was easy to toss them. 

 

My plan is to keep this process going every time I bring home a gifted bag of scraps.  I do still have several "stuffed" in the cabinet I am beginning to work on now.  It is refreshing to use the things I have to create new projects and clear out some space in my cabinets.  Who knows what I will create using the next bag of scraps but I am excited to get started.

 

Danna

 

 

Christmas Countdown

Well, December is here ready or not.  Over the next few weeks I will be posting some Christmas gift ideas I am either doing this year or have done in the past.  Hopefully, this countdown will provide you some last minute gift ideas you can use.

The first gift idea is Christmas dish towels.  In several previous posts (Dish Towels & More Dish Towels) I showed you several towels I made for Christmas and other holidays.  Over the Thanksgiving holiday I created a few new ones.  Here they are:

I thought this towel needed something very simple.  I chose a plain white cotton crocheted lace and added three green buttons in the center.  This would be a welcome addition to any traditional kitchen.

This towel has three strips of coordinating fabric that I cut with a pinking rotary blade and then stitched around the edges with one of the "fancy" stitches on my machine.  I had originally intended to ruffle these strips but then decided to go a different direction.  The three red buttons on the center strip added one final detail.









Since this towel was a solid red I used a fabric strip that is a little more busy.  These strips are stitched like the ones above.  The star and snowmen button really stand out on the green and add a layer of whimsy.










This towel was the most challenging.  I added a box pleated
edge to the bottom.  I could not remember how to make
 the box pleat so it took me a while and several attempts
to get it right.  To finish the top edge of the pleat I added
 a simple white ribbon.

The last two towels have ruffled strips like the ones in my previous post.  Hopefully these will spark some ideas for quick gifts that anyone can use. 

 

 

Until tomorrow! 

 

Danna   

More Dish Towels

Dish towels (in my humble opinion), should not only be functional but attractive.  They should bring an element of joy and fun to your kitchen.  This is especially true during the holiday season.  Even if your house is not full of guests your family will enjoy the extra dash of cheer. 

Last year I had several Christmas events to attend where I needed a gift for a gift exchange.  Since we live on a tight budget I have the "opportunity" to get very creative with these gifts.  I usually prepare a gift basket based on a theme and fill it with several handmade items plus a few bought items.  One particular event I was to attend required a gift for only ladies.  This allows for an abundance of creativity.  I started searching through my stash and came up with some plain dish towels I had purchased.  Now all they needed was a "pink lemonade idea" to turn them from plain to fancy. 

I decided to add some ruffled strips of fabric to the edge.  I used three different fabrics and made the strips 2 inches wide.  I cut the strips out with a pinked edge to prevent fraying.  When I was stitching these up at quilt group one evening (about two days before the event) everyone was complimenting how cute they were.  I knew then I had a winner of a gift.

I used the method of stitching a zigzag stitch down the center of the fabric over the thread tails.  You can find several videos on You Tube for this method.  It works really well and is very easy.

Using left over strips of fabric I tied the towels at the top to give them a nice presentation.

At the party we played the gift exchange game where you can steal a gift from someone else.  These ladies were having a great time "stealing" my towels from the person who first chose them.  The lady who finally won the towels was very excited.  It is always nice to know that a gift you made is loved and appreciated.

This year I have plans for some new dish towels and I think I may take them to our quilt group Christmas party.  So the next time you need a quick gift that everyone can use and enjoy look for a sturdy plain dish towel.

Danna

Dish Towels

I am working on items I plan to put in my booth at a local craft fair in November.  Since finances are rather tight at the moment I am going through my vast array of craft and sewing items to see what I can make up for the fair.  I came across three pieces of dish towel cloth that a friend gave me a while back.  The pieces were finished on the sides but they were cut short on the length.  Therefore they were a good bit smaller than your traditional dish cloth.  Oh my, a Pink Lemonade opportunity.

Since the toweling was red I decided to go with a "holiday" theme and made one for Christmas, Valentines and July 4th. I added about 4 inches of cotton fabric to each end of the red toweling.  I attached it the same way you do the binding edge of a pillow case so all of the seams are on the inside.  (If you don't know how to do this search on You Tube for making a pillowcase and there are tons of videos.)  I then added some detail to one side of the towel. Along the edge of the seam where the toweling and cotton fabric are joined I added a decorative stitch.  This is a simple detail and makes the seam lay flat.

Three holiday dish towels

 On the Christmas towel I added a button wreath. (Use up that button stash I have!)

 The July 4th towel I appliqued some simple stars.  Applique is a great way to add some interest.

The Valentines towel has a heart machine embroidered in variegated thread.  I also added a button to the middle of the heart. (Once again, use up that button stash!)

As I work on more projects for this craft fair I will share my "Pink Lemonade" opportunities.  I always find that my creative juices flow better when I use what items are on hand rather than purchasing specific supplies for a project. 

Danna