Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Valentine's Day dishtowels

Last year I designed a cupcake applique embroidery design, and used luscious light pink Minkee fabric for the frosting portion of the design. It looked great on dishtowels. It was a fun design to use on baby bibs as well.

Another design that is great for Valentine gifts is this "Sweetie Pie" design by Sonia Showalter.

I haven't designed or purchased my 2009 Valentine towel design, but will have to do so fairly quickly! This year I did purchase some Kohl's dishtowels, and embroidered names on them. Actually, the Kohl's towels were quite pretty, and this was a quick option for a pretty gift. Normally I only embroider on my microfiber dishtowels, but couldn't pass up the Kohl's towels because of their sale price and how cute they were. Here is one style I used.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Winter Survival Kit


WINTER SURVIVAL KIT......that is the title I have given to this gift!!! It is mostly items that are useful for the frigid temperatures that Illinois has had this winter. It is actually a Christmas gift for a friend. We had planned this gift exchange for January 13th, but cancelled due to extremely cold temperatures and the fact that we would each be driving home late in the evening. Soooo......the get-together has now been rescheduled for this Wednesday, and of course, more cold temps and more snow are forecast.

You might notice that my friend's name is embroidered on the grocery bag. I decided to package the gift in something that would actually be a useful part of the gift....a reusable grocery tote. I have embroidered quite a few bags for family and friends. It is kind of useful to have your name on your bag in case you are like one daughter whose bags fell off the cart and she knew they were hers when she went back thru the store to find them, and came across the ones with her name on them.....


OK, what else is in this bag? Well, handcream is an essential this time of year. This particular hand cream potion was from a recipe on Splitcoast Stampers. Everyone seems to love it. The snowman tag is actually on top of the lid, but you can't see it in the picture, so I put one next to the jar.




I also included a plastic batter bowl....for baking up some warm muffins which as we all know....comfort food is a necessity in frigid winter weather. There is a big, white plastic "happy spoon" by ZAK Designs, as well as an embroidered snowman towel. Oh, and a Jamani Java thermal mug for the hot tea, cocoa or coffee.











And a couple pair of Polarfleece (tm) socks that I made.









And a light blue bath sheet that was too great of a sale price to pass up!










This post doesn't really fit in to the Dishtowel Dame focus of this blog, except to point out that an embroidered dishtowel can fit into almost any theme you can dream up.