Dishtowel Dame

Rosie Posie Birthday Cards

2012-02-09T22:33:00.003-06:00

I really like the Rosie Posie stamp and die set from PTI. These cards were cased from a similar one designed by Maile Belles.

Christmas Notebooks

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

These little notebooks are so quick and fun to make. I had some K&Co. Christmas doo-dads that added a nice dimensional touch. The cardstock is SU Pear Pizzaz. The rhinestones are Recollections from Michaels. Most everything else is PTI...the patterned paper, the swirl stamps and the tag die. The notebooks that are glued inside the cover are also from PTI. Now that I think of it, the swirl stamps would have been nice to include on the notebooks themselves, just like I did on the tags! Next time! These made fun little gifts.

Beauty Shop Towel

2012-01-22T19:31:00.000-06:00

My sister needed a gift for her beautician, and we found this design of a blow dryer and scissors on Embroidery Library's site. The font for the name is Noodlescript. I aligned the name with the end of the dryer cord which I think looks pretty cool!

For Sterile Feral Craft Sale

2011-11-13T19:08:00.001-06:00

I embroidered up several dishtowels and packaged each one with a nice little ceramic spoon rest (or tea bag holder) from August Ceramics. This will be my donation, and hopefully raise some money for Sterile Feral. I have a cat colony (approx. 8 cats, but probably more once winter sets in). Last winter the cats were allowed access to our garage due to the severe cold. We also set up heat lamps. This year we are hoping that straw-filled igloos will keep them warm as it is kind of messy to open the garage up to animals...as well as the occasional opposum made himself at home in there, too! (I have had a racoon up on our deck once that I know of just a few weeks ago...so we can't have all kinds of wildlife in our garage). We also purchased a heated water dish, as well as a doghouse for a 70 lb dog which should be large enough to accommodate the cats for their feeding station. They usually come up individually or maybe 2 at a time to eat. Probably wouldn't hold all 8 at once. So anyway, that is the plan for the winter comfort for these cats. All but one have been trapped and neutered. Shame on the people who turn these poor animals out to fend for themselves. And shame on those who call Animal Control. This results in sure death as a feral animal is not adoptable. I have to say you do get attached to your colony cats (well, I am mad at one right now since she always lashed out and slashes my finger with her needle sharp claws as I put food into the dish)....but for the most part, they don't hurt anyone. The sad thing is, they crave human attention, and yet are too afraid to get close. They might crouch at the sliding door for hours gazing in...like they remember a prior existence where they had a nice warm home...but now they are in a limbo..not really a wild animal, and yet not capable of being tamed either. Well, at least "my" cats will be fed and watered and provided shelter. It is all I can do.

Halloween...Better Late than Never!

2011-11-13T19:03:00.001-06:00

Just cranked out a couple of Halloween cards. These were quite easy. I used an "Eye Chart" download that was featured on Tater Tots and Jello. Printed it out and trimmed and adhered to card base. Used a bit of twine, and some of the Tiny Tags (cut with PTI die). Pumpkin face was from Spooky Sweets (PTI). I think these eye chart designs are very cool! Wish I were that clever!

Baby Boy Giraffe Card

2011-11-13T18:59:00.001-06:00

This card goes along with a blue fluffy baby blanket embroidered with feet, as well as a little embroidered bib. I used an old SU set for the giraffe which was stamped and colored with Copics. The background paper is from a Debbie Mumm pad. Sentiment is with PTI's Congrats All Ways.

Pink Fluffy Baby Gift

2011-11-10T06:57:00.001-06:00

It is always fun to make baby gifts. Heather ordered this for a baby shower. The tag was case'd from This Pink Rooster. Tag is diecut using PTI Tag Sale #2. The little baby clothes are also from a PTI die, Hanging Out.

Christmas Planning

2011-11-10T06:41:00.001-06:00

I received my first skinny notebook several years ago from my sister-in-law, Bonnie. I just loved the cute design and the usefulness of this gift, and was inspired to start making some myself. I believe I originally saw the notebook idea on Michelle Wooderson's blog. She has made lots of them over the years as you can see from her blog link. I always get good ideas to CASE when I browse her blog!

The notebooks are lots of fun to make, and lend themselves to all holidays and occasions. This one was made for my friend, Linda, to be used as a holiday planner. I made a cute little reindeer tag to go along with it.

The notebook base is kraft paper. The jar is a PTI diecut. The green dotted paper with the pinked edge is also a PTI diecut. The peppermint stickers were purchased at Hobby Lobby. The snowflake was punched out and I put glue on the ends and dipped them into coarse MS glitter. The inside features a skinny notepad.

The tag is Tag Sale #2, from PTI. The reindeer was stamped and then cut from cork and colored with a red copic. The set is new from Hero Arts/Sizzix and features reindeers, snowflakes and trees. The dies are "open" which makes it very easy to stamp and then cut.

Boxes

2011-11-10T06:35:00.001-06:00

These cute boxes were made using an Accucut die. It is a 2 3/4" box, so that is a nice size to hold a small gift, or even a muffin treat. I used these for my granddaughters' Halloween treat...I put a tiny My Little Pony (halloween ponies) in each. The paper was a pad of K & Co. 12 x 12 halloween prints. Tied a little bakers twine around it and affixed a spider (also K & Co.), and it was done!

Party Bird

2011-10-21T20:34:00.000-05:00

Here is a new design from Urban Threads. I have stitched this twice now and it is kind of a fun design. I normally use textured microfiber dishtowels, but with a "sketch" type of design like this, it requires a flat dishtowel. I found some at Target which are very similar to towels I used and loved from about 7 years ago. They are not exactly the same, but pretty close.

Note to Heather: if you are reading this, this one is yours! Happy Birthday!

Time to Celebrate

2011-10-21T20:25:00.000-05:00

Today's card uses the digital stamp from Hero Arts called SillyScape. I printed it out on PTI Stampers White Select cardstock, and only colored in the clock with a copic marker. The little birthday cake image is from PTI Tag-Its #, stamped onto a diecut (PTI Tiny Tags), tied with yellow bakers twine and popped up. The sentiment stamp is Studio G.

Anniversary Cards

2011-10-19T03:58:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple more anniv. cards. The first one uses SU's Manhattan Rose Folder to emboss the red, as well as to emboss a piece of shimmery cardstock. I then cut the second one to resemble a dress (not my original idea....cased from this pretty card.)

I added a piece of bridal tulle, a half pearl and bow. The sentiment is a Michael's Dollar stamp (quite old).

The next card uses a sheet of wedding paper from my stash for a background. I diecut a small doily using a PTI die, then stamped a sentiment from an old Stampendous set onto it. Ribbon is the new Autumn Rose from PTI, with a Tiny Tag from PTI dangling from it with gold thread.

Anniversary and Wedding

2011-10-17T21:54:00.001-05:00

Seems like lots of weddings this year! And a 50th anniversary party to attend. I worked on those types of cards today.

The first two use the PTI Mehndi Medallion impression plate. A card doesn't need much else when it has this pretty design on it.

Tomorrow I have two more anniv. cards to post.

Here is a closeup of the impression plate design:

Wicked Cool Halloween

2011-10-17T21:48:00.003-05:00

Sometimes the simplest cards turn out the best. I like this card which mostly uses stamps from Stampin Up!'s set Wicked Cool. I did use the spider web from PTI's Spooky Sweets II, and stamped it in Versamark for the background. The paper is SU Crumb Cake. A teeny orange rhinestone sits on the brim of the hat. The inside sentiment is "Have a Wicked Halloween". Card size is 3.5 x 4.

The card will accompany this gift....a Halloween towel using a design from Embroidables. The towel is microfiber.

Wedding Gift

2011-10-16T19:36:00.004-05:00

Wine designs are very popular these days. Seems like new wineries are popping up all the time in Illinois, and probably all over. I have a number of nice wine-related embroidery designs. I embroidered 2 different designs on dishtowels that my daughter ordered for a wedding gift for friends, and also made a wedding card using the bride's colors. The card is made using Mehndi Medallion by Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is also from PTI. Black rhinestones adorn the curliques of the sentiment.

Bitty Bird Birthday

2011-10-16T19:16:00.003-05:00

That is kind of a tongue-twister! This card is for my daughter, Heather's birthday. The set is Little Bitty Bird from Papertrey. I also got the coordinating dies which makes it so easy to cut out the birdies. The paper is from the Lime Twist Pad (My Mind's Eye). The tree was colored with copics. I cut a little banner for the sentiment, which is also from Little Bitty Bird. The card was inspired by Erin Lincoln's MIM video on Nichole Heady's blog.

Note to Heather: Hopefully I will get a little gift made for your sisters to deliver to you in a couple of weeks!

Scrap Tags

2011-10-16T19:03:00.000-05:00

I decided that this blog could also be a "home" to some of my papercrafting efforts. All of the crafts kind of cross over with each other anyway.

This is a quick and useful way to deal with some of the smaller scraps of paper you might have leftover from other projects. I call them "scrap tags". But really, they are so cute...and very easy to make.

I used Tag Sale #2 die from Papertrey Ink. But, I didn't use the entire die. Instead, since it was just a scrap of paper, I let the bottom of the die hang off and once I had made the diecut, I just used my corner rounder to round off the bottom two edges.

Any cute stamp could be used. These are some Hampton Arts Christmas trees that were part of a set that my sister gave me. I used a green copic for coloring. I have a ton of green/yellow rhinestones left from my daughter's wedding....she thought these were more green than yellow, and we needed yellow as a menu selection designation on the placecards, so I ended up using a yellow copic marker to color clear rhinestones! (what a mother won't do!). Anyway, I am finding that these unused "green" ones actually work out nicely on these little tags. I just snip off 5 of them and leave them attached and affix the whole chain of them to the Christmas tree. The black on kraft tree uses some red rhinestones in graduated sizes.

The February "Poppy" Wedding!

2011-09-24T06:18:00.001-05:00

Our family has had two beautiful weddings this year, one in February and one in June. The bride for the February wedding was our 2nd oldest daughter, Lisa. A lot of the decor, etc. was DIY.....actually most of it was accomplished in a 6 week timeframe....we also dealt with a blizzard about a week before the wedding, and the bride also came down with a bad respiratory virus 10 days prior to her wedding day! Fortunately, all the DIY got accomplished, the bride recovered and no one else became sick, and the wedding was beautiful. I am just posting this one picture today, and hopefully Lisa will get a blog post together that chronicles other aspects of the wedding planning. This photo shows the paper poppies that we made!

Irish Pumpkin Festival

2010-09-15T10:43:00.002-05:00

Our parish holds an annual Irish Pumpkin Festival each year about this time. My daughter and I have always contributed a basket for the raffle or silent auction. She makes a zig zag fabric basket and I embroider several dishtowels to include in it. She didn't see my towels when she made her basket...she just knew a general idea of the colors that would be in the towels...but when she brought the basket over for me to assemble it, everything just coordinated perfectly! The designs on two of my towels are from Sonia Showalter Designs, available here.

Yoga Skirt

2010-06-24T15:36:00.001-05:00

Patty Young from ModKid has her Yoga Skirt Tutorial on this blog today. I made this one in about an hour, including the cutting out and finishing. Very quick. It is for a 2 year old, so I may end up cutting a few inches off the bottom and re-hemming it. I have another one cut out for the 3 year old. And I may have to make one for myself as well! That waistband has to be very comfy.

The fabric in this skirt is Andalucia (Flora) by Patty Young for michael miller fabrics.

GOING "GREENER"

2010-06-23T17:45:00.000-05:00

In an effort to be more eco-friendly, I am making cloth dinner napkins for my family and for my daughters and their families.These are a nice generous finished size of 20" x 20", made from 100% cotton fabric. The patterns is "Sunflowers" - designs by Leere for Clothworks. I have used this multicolored print, as well as one that is mostly just various greens, making 2 napkins from each print. The tag is Stampin Up Kraft paper, cut with a frame die from Papertrey Ink, and stamped with Kitchen Classics stamp from Crafty Secrets.

Some bloggers suggest that it makes sense for each family member to have his/her own unique napkin ring...so that the napkin may be placed into that ring after the meal, for use at the next meal, until such time that it needs to be laundered. That is a great idea, which would further save on the time and effort required to launder the napkins. Most of the time, they should be good for several meals.

Here is another napkin idea. I used 100% cotton napkins from Kohl's, and embroidered a little mixing bowl design onto them.

Pretty Raspberries

2010-04-08T20:47:00.000-05:00

This is one of Sonia Showalter's designs. She has a whole raspberry alphabet that is being released a letter at a time, along with corner accents and other raspberry designs. These sure add elegance to table linens, towels, etc.

Easter Towels

2010-04-08T17:52:00.000-05:00

I made Easter towels using a bunny design from Strawberry Stitch Co. The guys got celery green rabbits, and the girls got soft pink rabbits. These were stitched on cream Microfiber Waffle Weave Towels. I think everyone was happy with their gift!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

2010-01-28T18:26:00.002-06:00

Here are some of the gifts all ready to give. I like to make my daughters a dishtowel for most every holiday, as you probably know if you read this blog. These were towels from Kohl's, and I added an embroidered heart and the name. I love Valentine's Day.

Here is one of the towels, with the accompanying card. The card base is kraft cardstock, with some Hero Arts cupcake images, and a sentiment by Studio G. Some rhinestone bling finishes it off.

And here is another version. Normally I embroider on plain microfiber towels, but Kohls usually has such cute towels for Halloween, Valentine's Day and Easter, that I purchase the towels from there, and add some embroidery.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Leopard

2010-01-19T15:40:00.002-06:00

This design stitched up very striking! The leopard has a very realistic look to him when you see this towel in person. The towel was a gift to my daughter in Kansas. She displayed it in a powder room on the main floor, which added a nice decorative accent. The design is a stock design that I purchased from Strawberry Stitch. It has almost 46,000 stitches in it.

Here is a closeup view.

Embroidery Machine is hummin!

2009-12-16T10:18:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in such a long time. I hope to do better in 2010. I love to embroider snowmen, so this year's gift towels will once again have snowmen on them! The designs I picked are quite large in terms of stitchcount, so it takes a while. I have cranked the machine up pretty high...except for when it is stitching metallic thread, which is more fragile and requires a slower machine speed. Just ordered 150 additional microfiber waffle weave towels, with hopes of getting my Etsy shop stocked. I haven't used the cream colored towels before, so ordered 30 of those, as well as some dark brown towels which are nice, too. I am loving the olivey-green ones for these snowmen...the burgundy is a nice contrast. Well, back to the grind. Hope everyone is getting everything done! Seems like December runs on a faster clock! Merry Christmas!

Sunflower Splendor

2009-10-19T12:41:00.000-05:00

I think I want to hold on to summer! Sunflowers seem so summery. Lately our weather has been anything but "summer-like". It has been unseasonably cool even for autumn.

This design is another one of Sonia Showalter's, available here. Lots of pretty embroidery designs to browse through! If you are an embroider, these original designs by Sonia are superbly digitized.

The Etsy shop is bare right now. Hope to remedy that this week! Thanks for stopping by. The sun is out today, yay!

Wedding Cake and Card

2009-09-25T16:26:00.000-05:00

This design was embroidered on a beige microfiber towel, using the colors the bride has chosen for her wedding. Lots of texture and dimension in this design. The card has similar browns and pink, and was made using images from a Stampin Up retired set called Natural Beauty. I was pleased with how this gift turned out!

Christmas Horn and Pines

2009-09-22T16:27:00.003-05:00

Here is another of Sonia Showalter's embroidery designs. All may be found here. This one was embroidered on a microfiber waffle weave dishtowel, with a fabric panel attached to provide a nice flat area to embroider the design. If you want to do this, just cut a strip of fabric the width of your towel x the heighth of your design, allowing for about 2 extra inches so that the design doesn't sit on the edge of the panel. This also gives you some extra to turn under a hem. My towel was a 15" wide. The horn design was about 4" tall, so I cut my panel 16" x 6". Press under half an inch all the way around the fabric rectangle, and then stitch it to the towel. One nice thing about microfiber is that it tends to cling to the cotton fabric, so you hardly have to use any pins to keep the fabric in place while you are sewing it down. I used a decorative stitch, but a straight stitch would work just as well.

The horn is stitched with Madeira 1792 as Sonia recommended. I tried to capture a closeup that would show the sheen of the thread. It really resembles metallic. The pinecones have great texture as well. This is the first time I have used a fabric panel on my towels. It really provides a fabulous surface to embroider on. Every tiny detail of the embroidery stands out. Normally, I use topping on the microfiber, but there is no need for topping when you have the cotton panel. Think of all the possiblities when you combine great designs with your favorite cotton prints! Here are a few more closeups.(click on photos for larger view) Thanks for stopping by!

A Fabulous Pumpkin

2009-09-21T17:11:00.005-05:00

This is a great seasonal embroidery design, appropriate for the harvest season as well as halloween. The design was digitized by Sonia Showalter. You can see all of her fabulous designs here. I stitched it on a floursack dishtowel, and added a few buttons for embellishment. The little spider card was made from a digital stamp, that will be released later this month at BeanPodFrogShop.

Here are a couple of closeups. Notice the twisty stem on the pumpkin. Photos do not capture all the reflected light and how the embroidery seems to change color as you rotate it towards and away from the light.

Thanks for stopping by. Check back tomorrow to see a pretty Christmas horn design.

Autumn Gift Set

2009-09-21T08:48:00.000-05:00

This little gift set went together quickly. The design is one of Sonia Showalter's gorgeous embroidery designs, found here. The design was stitched on a flour sack dishtowel as well as onto a linen square. The little 3 x 3 gift card features a wheat design from Papertrey Ink's First Fruits set, stamped in a subtle Memento Cantaloupe color. A vintage button sits atop a punched paper circle. Quick, easy and fun...and Sonia's designs give the elegant touch!

Ducky Themed Baby Gift

2009-08-20T06:31:00.001-05:00

Several items were included in this baby gift. In the background is a fuzzy duck blanket with a froggy design. The small print blanket has the baby's name on it. The burp cloth features a cute duck and the baby's name and is backed and bordered with a cheery yellow polka dot print. A coordinating ducky card finished off the ensemble.

Summer Fruit, Shades of Blue

2009-08-19T19:12:00.003-05:00

I love sweetcorn. My daughters' neighbors gave them a dozen ears of the best sweetcorn ever! They shared with the whole family. We all enjoyed it, and to thank them I embroidered this dishtowel, and made a little card to go along with it. I hope they like it as much as we liked the corn!

Tiny Apron Cards!

2009-07-06T19:42:00.001-05:00

I found the cutest little apron card on Anna Wight's blog this morning. She included a tutorial as well as a downloadable template. I downloaded the template and was inspired to make a couple of little fabric aprons. I embroidered them instead of using the pocket piece.

The next thing was trying to figure out where to put a sentiment on a fabric apron and make this into a card! I ended up using the Stampin Up Top Note die. My sentiment and stamping is on that cutout, and then the apron is clipped to the Top Note.

I found the clothespins at Stampers Ink in Shawnee Mission, Kansas (thanks Heather!) The recipient of this card could use the apron as a little decorative piece in the kitchen, or I think it is just the right size for an American Girl doll! Thanks, Anna, for the inspiration!

Black Bean Corn Mango Salsa

2009-07-06T13:25:00.003-05:00

I made this recipe by combining several recipes I have tried over the years. You can adjust it easily, or leave out some ingredients if you prefer. This also can be used as a salad. If I serve it as a salad, I will add olive oil to give it more of a dressing. But for scooping up with chips, the oil-free salsa is very tasty and almost fat-free. The jar idea was shown recently on Michelle Wooderson's blog. She put a corn salad in her jar which sounded very tasty.

Here is my salsa recipe. Click here to go to a page where you can download a Word document containing a printable version of this recipe.

Memorial Day Party and Dishtowel Favors

2009-05-28T11:18:00.000-05:00

Every year my sister and her family hosts an annual Memorial Day party. It is always a fun get-together, and this year was no exception. We had gorgeous weather which allowed for my nephew, Brian, to do all the grilling. A net was also set up for volleyball and badminton. Everyone who attends the party brings a dish. I took the easy way out this year and brought potato chips and baked beans....I much prefer making the party favors for events such as this, so this year, I decided that a patriotic dishtowel would be useful and pretty. I made little cards to go along with the towels. I was informed that each year I have to "top" the previous year, ha. At least with the favors, I have plenty of time to make them advance and not have to scramble to make an impressive dish to pass!

Bunnies

2009-03-27T14:11:00.001-05:00

This cute little appliqued bunny dishtowel is available in my Etsy Shop. The white fabric is the so-soft minkee. I love this little design! My granddaughter also loves it, and when she saw this bunny she said "I NEED that bunny". She is just 2 yrs. old, so of course she will be getting a bunny for Easter. I am making little stuffed bunnies.

I also made some cute little Easter cards yesterday, using a dollar stamp from Michael's.

I am seeing some Etsy cards shops that are doing fantastic. Wish I knew their secret! Would love to make and sell cards.

All for now. Back to embroidery.

HOOTOWEL

2009-02-18T15:19:00.002-06:00

This is a little decorative floursack towel. I sketched the owl and digitized it, creating the stitching so that it resembles a hand-embroidered backstitch, also known as redwork. Owls are popular now, so I had to join the frenzy and come up with a cute one! If I do more of these, each one will be unique because I will use my button stash for the eyes, and I have all kinds. These particular buttons said "Made in Italy". There were 3 on a card for $2.75...I hope I didn't really pay that much!!! My camera has an issue...seems to be 2 spots on the lense that show up on every photo. I am not sure how to remedy this. Perhaps it is the CF card...heaven knows it has been in and out of the camera a million times and perhaps has developed a flaw. Here are a couple more photos of this towel. I think I may even try stitching this design on one of my microfiber towels just to see how that goes.... This towel has been listed on my Etsy shop. I think that a Zak happy spoon and this towel would make a great gift.

Save the Kangaroos

2009-02-16T13:18:00.005-06:00

Edited: I decided to switch to the serger and am using some nice soft flannel sheets for the pouches. To start the seam on the bags, I have clipped the seam allowance about two inches down. To finish off the seams, I have encased the serger tails into the seam allowances above the clip that are folded over and machine-sewn to finish them off. (pictures below)

One of the devastating effects of the Aussie bushfires has been the injury to animals. There are rescue groups taking care of baby animals that are hurt or lost their mothers in the fire. They need pouches for these animals, to take the place of their mother's pouch. I belong to the Sergeit list, where an effort is being put forth to make knitted (or other woolen fabric) pouches and cotton liners to assemble pouches for these poor little baby animals. I am a slow knitter, so I opted to sew liners. They go together fast, and will be so useful to the groups handling the rescue.It is a small thing to do, but maybe it will help an animal in need. I love animals and can't stand it when I hear of hurting animals, or heartless dumping of animals. If you love kitties, a very good book is Dewey. It is about a rescued kitty who became the beloved library cat in Spencer, Iowa. Enough blogging, back to the little kangaroo bags!!

Healthy Living

2009-02-12T16:47:00.048-06:00

The items pictured are an attempt on the part of my whole family to get healthier in the new year. The little Healthy Living journals took longer to make than I anticipated. Also, I punched the covers incorrectly, so that they didn't line up with the pages, which necessitated remaking the covers. Moral of the story...start out by punching ONE booklet and see how that goes!!! Then do the other seven! I made one for myself, one for each of my five daughters, one for my sister, and one for my sister-in-law. The embroidered towel is part of the package, too. The design is offered on the Bernina website, and is given to those who make a donation to the American Heart Association. I thought it tied in nicely with the theme of getting healthy. I will give these out as a sort of Valentines gift, since I really didn't get in gear quickly enough, and have been cited as the REASON why no one can stick to their exercise and eating routine!!! We all NEED the journals, ha....we'll see how it goes!

Heather took pictures of the individual journal pages here.

The journals have several pages with pockets for inserts. One is for exercise. I printed out 12 narrow pages, one for each month, with spaces to enter any exercise done for that day. Another pocket has inserts for recording your vital statistics, and hopefully seeing a change. We will record these things quarterly. Another pocket, and one which might be the most important, is for tips, tricks, strategies, motivational writings...anything that will help encourage each other in the quest to be healthy. I have offered to compile and print these off and give or mail to all of us to include in the journal. Oh, and lete's not forget recipes. Another page has a pretty band with a huge paperclip for compiling great tasting healthy recipes. Again, I will take care of the printing (and will maybe fancy them up, because I love an excuse to use my stamps, ink and paper for any reason).

Valentine's Day dishtowels

2009-01-27T14:55:00.029-06:00

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.

Winter Survival Kit

2009-01-26T15:11:00.016-06:00

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.

Cute & Useful Gift!

2008-11-25T15:51:00.005-06:00

Gift-giving can be a real chore. But what if a gift existed that would fit every occasion? My answer would be that such a gift already exists...the lowly dishtowel!!! The dishtowel can be personalized to fit the occasion, they are pretty and are an inexpensive decorative item for the home, and most importantly, it is something that is definitely usable. We all would like to think that our gifts get used by the recipient. With a dishtowel gift, you can be guaranteed that the recipient will use it and will love it!

The Dishtowel Dame hopes to offer the Confetti line of zak!designs (colorful kitchen items) real soon. The Confetti line is made from recycled melamine. A small bowl with a dishtowel inside makes an affordable and fun gift. I have gifted some of my friends with these sets and they have been very well received. I first learned of the confetti bowl when my sister gave me an orange one at Halloween...I was so impressed with the fact that it was cute, and also by the fact that it was made from recycled materials. Check my Etsy shop in a couple of weeks, when the gift sets will be offered.

Welcome to My Blog!

2008-11-24T06:30:00.018-06:00

I want to take a moment to welcome you to my blog and give a bit of the Dishtowel Dame's history. The whole idea began several years ago....I have always enjoyed embroidering dishtowels, from the time I was a kid embroidering the backstitch by hand, up to today, embroidering on my 15-needle commercial embroidery machine. I love color and design....it really is quite fun to choose or create designs for specific occasions, or just for no reason at all. Actually, for awhile, I would give a dishtowel to someone rather than a birthday card. (that has changed now that I also am into card-making...now the recipients get a card and a dishtowel) One day it struck me that a business could be created, with the sole product being a dishtowel. Of course I had to find THE towel, a FABULOUS towel that would meet my standards for quality. It had to be absorbent, colorfast, non-shrinking, lint-free and PRETTY!! The microfiber waffleweave towel that I offer meets all of these requirements. You will love it!

These towels make fabulous gifts. They can be customized for any occasion. They are decorative and very useful. I think people appreciate it so much when a gift is actually functional, and when it is pretty as well, then that is a bonus.

I love to embroider dishtowels (have I already said that?)....first of all, it is a flat item which makes it "embroidery-friendly". A dishtowel can be "presented" in various ways. I like to roll them up and tie with a ribbon. Or fold in thirds and tie with a ribbon. If you choose to give a gift basket the dishtowel can become the "star" item in the basket. The design on the towel can set the theme for the basket. I have some other ideas regarding basket gifts. Stay tuned and tomorrow I will talk about that.

If you have a moment, check out the towels currently available in The Dishtowel Dame's Etsy store. Remember, the towels can also be personalized. Generally I charge $5 for a name. If more text is needed, such as a date, or Congratulations , etc., we can always discuss the additional charge, before you purchase.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Here is a link to my Etsy store.