Wednesday, December 11, 2013

It's Official - I'm now a Tea Towel Collector

It all started so innocently.  When I saw the Fairy Tale 2014 Calendar tea towel on Spoonflower, I knew it would be great inspiration for another tea towel quilt.   If you are reading this before 10 AM Eastern time on Thursday, you still have time to enter the drawing to win a Tea Towel bundle from Spoonflower (including that Fairy Tale one I love) as part of their 12 Days of Give-aways.

And when I blogged about another tea towel challenge, Moira sent me a link to an eBay auction for the Run Runner tea towel and I had to have it because it was exactly what I was desperately looking for earlier.

Paris Tea TowelMoira wasn't the only one helpfully sharing links.

Grace left a comment with a link about how she thought I'd like a Paris-themed tea towel from Michel Designs because I had lived in France for a few years and ...  she was right. I did.

It is one of four tea towels that arrived at my house this week from Amazon.

I like the collage-y style of many of the Michel Designs items and had to have this Christmas themed tea towel, too.


Christmas Tea TowelI am very happy with both the quality of the fabric base in their  all-cotton tea towels and the color printing on them.

There were two more tea towels calling my name as I surfed the web. They are a pair of balloon-themed designs.

I love the design, but I am less satisfied with the quality–they are also 100% cotton, but seem to be printed on something more closely related to cheese cloth than the usual fabric used for tea towels. I don't think they'd hold up functionally, but with some fusible interfacing, they'll be fine in a quilt ... and I think the poorly sewn hems will be easy to un-sew.

Balloon-themed Tea Towel The Other Balloon-themed Tea Towel

Only time will tell if I move from being a collector of tea towels to a quilter who makes a series of tea-towel inspired quilts.

Check out the link list on the Tea Towel Challenge 2014 page to see how others are expanding their collections and winnowing down their choice.  While the challenge doesn't actually start until January–giving everyone a few more weeks to shop, decide and commit, there's been a whole lot of planning going on.

How about you?  Inspired by a tea towel design?  Want to play along?


5 comments:

Tammy said...

Sophie the Paris one is amazing.

Andra Gayle said...

I almost ordered that paris one! I think you have turned me in to a collector too, I purchased a few for my own Christmas stocking this year!

Barbara said...

I think that is how every collection starts. I know that is the way my Cat collection started, not the real ones, the little figurines. It all seems innocent when we start, and it evolves into a monster.

Anonymous said...

It only takes two to start a collection, so you are well on your way!

Magpie Sue said...

I like the Paris and Christmas towels a lot. You say they're from Amazon?

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