a finished embroidery project?

Before I moved into my apartment, I made a list of things to acquire in the very-near-soon. A very important item on the list: blank tea towels.

In fantasizing about the apartment, embroidering sweet tea towels to dry my dishes and hands was among my top domestic desires. As an adult, I've toyed around with embroidery, but never finished a project. My personal library has a few embroidery Zakka magazines I purchased while in Japan. Last year, I was completely stunned by the Pricked show at MAD. I have a few half-finished (or half-started, depending on how you look at it) embroidery projects, including some post-modern theorist christmas ornaments that I vow to complete before the tree goes up. So really, it was about time for me to finish a project with floss and fabric.

Last week, I got out the flour sacks I purchased at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and ironed on a pattern from the Stitch-It Kit that's been hibernating for years. Once I got started, I was surprised at how simple and fun I found embroidery. Having a *full* pattern to follow on the fabric made a huge difference. In the past, I'd sketched out rough estimates on practice fabric, and always been frustrated. I've already started my next towel! I'm looking forward to designing my own patterns and transfering them to the remaining towels via carbon paper. I love embroidery as a medium, and want to do more things with it in the future.

I'm really happy with how the kitten tea towel came out. I redid the legs after I looked at some stitch diagrams and was able to improve my technique.

Hand-embroidered towels definitely make for a more enjoyable dish washing experience. Oh, and Mrs. Myers. She helps, too.