Vintage Style Strawberry Towel

I stitched this project on Sunday. The pattern came from a book by Design Originals titled, Pretty Perky Polka Dots.



I made the towel myself from Quilters Cotton. I cut the piece 15 inches X 23 inches. I sewed on a strip of pin dot fabric 15 inches X 4 inches. Hemmed it and then traced the strawberries on using a wash-out blue pen. I ironed some Heat & Bond to the back of another small piece of the pin dot fabric, traced my strawberries again, cut them out and then ironed them on. Then I traced the rest of the design with the wash-out blue pen.

By hand, I blanket stitched around each strawberry using 2 strands of DMC floss and then went on and embroidered the flowers and leaves. When it was complete, I rinsed the blue pen marks out and yesterday, I did a tatted edge for it which I attached with fabric glue. I usually sew the tatting on by hand but just don't like the way it looks on the back so this time I thought I'd try the fabric glue and it looks great!

I still need to press this towel. I'm so pleased with how it came out that now, I want to do another one! The pin dot looks pretty red here in the scan but it's actually kind of a pinky salmon color. There is also a pattern in this book for plums and I have some blue pin dot so I might make that one too! Of course, being a designer, I can do any fruit I want simply by designing my own patterns. Hmmm......I think I like this idea!