Lorae Radunz

My Mother hand embroidered a set of dish towels[ the big white ones,flour sack towels?]. I have never used them. Was wondering if I could cut blocks of the embroidery & make a quilt? I would use other cotton fabrics with it. I'm wondering,the dish towels aren't very thick. Should I do something to make them less flimsy? thanks

karenm36

My mother did the same thing! I have her dish towels that I just can't bring myself to use. Looking forward to seeing how others answer your question. I'd love to do something special with Mom's dish towels.

Janquiltz

I have taken some of my Mom's hankies - backed them, then used lightweight batting and a backing and hand quilted them. It was really thin, but turned out fairly well. Photo isn't too good, but should be good enough to get the idea. Then I quilted some hand embroidered doilies - the fabric was also a little thin. They came out really well. Someone had spent a lot of time doing the embroidery and then the crochet edging and just couldn't stand to see them not preserved in some way.

Grambi

One suggestion is to buy a new flour sack towel. They come in packages of a few and I know that our Target sells them. I believe Hobby Lobby does as well. Use one or two of those to cut up and experiment with fusing to another cloth (muslin maybe) and see if you can find something that pleases you. Maybe test some different fusibles. You might experiment with pre washing and drying the test fabrics to figure out if shrinkage of any of the fabric will be an issue. Hope you show us the finished quilt.

CarrieAnne

Jan, those are beautiful!

wvhill22

i just did one for my sister with my mothers towels. it turned out great

ckcowl

they will hold up just fine mixed with other cottons- flour sack towels are wonderful in quilts--use a nice cotton batting and when you wash the quilt when it's finished out of the dryer will come the most amazingly soft fluffy cuddly quilt! the towels hold up well using them in the kitchen too. they last for years- and are just wonderfully soft.

hobbykat1955

Can you use them whole as tops for table runners or make a tablecloth...I buy those vintage calendar kitchen hand towels and use them as decorative backings to my runners.

wvhill22

hers were the days of the week so i took the extra pieces and machine embroidered her name and the year she did them and the other one mom and dads name and when they were united in marriage. on the days of the week towels I added each one of us kids on the day we were born and month and date. I used a jelly roll and bordered each towel. I would post a pic but forgot to take one before i gave it to my sister. I could have sworn i had but can't find it anywhere..:(

Carol J.

All the dishtowels I have ever seen were made out of muslin so you will have no trouble using them for squares on a quilt. We all use bleached or unbleached muslin for quilting. I think it is a wonderful way to use them and they will live forever in a quilt.
My daughter took an old embroidered tablecloth my mother made, cut it up and decorated a blouse for me, pieces went on the pocket, the yokes and collar.

Carol J.