After the very disappointing Target tea towels (although, let’s be honest…what sort of quality was I really expecting from Target?), I did some searching online to see what the best fabric for tea towels was and (more importantly) where to find that fabric. The consensus among tea towel aficionados was that linen makes the best tea towels as it is the most absorbent of the usual fibers. As plain white 100% linen seems to be completely unavailable in Sacramento, I ordered some linen from Fabrics-Store.com last weekend.

What a superb selection they have…too much for me apparently. I had to do more searching to find out what exact weight of linen made for the best tea towels. I’d found one recommendation online for a weight of 5.3 oz./yard and so ordered some of that but also, after browsing through the “Doggy Bag” section of the Fabrics-Store.com website, ordered some slightly heavier (6 oz./yard) material as well.

The order arrived yesterday morning and so I immediately popped it into the washing machine and then hung it out to dry before heading off to work. (Oh, as far as weight goes, I’d order anything between the two weights I got. They’re both very good weights for tea towels.)

After work last night, I ripped the heavier fabric into tea towel-sized pieces and then edge-stitched the towels using one of the fancy stitches available on the sewing machine.

This morning it was time to try out making leaf prints. First up? loquats…

For those who have never seen them, loquat leaves are quite thick and stiff. That might be part of the reason why the ink globbed a bit on that big leaf in the middle. I printed two towels with this pattern and another two using grape leaves.

They’ll hang out to “cure” until tomorrow afternoon when I will heat set the ink with the iron. After that, they’ll have another trip through the washing machine to clean them up a bit (and also to create the edge fringe) then they’ll be ready to use!

My friend, Cheryl, asked if I would design and print some thank you notes for a baby shower she’s hosting. One of the main decorative colours at the shower will be yellow and there will be lots of African mammals represented in other items.

It seemed like the perfect time to use one of my safari designs: the giraffe.

My colour seems to be a bit off as the cards are actually yellower but you can still see Mrs. Giraffe and her baby.

For anyone planning a shower of any sort in the future, steal this idea: hand out thank you cards to the guests as they arrive and ask them to address the envelope to themselves. When the time comes to write those notes, part of the job is done for the lucky shower-ee.  What a time saver, especially for a new mother!

Thanks to Jessica Jones over at How About Orange, I can now make really funky swirls in Illustrator. Jessica linked to this tutorial at Bittbox and this was the result of my first kick at the swirly can:

How fun! You know, I’d thought about printing a leaf design I’d done as part of my “safari” images on some pillowcases:

Now I think I might just do swirly things instead!