I have NEVER bought a new tea-towel from a shop, yet there they are..................
Irish coffee, gardening and Welsh love spoon tea-towels
Christmas tea towels, one from Lake Como? and cats
Derbyshire and the Tucktonia model village in Dorset and an Australian tea towel....who went there?
I think some came from Mum's house because it was a tradition in our family years ago for people to bring back a tea-towel from holidays. A few are more recent gifts and because we never had a dishwasher and 5 people in the family tea towels got a lot of use and 3 or 4 would be turned into cleaning rags each year so I used to pick up any new ones that I saw at boot-sales if they were going for 50p.Now it's just me and although I still don't have a dishwasher I only wash the dishes once or twice a day and often leave them to dry so maybe 26 new tea-towels is a few too many?
Think I'll pass them on to the children - although they all have dishwashers and probably don't use many - maybe I'll just put them back in the cupboard and leave them for someone else to clear out!
Back Tomorrow
Sue
I've been looking at 'things' to pass on recently - lol your last thought has definitely passed through my mind.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness...you can never have enough tea towels...ever...though despite the pretty pictures I always stick to terry ones. X
ReplyDeleteI downsized greatly when I shifted house just before Christmas and now have only what I require. I admit I was influenced not only by space available but by the book "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning"
ReplyDeleteI too inherited my mum's teatowels, and have had a couple as gifts from my kids, plus a friend gave me some linen ones as she didn't think they dried up very well. I have only bought one, which was based on the print of a fabulous wallpaper at Chatsworth when Tam took me one year.
ReplyDeleteI buy new linen tea towels from charity shops for 50p/ £1 and have a big bundle in my gift box. When young friends go off to uni I gift them a load of new tea towels. I also give them to friends who I know appreciate linen.
ReplyDeleteI wove a few on a small loom, cotton and linen, they make me happy.
ReplyDeleteOh, my! I rather like 'special' tea towels - with pictures on and about places. Yours are great - I have the same Peak District one, I believe!
ReplyDeleteI'd find them hard to give away.
xx
Yes like everyone else I have lots of picture tea towels but my favourite is two from the G.children when they had done at school and I only use the toweling one in the kitchen the others are in the drawer.
ReplyDeleteHazel c uk
They are nice though, aren't they. My dad used to call them "tea cloths".
ReplyDeleteThat is quite a collection - I use old teatowels for wiping down - though DH can't tell the difference between the newer ones we use for the dishes and the old ones (that have holes and bare patches I might add LOL!).
ReplyDeleteI have seen people make bags and things with those decorative ones. I even remember at one time people would buy those tea towel hangers and display their favourite ones on the wall.
Quite a collection of tea towels. I have some that I use only to cover food, and I have one special one that I inherited from my mum. Its white linen and has the word glass down the middle. Its from the fifties and my my only ever used it for cleaning glasses. It only ever saw the light of day on special occasions. I don't know why I keep it I suppose its because my mum did!
ReplyDeleteJulie
Julie xxxxxxx
My oldest daughter has a tea towel with the word glass down the middle. I used it one time and was so impressed by how well it dried the dishes that I looked for a long time for one of my own. Never found one.
DeleteWe don't have a dishwasher, but I let my pots airdry. When I was a little girl I had several Ovaltine tea towels hanging on my bedroom wall. Best, Jane x
ReplyDeleteWow, that is quite a collection, but a lovely one at that.
ReplyDeleteI prefer to let pots air dry too and have never had a dishwasher.
Weird, isn't it, how they accumulate? Like you, I don't think I've ever bought one. I also have my Mum's and I think all the rest were presents, including an Australian one (how they get around). I do have a dishwasher so don't need many but I still keep them, carefully rotated. Old ones have many uses e.g. wiping out the defrosted freezer. I don't think I'll be getting rid of any yet.
ReplyDeleteI seem to have an awful lot of tea towels as well. Mostly they end up being what I dry my hands on, or when I wash eggs, I lay them out on tea towels to dry. Some did come from my mom, too. Yours are much prettier! -Jenn
ReplyDeleteI am blessed with an inherited dishwasher, but never dry using a tea towel when I wash by hand. I have so many, for every time I moved abroad everyone would want to give me "a little gift" to take to remind me of home. I think it is time to pass some along as they take forever to reach a good level of absorbency.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good and useful collection. I have a few animal and 'place' ones that people have given me but I still seem to use just a select few for drying in the kitchen and they get used a lot as we don't have a dishwasher:)
ReplyDeleteQuite a nice collection. You might consider adding one to each of your Christmas hampers. Perhaps you can line the container with one before you put in your goodies.
ReplyDeleteThat is quite the collection that I am sure will come in useful eventually.
ReplyDeleteI had fun choosing the right tea towel for each of my family to use as wrapping paper for Christmas gifts and no paper in landfill after Christmas. They all looked really colourful wrapped and tied with red ribbon.
ReplyDeleteThese have value, you can sell them on vintage [or recent] linens collecting groups on Facebook!
ReplyDeleteLots!
ReplyDeleteBut they are pretty.
💕 💕 💕 💕
I still have one made have all the children in my oldest grandchild's class - they each drew themselves and then they were printed on to a towel. I wonder whether they still do this.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty collection! If you don't use them they could be sewn together and turned into a quilt. I have seen quilts made out of all sorts of different things - even fancy cloth handkerchiefs. I also liked Mary's suggestion to use them in your Christmas hampers.
ReplyDeleteThat's an impressive collection. I only have three. One to use, one ready in the drawer, one in the wash.
ReplyDeleteHello. I'm over from Rhonda's blog "Down to Earth". Loving your tea towel collection. I'm visiting family in the UK this year, must take them all an Australian tea towel.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has a dishwasher but always requests a tea towel when we go away. It' a tradition and she loves it.
ReplyDeleteThat is quite the collection. Tea towels are handy for covering items and you could always use one to wrap a gift.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Oh how lovely, the linen ones are more absorbent when they have had a few washes so I just throw them in any load until they are ready.
ReplyDeleteThose type are usually very strong so make great shopping bags or even aprons.
I have made sturdy kitchen, garden or peg aprons by marking the curve with a dinner plate and cutting to shape, sew right sides together (leaving 1"opening each side of top of bib ) and when turned out, make "sleeve" with another row of stitches on curve. Thread long ribbon or fabric tie from waist , up curve, down other side of bib curve and out through other waist side...you now have a totally adjustable apron for adult or child, thin or wide, as the long tie will accommodate bib placement and waist size.
I have half a dozen tea towels in the kitchen drawer for daily use, and a large pile that sits neatly folded in the linen cupboard because they are simply too nice to use!
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm a tea towel addict! Too many really but they all get used and are on a rotation to minimise wear. I iron mine as well, mostly so I can get more into the drawer. I love the kitschy travel ones, vintage tea towels, the gorgeous French ones & the linen fancies that are really art pieces. There's a brilliant business in Australia called Third Drawer Down (it must be the universal drawer for tea towels!!) which sell numbered limited edition print runs of original artist's works on linen. They're about $30 from memory and I've both given & received them as gifts, and I bought one especially years ago to turn into my kitchen blind. My French ones are about 18 years old and are all just about to bite the dust at the same time. They'll get cut up for rags so they'll live on for a bit longer yet!
ReplyDeleteI just went thru a bag of tea towels I bought while I lived in UK. I remember having one hanging on a wall in the kitchen, so adorable mice and cheese and a candle when we lived in Felixstowe. I bought them while on holiday as well. Good memories of most of them. A few others/not sure why I bought them. 43 years ago! I need to pull them out of closet again and do something with them eventually!!! Take care!
ReplyDeleteYour tea towels are absolutely beautiful. I've been looking at some online on Etsy to purchase myself.
ReplyDelete