PEGGY'S TOWEL HOLDER

This is the story of Peggy's Towel Holder, a/k/a The Towel on the Oven Handle.  It is listed in my Etsy shop.  Take a look.  The link should be off to the right.

Once upon a time there was a lady who became very aggravated with her kitchen towels falling off of the oven handle.  She tried sewing the towel to fabric for a cute little towel topper.  That didn't work.  Frequently she needed to pull that towel off of the oven handle and use it to wipe up spills or whatever.  She then tried patterns for towel toppers with buttons or snaps.  Those still didn't work for the same reason.  She decided to create her own towel topper with a band of fabric to slip the towel on and off.  That was better but still didn't function as she would have liked.  Years went by and every once in awhile she would try to create in her head something that would work.  One day she thought of a new design.  Actually creating the design went on the back burner for a few months because there was always something else that needed to be done.

As it happened, one of her friends was having a birthday and the lady needed to obtain a birthday gift for the following week.  Her birthday friend was a volunteer for a cat rescue organization and loves cats.  Our lady went to Amazon, of course, to shop for the perfect gift.  And she found it.  A beautiful chrome wine stopper in the shape of a cat.  She bought it immediately.  There has never been such a perfect gift.  Unfortunately, she was informed that the gift would not arrive until Friday.  The party was on Wednesday.  Being somewhat creative she decided to make a little something for her friend to give on Wednesday but letting her know that the real gift would arrive on Friday.  But what little thing could she make?  Now was the perfect time to create the towel holder!

She located some cute animal fabric scraps and set to work.  First she had to draw and digitize the design for her embroidery machine.  The fabric had very bold animal print and she wanted to include a particular little kitty cat design that her friend had always admired.  To make the design pop she stitched it in gold metallic thread.  She used some fabric on the back and front of the towel holder, sandwiching some hooped stabilizer.  Included in the design was a cross-hatched, quasi-quilting stitching to hold the fabric in place.  The holes for the towel was about 3" wide.  Then she set up the machine, inserted the hoop with the fabric in place and made the first of these towel holders.

It turned out beautiful.  But when she went to put the little towel in the openings, she found it worked but was a little tight.

The embroidery design was adjusted for a wider opening for the towel but, to do so, she had to enlarge the entire design.  Once that was done, she tried again and stitched out the towel holder.

That worked great!  The lady was elated and put it on her stove handle, inserted a towel, and admired her work.  Well, until she went to pull the towel out to wipe up a spill.  You guessed it, the process worked except once the towel is pulled out, there is nothing holding the towel holder onto the oven handle.  Thinking about a closure, she could put a button there to keep the towel holder on the handle but was there something more sturdy that she could use?  Metal snaps!  Yes!  And so she put a metal snap, in the center, right above the towel opening. "Ah, this should be perfect," she exclaimed. 

 

Well, not exactly.  Now that she took up the space for the snap, the towel holder didn't fit around the oven handle.  It worked beautifully on other things like a belt, dowel, or curtain rod.  Back to the design.  She didn't need to widen the design.  She lengthened the design.  Perfecto!  She used up all of her pretty animal print fabric and had grabbed some scrap white fabric.

She put a towel in the opening and went through the process of standing at the stove and wiping her hands on the towel.  That worked well.  Pulling the towel out worked well.  The holder stayed in place.

As she looked at the white towel holder, it seemed to look a bit plain.  Then she decided there is room for a monogram.  Nothing big.  She digitized, grabbed some blue fabric scraps, and a lighter blue spool of thread, hooped the fabric, and powered up the embroidery machine.

It worked.  It's beautiful.  And hanging on her oven handle.  

Throughout this process she had posted pictures on her FaceBook page and asked what she should name this creation.  One friend said Peggy's Towel Holder.  And, so it is.

Although I'm out of the cute animal print fabric, I do have lots of fabric and choices listed in the Cajun Stitchery shop on Etsy.  Please visit.  Remember this item is handmade in the USA and I only sell in the USA.

Kitty Cat Blanket

Kitty Cat Blanket

I was contacted by a friend who volunteers at a local cat rescue and asked if I would make a blanket they could raffle off to make money for the rescue.  Of course, I said yes.

    My friend loves this kitten design, so, I decided to make this design the center of the blanket.  The design was originally just a tiny outline about 2" tall.  The blanket required something a bit more massive.  When I made the design 15" tall, it just didn't look right without some detailed features.  After looking at many cat pictures, trying to find the same or similar pose, a few details were added.  Concerned that the design would be too heavy if I made it a solid color, I opted for the more zig-zag look for the fur. 

    After the kitten was embroidered, I finished the blanket, ruffles and all.  Rather than the usual quilting, the butterflies were going to hold the blanket together.

The original design had the kitten looking and pawing at a butterfly.  I wanted a lot of butterflies.  Back to looking at pictures.  This time it was butterflies, and a Monarch was chosen.  I digitized the butterfly and stitched it in several different colors and many angles.

At this point, the whole design seemed to be missing something which turned out to be flowers.  After searching through many of my store bought designs, I found the perfect flower design.  To be specific, sun flowers.  Now our kitty is sitting in a field of bright yellow sun flowers, playing with multi-colored butterflies.  Life is good.

I liked the design, but felt I could, and should, do better.  After all the rescue organization needs something eye catching and special to get those big bucks flowing in.  The 3D butterflies had been on my mind for awhile but I hadn't been able to find the perfect project for them.  Ah, this is the project.  Several butterflies were made in different colors and fabrics.  I made them like you would make a patch but before I tore them off of the stabilizer, I embroidered the body between the wings and then pulled off the stabilizer -- carefully.  To adhere them to the blanket, I measured the body of the butterfly and created a straight stitch a little shorter than the body.  Then I turned the straight stitch into a small zig-zag.  I would go to the placement site on the blanket, stitch the straight stitch, place the butterfly on top of the straight stitch and stitch the zig-zag.

Looking good.

Still something missing.  I can do better than this.

Rhinestones!

The rhinestones seemed to do the trick

I had changed the bobbin thread to various colors when doing the flowers and butterflies.  When you look at the back of the blanket, albeit no kitty, the design is still pretty.

As my little Cajun mama used to say:  "Fini."  This blanket was given to the cat rescue organization.  I'm not sure if they've raffled it off yet or, if they have, how much they made.  I certainly hope this unique, OOAK, blanket brings them some well deserved funding.