I know many of you are big fans of the Moda fabric designers, Bonnie & Camille. For me, their florals always have a nostalgic feel, reminding me of flowers from a country garden, but their use of vibrant, saturated colors gives them a modern appeal. Their latest collection, The Good Life, is a perfect example of what is “Bonnie & Camille.”
Well, imagine how thrilled I was when one of my sponsors, Starlit Quilts, sent me a fun product from Moda: toweling by the yard from The Good Life collection! Moda toweling is 100% cotton, 16 inches wide, and hemmed on both sides. It is sold by the yard and has a sturdy but soft feel, similar to home décor fabric. Here are my makes:
Starlit Quilts sent me 3/4 yard each of four toweling prints. After petting them for a while, I began to pull things from my hodgepodge tub. I pulled out a damask table runner with lovely crocheted lace ends (an antique store find), some pretty red gingham ribbons, buttons, and a length of dainty crocheted trim left over from another project.
First I cut a 6 1/2” strip from the aqua floral, sewed it together with the length of white/red dot toweling, and hemmed both ends. Then I decided to embellish my towel at the seam. I cut the crocheted trim from the damask runner (gasp), and sewed it to my towel. Then I added the small red gingham ribbon to cover up the raw edge of the damask runner I had trimmed. For thread I used natural white (2010) Aurifil 50 wt., which disappeared nicely into both the lace and the ribbon! A crisp white button secured with red (2250) Aurifloss seemed like the perfect finishing touch.
For the other towel, I used the same method and joined a 6 1/2” strip of the scallop print to the gorgeous navy floral, hemming the top and bottom. I then added the smaller lace trim at the seam, and topped it off with a yo-yo and button. On both towels, I simply ran the trims around to the back of the towel about 1/2\”, turned them under to form a \”side hem\”, and stitched the trims in place on the sides. Both of my towels are meant to be decorative, so I didn\’t worry too much about trims needing to be secure enough to withstand machine washing.
These projects were so easy, but they gave me a great deal of satisfaction. While I obviously love making quilts, I also find a lot of joy in these on-the-fly, “sew what makes you smile” type projects!
Come to think of it, I probably wasn’t very creative with my toweling from Starlit Quilts, as I simply created . . . towels! You could easily whip up a pillow, a table runner, placements, draw string bags . . . oh the possibilities.
If you would like to play with some toweling, I hope you’ll head on over to Starlit Quilts. Besides being a fabulous custom machine quilter, Star has a wonderful Etsy shop with a great selection of products and heart-felt customer service.
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog. Amid these days where there is often so much sadness and heartache in the world, I hope you find joy and comfort in your sewing and sharing with others. I know I do, and I am thankful that you visit my blog to see what I’ve been up to.
Wishing you happiness!
~Taunja
Beautiful……………thanks for sharing !!!
Hey thanks Libby!
Amen to the sentiment of finding joy and comfort these days! I hope this isn't a dumb question but does the towel fabric absorb like a flour sack towel might? Or is it best for decorative use rather than a real purposeful towel? I'm looking to get some fabric to make towels but other than flour sacks, I'm not sure what else will be cost effective and practical. Thanks. elanagoldberg5@gmail.com
Beautiful as always. Makes me want to whip up some towels for extra holiday giving. I will check out the toweling. Thanks
Hi there! It's definitely firmer than a flour sack toweling, with that sort of finished feel. However, I am betting after a washing it would soften up and be more absorbent. They are 100% cotton.
Thanks Monica! Have a great week!
I bought toweling this summer to make curtains. So nice and easy, just fold down one side to run a tension rod through and finish the two edges. I bought inexpensive lace/crochet curtains and put them on another tension rod underneath and hanging below the plaid toweling. It’s so very cute. I still need curtains in my sewing room, so this might do beautifully.
These are so pretty Taunja! Perfect little hostess gifts or just a way to brighten up the kitchen! I also like the idea of little draw string bags😊 Thanks for sharing💕
Oh my gosh that is a terrific idea! Toweling would be great for curtains! In fact, my mom has a small window in her kitchen above the sink where she would like cafe curtains. This would be great. Thanks for the idea!!
Thanks Pam! It's such a fun product. You would enjoy it for sure!
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