Towels are finished and ready to sale

I have been spending time with my sisters.  First, our big project this spring is planning a 90th Birthday party for my Mom and her twin sister.  Trying to make it a special time, but not going overboard is quite a job.  We are looking at lots of pictures of "the twins" and planning a time line for display.  It's fun to spend time laughing about all the pictures of ourselves that we find in Mom's boxes.

We, "the sisters", also spent several hours at the Vintage Whites Sale.  It was much more crowded than I expected and it took some time to explore the different booths.  We all bought things but I think I got the most, although I did not spend the most.

My haul

Here is my purchases.  I did not get the roses, but the frog in the bottom of the vase was my purchase.  I have wanted a smaller frog for a while and I was thrilled to find one.  It was the most expensive piece I got.  The lace worker picture is one from some magazine,  they mounted it on a board, I will probably cut down the board to frame it.  I love that it shows the water bulb and candle the lace makers used to light their work.  I need a brighter light and sometimes I need magnification when I do my lace.  The little bag is micro needlepoint and is lined with silk.  The clasp is missing something along the top edge (the price tag is there now) and I am deciding what to weave or bead to replace it.  I also need to restitch the join on the clasp on both sides.  Over the bag is a small linen hankie.  I have been limiting myself on these...I have so many and I have not made lace borders for many of them.  Under the bag is a fillet work runner.  I really love fillet work.  This runner may be able to go on the table under the window in the livingroom.  I have several fillet work pieces mounted on the window for my valance.

My lace valance

I finished the Bumberet towels...washed and ironed and ready for sales.  I was surprised about how the hems worked out.  I pulled out the old sample that I wove in Leslie Ruby's class several years ago and the hem was even worse on it.  This piece has been washed and dried several times.  

This towel is a left over bit from the samples I wove in the class.  The plain weave hem is on both sides and is hand hemmed.  It makes a beautiful ruffle at the end of the towel!

Back of towels

Here are three of the towels after I hemmed, washed and dried them.  I did not do any ironing on them, yet.  The bottom towel has a plain weave hem and was hand stitched, the middle towel has a plain weave hem and was machine stitched (I used a blind hem stitch), the top towel has a bumberet hem and is machine hemmed using the same stitch.  I was surprised how smooth the plain weave is with the machine stitching.  Does that line of stitching prevent some of the ruffling?

Front of towels

On the front of the towels, you can see some ruffling on the bottom one, but the other two look pretty good.

I learned that I need to think about the structure on the hems when I weave my towels.  I like the bumberet structure, it make a substantial towel, even out of the 8/2 cotton, and I like the chevron pattern better than the column pattern.

Chevron Pattern

Column Pattern

I took several "Beauty Shots" of the towels, but I need to get better at the layout.

Yellow and pink towels with Easter Bunny

Pink chevron and pink column towels with Desert Rose

Yellow and Rust towels with sheep

Beige column towel with tricycle