Better Late than Never

It is now March and I have finally finished January's project for the sew along: the days of the week dishtowels!

I have already subjected far too many people to my tale of woe concerning the acquisition of materials for this project, so for those of you who may have missed out on all of the trials and tribulations in this story, let's just say that when you live in the Boondocks, it's not always easy to get what you want when you want it.

This particular struggle centered around the fact that I am quite particular in my choice of dishtowels and, hence, dishtowel fabric. I did finally end up with the fabric suggested in Alicia Paulson's book, and I found it here.

Even after I finally acquired my super-fine toweling, however, it still seemed to take me an awfully long time to complete this project. I think that was due, at least partly, to the incredibly small stitches I was using at the beginning. As I went along, my stitches became significantly larger, but in the end I think they look just as good as the smaller stitches.

Another thing that changed as I progressed was the back of the work. I have always heard that, with embroidery, the back of the work is supposed to look as good as the front. Alicia tells her readers not to worry too much about that, so at first I used knots and did other less-than-perfect things on the back. By the fifth or sixth towel,however, I had stopped using knots and I think the backs look pretty darn good.

The hardest part of the whole project actually came at the very end, when I hung the first completed towel on the stove handle and walked away, knowing that it was not going to stay bright and shiny for long. After all of my hard work, it took a certain amount of "letting go" to do that. Oh, well: Everything's temporary. And for the time being I've got some damn fine dishtowels.