Thursday 29 September 2011

In praise of tablecloths and tea towels

Now Niobe is settling at Exeter I'm hoping to find some time to indulge in some admiration of my vintage bits and pieces! Today with all the glorious sunshine I've had the day off work and taken advantage of the great drying weather to wash some of my new tablecloths.



Although these are probably 50 years old I think they still work well today. Love the colours on this and the fine stitches...



edged with cotton lace



Suspect this was stitched by a Scot - or is that too much of a cliche? Either way great thistles!



These four photos look as if they are from different cloths



but they are in fact four corners



of the same cloth.



Found in a charity shop this week. Unfortunately not charity shop prices but I couldn't leave this one behind! Charity shops around here certainly seem to have increased their prices and given their best stuff seems to go on e-bay these days not sure that they can justify some of the prices they are asking for!



Onto a couple of tea towels I've been sent by the lovely people at http://www.all-tea-towels.co.uk. I was asked to choose a couple from their range and in honour of one of our guilty pleasure I chose this unbleached cotton image of the iconic Tunnocks Teacake. (Can you have an iconic teacake? I think so!)



I also chose this one featuring a poster from the 1948 Olympics. This site has a great choice of tea towels should you be in need. They wash well, dry well and for me, more importantly, look good hanging in the kitchen! Have a look at their large range of styles for all tases - not easy to choose!

Hope you're making the most of the glorious weather!

8 comments:

  1. What lovely tablecloths! I've found a few embroidered ones on ebay,but more often than not I'm outbid.They seem really popular at the moment.Hope you're able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend. :0)

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  2. Ooh my favourites Wend ..... I have mixed feelings about their popularity again now mainly because I can't pick them up for pence like in the past. I've seen crinoline lady ones going for £60+ on Fleabay! Love the Tunnocks tea towel .... my OH can munch them for England. See you soon in Olney I hope xx

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  3. Coincidentally, I was admiring my embroidered tablecloths today - all two of them! They are gorgeous aren't they? Love the Tunnocks tea towel. I'm addicted to Tunnocks teacakes.

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  4. Those thistles are so wonderfully embroidered Wend. In fact, all the panels are fabulous. Imagine the time and patience someone put into the work? Seems only fair it shouldn't go for a song I suppose but I know how you like to sniff out a bargain so I suspect you'll find some more soon. Come to charity shops in Wales... Ebay and market forces haven't quite reached here yet!

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  5. Gorgeous embroidery on the table cloths, quite contemporary to . I love the tea towels lucky you ...its nice to have a pressie now and again xxx
    Lynn xxx

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  6. Lovely finds! Makes me eager to go "on the hunt" tomorrow morning!

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  7. I was just about to say how exquisite those thistles were but you beat me to it. It's certainly a lovely cloth - hope it washed out ok.

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  8. I'm loving the cloth with the four different corners. What a find!

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