The Quest

Now that I've decided on a direction for my Maps piece, I need to find an appropriate tea towel to embroider on. I went to one likely store and they had nothing. Too many towels with chickens or olives and not enough plain ones.

Store two had flour sack towels which are exactly what the souvenir towels are printed on, but although authentic, don't exactly "read" as towel. I liked the waffle weave and subtle tan stripes on another towel, but once home and washed the waffle texture became a lot more pronounced. Nice for drying dishes, but too deep for embroidery. My best choice is the green stripe, but I'm not entirely convinced it won;t compete too much with the embroidery.

The next day it dawned on me that my blue checked towels might come in other colors, and sure enough, store three had a set in tan. Now I just need to decide which is towelier, the green stripe or the tan windowpane checks. And even if I decide, there's no guarantee I won't change my mind and switch towels half way through. It's part of my process. I'm also seeing that the lovely cross stitch "Home is Where..." from one of my other artworks, when scaled down is too fiddly. I will need to look for a simpler cross stitch font.