2014 Tea Towel Challenge

I was visiting over at Quilt Diva Julie's blog and spotted a new badge on her sidebar. That took me over to Sophie Junction where, among other things, I learned about her tea towel challenge for 2014. This isn't the first one ever but it was the first one I'd heard of. I'm a sucker for a textile challenge!

The guidelines are simple:

1. Your quilt must include a tea towel–it can be new or vintage.
2. The colors in the tea towel determine the color palette for your quilt. 
3. Try something new. Since this one is defined by you, it can be anything and is an opportunity to add your own personal guidelines to the challenge.

Well, my something new will be using a tea towel as the major inspiration and focal element in an art quilt!

I didn't have anything in the house that I wanted to use so I did some online browsing. New towels didn't appeal particularly. I hit pay dirt at Etsy.com though. The first towel that caught my attention was this one:

 

I like the house image - I've always like house blocks in quilts - but it was the prayer that sealed the deal.

I've never been a kitchen person. This just seemed appropriate. ;- )

Then I cam across this one:

Another building, and I was confident I could work with the farm theme. The towel is not from 1925, it was put out by Hickory Farms in 1980 or thereabouts.

But seeing these calendar towels got me thinking. About the time of the deadline for this challenge DH and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. That sent me back to Etsy to look for a calendar towel from the year of our wedding.

I didn't have much luck with 1984. But one lovely vendor had a bundle of three vintage towels for sale...

That last one made me add the bundle to my shopping cart. I don't have to use the calendar part after all, and the boy and girl on the towel are in the same style as the Precious Moments figures we had on our wedding cake and napkins.

Don't tell my husband, but the end product of this challenge will be his anniversary present from me. He's been hinting that he needs/wants another piece of my artwork. Of course he didn't start hinting until it was too late to make him something for Christmas. Turns out it was just as well, this works out better anyway!

Oh, and if anyone out there wants one of the other towels for the challenge leave a comment and we'll work something out. :- )