Time for Tea – as in, Embroidered Tea!

Good morning and Welcome to Friday!

Today, we’re launching a little Tribute to Tea.

I know there are a lot of people in the world who are not avid tea-drinkers. Here in the US, coffee (and I use the term loosely) is much more of A Thing.

But tea is a regular part of life here at the studio. Anna and I are both committed tea drinkers. Good times or bad, stressful days or relaxing, happy or sad, a cup of tea mayn’t be the answer to everything… but it comes pretty close!

To pay tribute to our favorite studio beverage, we decided to create a ready-to-stitch towel set devoted to tea. And hurray! The Tea Time towel is now available in the shop!

This is a three-towel set, with the design pre-transferred so that it is ready to stitch when it arrives at your home.

The set has three different tea-related designs that all work together. The variety in the designs gives the stitcher a lot of scope for both color selection and stitch selection, as you’ll see below.

The first towel features a teapot and a teacup and saucer.

The DMC colors we used on this sample are:

Ecru
Blues: 3838, 3839, 797, 908
Purples: 209, 211
Pinks: 956, 957, 818
Greens: 904, 470
Yellow: 744
Brown: 780 or 437, depending on what color you like your tea!

The stitching on the towels is worked with 2 or 3 strands of DMC in the needle, depending on the weight you want to achieve with your stitches. Sometimes, for whipped stitches, only one strand is used to whip the stitch.

The stitches are all quite simple!

The lattice is worked in a whipped backstitch.

The filled bands of yellow on the teapot and cup, along with the tea and the steam, are rows of stem stitch worked close together,

The flowers are stem stitch, with whipped backstitch for the veins. You can also see that whipped backstitch is used on the lines of cup. The cup’s outline is stem stitch.

The little decorative flower on the cup is daisy stitch and a french knot, with daisy stitch leaves and stem stitch vines.

All very simple, basic stitches!

I think my favorite towel in this set is the line of tea cups, because there’s so much scope for color and stitch interpretation. You can really have fun with these!

And each little cup is like a small, quick project on its own. Lots of variety!

On this sample, we used the following DMC colors for the cup line:

Greens: 906, 470, 16
Purples: 208, 209
Aqua: 3849, 964
Yellow: 744
Pinks: 956, 957, 3705
Coral: 352
Blues: 3838, 809
Browns: 780, 437
Ecru

As far as stitches go, you’re only limited by your imagination (and, of course, the way the stitch can be used).

On the cups above, we used lots of stem stitch (for outlines, and for the filled tea and steam); chain stitch, whipped chain stitch, French knots, a little bit of satin stitch for flower centers, daisy stitch, and whipped backstitch – again, all basic stitches!

When outlining the cups, it’s ok to combine different stitches to achieve different weights of line.

For example, on the cup above, the blue outline is a whipped chain stitch, using three strands of thread for the chain and two for the whipping. This makes a heavy line. The coral part of the cup above is stem stitch. And the yellow inside the back of the cup lip is a whipped backstitch.

The lattice work on this particular cup is simply blue stem stitch (two strands, to keep the lines a little lighter), and then the intersections are couched over with two strands of coral.

When you’re working this type of design, it’s just a matter of playing with different line stitches, to see what you like.

Some stitches, you’ll likely use again and again – we used a lot of stem stitch, for example. And some, you’ll just end up using as accents.

This little cup features mostly stem stitch. The weights of the line are varied by using either three strands (heavier lines) or two strands (lighter lines).

The heavier aqua line across the front of the cup is chain stitch with three strands, to create a nice heavy line. The finer aqua line above is stem stitch with two strands, which creates a finer line.

The little dots are French knots. And yes, the thread is carried from knot to knot on the back, following a reasonable pattern to achieve the shortest route between knots. Because it’s a lighter color, it doesn’t show through the front noticeably, unless you held it to the light. It looks good!

This delicate little cup is entirely stem stitch, except for the little crosses in the design – which are cross stitches, with the intersections couched over in a contrasting color.

Favorite cup here!

The outline is whipped chain stitch. The two decorative lines in the front start as chain stitch.

The top one is a scalloped buttonholed chain stitch (on the lower side of the chain only, to make those blue scallops).

The yellow and blue chain stitch is whipped on just one side of the yellow chain stitch with blue.

The little x’s are cross stitches with the intersections couched.

Another favorite!

Mostly, this cup is stem stitch, with a little bit of chain stitch for the heavier pink lines.

The flowers on the cup are daisy stitch and French knots.

The DMC colors used on the single teacup sample are:

Aqua: 3849
Corals: 352, 353
Greens: 937, 470
Purples: 208, 210
Gold: 111 (Variations)
Yellow: 727
Brown: 780
Ecru

The single-cup towel sports a tea cup worked in whipped backstitch, stem stitch, some chain stitch, a little bit of satin stitch, and some French knots.

The leaves on the larger flowers in the designs are mostly fishbone stitch.

Open for Interpretation!

The fun of embroidering these ready-to-stitch towels is really in picking colors you like, and working with stitches you enjoy.

You might use the projects to explore new stitches or stitch variations, or you might choose just to stick with your old-time favorites that you love.

Colors, of course, are purely subjective! We all have our favorites! And that’s why these ready-to-stitch goods don’t come kitted. You can pick your own color scheme. You can work from a stash if you have one.

Or, if you want to use the same sets of colors we did, you can, which is why I’ve provided them all here for you.

Grab a Towel Set!

We’ve now got the ready-to-stitch Tea Time towel set available in the shop. We’ve prepared some in advance, but otherwise, we’ll prepare them as they’re ordered, just as we do the rest of our ready-to-stitch goods.

This means that the towel set may not ship the same day as your order, but they’ll ship within a couple days.

Each set is comprised of three high quality 100% cotton flour sack towels that are about 27″ square. They have a hanging tag on one corner. They’re the best flour sack towels I’ve found available today. They’re not gauzy like the kind you find in big box stores – they have a nice close weave, are highly absorbing, and they iron well for a beautiful presentation.

A Note Regarding the Design Transfer

Please keep in mind that the ready-to-stitch sets are made to be stitched, not stashed for extended periods of time. Our transfers are not meant to be permanent. They are meant to fade with laundering, and long-term storage can affect them.

The design may fade over a long period of time, especially if stored in an environment subject to changes in climate, humidity, high heat, sunlight, and so forth. We include instructions for preserving the design if you don’t plan to stitch these within the next six months (or so – it depends on your climate and location). For the most part, the design transfer is stable, but in some cases, it can fade, so pay attention to the included information on that when you order your towels.

We have sold thousands of sets of ready-to-stitch towels over the years to many happy stitchers around the world, and we are confident that you will enjoy stitching our new Tea Time towel set!