Birds Of A Feather - Art Tea Towels

Today we have Jody here to share about her amazing art tea towels called Birds Of A Feather. Jody is going to share her unique spin on quilts, art, mixed with tea towels.

1. Tell us Jody, how did you come up with this art tea towel design?

I designed the Birds of a Feather quilt pattern last year and kind of hung on to it for a bit. Having not done curves before, I was still a newbie to it. At the same time, I was taking the Gingiber Tea Towel Surface Pattern Design course and wanted to design an art tea towel. Of course I decided to print my quilt patterns on a tea towel! I had a sample made and it turned out bright and cheery! So, I decided to package tea towels with the quilt patterns! They are available separately as well!

 That's genius!

2. What are the Birds Of A Feather, art tea towels made of?

The material I use for my tea towels is 100% Flour Sack Cotton. It is what Gingiber uses for her tea towel designs. I find that it is lint free and immediately useful! You don’t need to wash it to have it start to absorb water like other tea towels.

3. Any favorite ways to use an art tea towel?

I use tea towels for a lot of things! I give tea towels by wrapping presents in a brand-new bright tea towel – perfect for a housewarming gift. When I bake bread, I dampen a tea towel and use that over the rising dough. I use tea towels to protect my clothes when I am eating tomato-based products, and my favourite tea towels are always hanging over my stove handle (to hide the dusty window of the oven!).

These are all excellent ideas, I especially love the house warming gift.

4. Anything else you’d like to share?

When I volunteered at a thrift store a few years ago, we got a donation of close to 50 different linen tea towels. I was tasked to go through them to check if any were damaged and the variety blew me away! Someone had taken the time to buy one tea towel from each place they had visited! Edinburgh, Athens, London, and more. I ended up buying 10 of them and I still use them every day. When I travel for work, I try to buy a tea towel from the city I am in and take it home with me. Now I gift them rather than keep them as I have so many already, but it is a unique souvenir to take home.

That's wonderful to pick up tea towel souvenirs! Now I'm inspired to start collecting art tea towels, so practical!

5. These would make great gifts too! How can we order one of these art tea towels? Or three in my case.

The tea towel and quilt pattern combos are available on my website
www.gingerberryquilts.ca. My favourite is the Birds of a Feather, but I have a variety of geometric tea towel and art tea towel styles available with more coming.

Thank you Jody! Tell us about yourself and where we can find you online.

My name is Jody Groenendyk, a quilt pattern designer based out of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I am a scientist by day but a creative quilter at night! Creativity is a part of my everyday life. I enjoy designing and completing experiments in my daily work as a Biochemist, where I develop a ‘protocol’, very similar to designing a pattern. I experiment with fabric, quilt patterns, and quilting pantographs. Modern, edgy, and creative designs are my favourite.

I own Gingerberry Quilts, a small, eclectic (AKA colourful), online quilt shop in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where I design quilt patterns and produce quilts, tea towels, bags, wall hangings and small quilted items. I am passionate about sustainability and transparency in quilting but also about colour and living outside my comfort zone! Gingerberry is a nod to my traditional side, but I am drawn to anything Mid-Century Modern! Possibly because I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s! I specialize in creating beginner and intermediate Mid Century Modern inspired quilt patterns.

Website: www.gingerberryquilts.ca