Let me re-introduce you to Fee.  Fee was my first Guest Tea Towel in July 2017.  She is a regular reader of my Tea Towel Blog; she is a good friend who I have known since October 1993; 100 years ago she would have been a Suffragette, today she is involved in women’s issues of all kinds; Fee is the person I would trust with my darkest secrets and who can be relied on to make me laugh at all times; Fee has interesting eating habits and who enjoys a meal out.  Fee is not someone I would have said had any interest in tea towels so I was very excited when she offered to write about her newest acquisition; her collection is gradually increasing!

”I’m a swearer; I like swearing and swearing likes me.  It’s just a very natural part of my self-expression.  Obviously, it wasn’t always (I tended to be a well-behaved and rule-bound child, sadly).  But since my early twenties, swearing has become more and more a marker of ‘me’.  I have a wide range of friends  and many swear quite frequently, and happily, but it is rare for me to find another in my circle who swears quite as often as I do.  Although I do sometimes have a behavioural effect on others, and there are at least two work colleagues, in my current job, who report a real liberation in hearing me put a voice to their usually unvoiced thoughts and give them scope to explore their full linguistic abilities.  My ‘Secret Santa’ present at work this year was a book called “How To Swear” so clearly I have the implicit support of the team to continue in my creative endeavours.

I’m not, however, a completely indiscriminate swearer.  There is nothing worse than the awkwardness of a swear out of place, or context.  I’m very carefully tuned into the language of those around me and will often test the waters with a light and breezy swear word and feel how it lands.  Often I am rewarded with an immediate swear response and then I know that I am in a safe space and can continue and take a few more risks with my lexicon.  Sometimes I tackle the issue head-on by asking a new group whether anyone objects to swearing and, with little exception, most people in the group are breathing a sigh of relief that the issue has been raised, and resolved. 

There are, of course, those who genuinely find swearing offensive, and a verbal assault that is painful to hear.  These people are easy to spot instantly and then, of course, swearing will be off the menu in their company.  Then there are others whose relationship with swearing is slightly more complicated.  They tend not to swear at all, or only on the very light end of the scale and they do a good line in mock horror when they hear me playing merrily at the other end.  However, these people (and I have to know them well to know this) secretly love my big-stakes swearing, would love to feel more comfortable with an ‘F’ rather than a ‘B’, and gain vicarious pleasure from the fact that I so clearly, and loudly, do.

Barbara falls into this second category.  She does indeed swear, right across the spectrum at times, but is happier paddling in the shallows, and watching others diving into the deep end.  She also love a tea towel and a good play on words so this tea towel, that I was given at Christmas, is bloody perfect for her.”

PS: My Mum gave it to me – wtf?

Thank you, Fee, for that great article.  I do, however, find it difficult to imagine you as a ‘rule-bound’ child.  Unlike any email you have previously sent me, this article actually has punctuation!!  It’s also a great tea towel!!

Sue’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Sue…..Click here to read her tea towel story…..Sue’s Tea Towel Story

Cathy’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Cathy……. Click here to read her tea towel story….Cathy’s Tea Towel Story

Eunice’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Eunice ………Click here to read her tea towel story…. Eunice’s Tea Towel Story

Isaac’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Isaac….Click here to read his Tea Towel Story Isaac’s Tea Towel Story

Steve’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Steve…. Click here to read his Tea Towel Story Steve’s Tea Towel Story

Gwyn’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Gywn…Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Gwyn’s Tea Towel Story

Jai’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Jai…. Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Jai’s Tea Towel Story

Jenny’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Jenny…….. Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Jenny’s Tea Towel Story

Emma’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Emma…. Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Emma’s Tea Towel Story

Stephen’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Stephen…..Click here to read his Tea Towel Story Stephen’s Tea Towel Story

Myra’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Myra…Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Myra’s Tea Towel Story

Celia’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Celia…..Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Celia’s Tea Towel Story

Kate’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Kate….Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Kate’s Tea Towel Story

Ade’s Tea Towel Story.

Let me reintroduce you to Ade….Click here to read his Tea Towel Story Ade’s Tea Towel Story

Susan’s Tea Towel Story.

Let me introduce you to Susan….Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Susan’s Tea Towel Story.

Fee’s Tea Towel Story

Let me reintroduce you to Fee…Click here to read her Tea Towel Story Fee’s Tea Towel Story

Let me introduce you to Karen who, with her husband Ben, runs the Original Wedding Tea Towel company.  In the early days of the Virtual Tea Towel Museum, I came across the Original Wedding Tea Towel company on the Internet; I’d never heard about it before and was intrigued.  Yes, it’s right, Karen produces bespoke tea towels for wedding invitations.  I seriously wish that Karen’s business had been around when I got married.  Her wedding invitations are just perfect; they would have been the ideal wedding invitation for me, so good that I could have kept a reminder of a great day.  Let Karen tell you the story:

”Way back in December 2009, we got married.  Ben’s a designer so was under huge pressure (from me!) to come up with a cool idea for our wedding invitations.  After about 20 failed attempts, he finally hit on the idea of doing something people could keep (after all, we thought why spend all that money on something that people are only going to throw away), so that was when we struck on the idea for ‘The Wedding Tea Towel’’.

”Eventually, we created the ‘Whale Design’.  Then came the day of sending them out.  People seemed genuinely blown away and the feedback was amazing and almost all our guests RSVP’d before the day was out.  It became one of the most memorable things about our wedding.  And now, we still see them in our friends’ kitchens.”

”So, we got married and we both wondered if, maybe, the idea was good enough to make a business out of, so that’s exactly what we did!  Out experience in marketing (I was a Senior Project Manager at BBH and Ben runs his own design agency – Citizen Design) means that we know how to make our couples feel at ease, and have the creativity to keep coming up with great new designs.  And who doesn’t love a tea towel?  (Karen clearly understands how I feel!)

”We started off with a small collection of, what we call, our Classic Designs and now, nearly nine years later, there are 27 Classic Designs to choose from.  We seek inspiration from all over and anywhere.  It could be from something we see out and about that we love.  We, of course, follow wedding trends and like to tap into what our couples are looking for.  Most of our couples are super-relaxed and want to wow their guests so we get to have lots of fun with our designs, which is the best part!”

”All our tea towels are 100% cotton and printed in UK on either white or natural material.  We have a range of the print colours to choose from, but we can print in any colour really.  As long as the couple can provide us with a reference, or something to match to, then we can mix it and print it to make sure that their whole day ties together beautifully.  We do get some couples who have had a great idea for their invitations and so we love to work closely with them to create something completely unique for them.  

These designs could be anything from a lovely, scenic beach wedding in an old seaside town in Greece to a crazy festival wedding with a farmyard full of animals.  Every wedding and couple are different.  We often also add bespoke elements to our Classic Designs; so if a couple love one of the artworks on our site but got engaged up a mountain, then that’s great, we’ll add the mountain to our design just for them.  We want every wedding tea towel to match the couple perfectly and so we create each one as carefully as we did our own”.

”Coming up with new Classic Designs to add to our range is always the most challenging, and nerve-wracking, part of what we do, and the anticipation as we present them to our little world always gives us butterflies.  Waiting for those first few comments, and hopefully, of course, orders come in for a new creation is a tense time for Ben and I but I’m pleased to report we’ve not got it wrong yet!”.

”And that’s it.  That’s us and our little business and we absolutely love what we do.  I’m known out and about on the ‘Wedding Scene’ as ‘The Tea Towel Lady’ and there is no other professional name that I’d like to have”.

I wanted to know if Karen had a favourite tea towel design.  “My favourite design is probably the ‘Whale’ because it’s the most special for me as that is where it all began but I am also in love with ‘Wonderland’.  It is hand drawn by Ben so really shows his talent but I also love the typography style ones like ‘Love Story’.  It’s too hard to decide”.  If you asked me about my favourite, which I would choose if I was getting married, it would have to be ‘Scrabble’.  I love the clarity and symmetry but, really, they are all great!

I wondered about the postage, both method and cost.  “For postage we recommend neat brown wrapping paper or lovely postage boxes, each costing one large letter stamp to send”.

Thank you, Karen, for your time.  This is a unique business and what a great way to make your wedding special; no one ever remembers the Wedding Invitation for the most special day of your life, this way they do, something to keep forever to remember your Special Day.

To find out more go http://www.weddingteatowels.co.uk  

Let me introduce you to Liz, known as Liz K, because I know too many Liz’s.  I have known Liz K for about 25 years, yet it seems like I’ve known her all my life.  Initially, I knew Liz K through work, a colleague in the ‘cut and thrust’ of the voluntary sector; she ran a mental health organisation and I a disability advocacy organisation.  It can feel lonely, and unsupported, running a voluntary sector organisation; you have to seek out your peers from other organisations, people who can offer advice, support and be a shoulder to cry on.  Hence my friendship with Liz K.  We supported each other through the early stages of the awful tendering process for contracts.   When Liz K changed jobs, and worked in partnership with another Liz, she became known as one half of The Two Liz’s.  We worked on a wide variety of projects together and when she retired we became friends, sharing a love of loose leaf tea, great gardens and eating.  There is many a Tea Towel Blog where Liz K gets  mention but I am truly flattered that Liz K has read every single Tea Towel Blog that I have written.  You can quiz her about any number of tea towels and she will know the answer.  That has to be true friendship!!  I have three abiding, and amazing, memories of my friendship with Liz K: the first was of her ‘significant’ birthday, earlier this year, when we went to Bettys and Harlow Carr RHS Gardens, in Harrogate, to celebrate.  It was a delightful day.  A couple of months later she gave a splendid birthday party, in her garden, for friends and family.  It was definitely a ‘Liz Do’, her style, her informality, surrounded by many, many longstanding friends, with singing and music and, yes, food.  Fantastic.  The second memory was having a meal at her house, in Leicester, with a piece of furniture, a sideboard, sitting in the middle of the room.  I asked her what it was and she said that she had put it there to remind herself to get rid of it; she had no room for it.  I said I loved it and she gave it to me.  I couldn’t just take it.  Come for a meal and take away a piece of furniture, seemed a bit rude.  I did know she wanted some storage jars, and I had about 20 that I was going to take to a charity shop.  We swapped; we both still own our swapped items, lovingly cared for.  I can’t believe how lucky I was.  My third memory is of being invited to Liz K’s home for a delicious Sunday Lunch with Gwyn and Pete; we took the wrong turning, ended up on a very narrow, flooded bridleway which was also a cul-de-sac.  We could see her house from the car but couldn’t get to it.  It was in the days of mobile phones so we were able to ring her and say we would be late, while Pete worked out how he was going to reverse out.  By the time we got there, we were very hungry and appreciated the wonderful meal and also had a story to be recounted on many occasions!

You can see why Liz K was the right person to ask to be a Guest Tea Towel but she kept prevaricating.  Last night, I met up with Liz K for our Annual Christmas Buffet; she guiltily confessed that she knew which tea towel she would write about but didn’t know how to do the technology to get it on the website.  “Email it to me and I do the rest” I said.  She promised that it would be with me before Christmas; this morning, less than 15 hours after her promise, it arrived.

“This is my favourite tea towel. I do not know how long I have had it, but it seems always to have been in my dresser drawer, and as you can see, I use it whenever it is clean because it is so good at the drying up.

Both my mother’s and my father’s family have long associations with Australia. This tea towel is from my father’s side. His sister, my beloved Aunt Joyce, made many visits to her first cousins in New South Wales, and she and her favourite cousin, Richard, made journeys all around New South Wales, and beyond, to satisfy her (actually insatiable) appetite to see places and understand things. I think this tea towel dates from a visit which took place soon after I set up my own home, and my own dresser drawer, which must have been in the early 1970s.

I think Broken Hill has some association with Ned Kelly (I might be making that up) (and according to Google and Wikipedia, you are making it up!!!), but it is a symbol of the kind of life none of my family ever led in Australia. Joyce’s grandfather was one of the many sons of a Warwickshire farmer, with no money and not much sense. He took his young wife and baby daughter (my grandmother) to New South Wales and set up a grocer’s shop in Sydney. After several years they came home broke, but with several more children. Then, some time later, they tried again. Other cousins and brothers and sisters joined them, and a general to-ing and fro-ing went on for a whole generation, leaving my father and Joyce with cousins in both countries.

At Joyce’s funeral in 2005, my son Jo said this:
“I remember her house in Oxford as being particularly interesting to me, sprinkled with magic objects from far flung corners of the globe, mostly plates and tea towels, but she would always go out of her way to tell me about these things and where they came from, who gave them to her and why. She’d remind me of my connection to them, through her and our mutual family, and it made me feel exotic and well travelled, even though I was only six.” 

Joyce would definitely have understood a tea towel blog”.  If you have ever seen Tea Cup Travels on CBeebies, Liz K’s Aunt Joyce sounds as if she would have fitted in.  I would love to have met Joyce, she’d have had a whole collection of tea towels for me to ‘wander through’!

Thank you Liz K for a wonderful tea towel (with a recipe) and a great story!  Have a Happy Christmas.

I can almost hear Readers shouting “What do you mean, Simon’s T-Shirt?”.  This is the Virtual Tea Towel Museum.  “Has she gone mad?”.  I think this is an interesting story: I met Simon’s Dad at the Creative Writing Course that I am attending.  We were talking about the Virtual Tea Towel Museum and he briefly mentioned that his son had an online company called Too Many T-Shirts where he recycles/upcycles T-Shirts.  That sounds interesting, I thought.  This ‘journey’ with the Virtual Tea Towel Museum has taken me to places that I didn’t expect to visit; do you remember Marilyn’s collection of handkerchieves?  Now it is the turn of T-Shirts; I am not the only person in the world with weird obsessions!

Simon is a young man who has an abiding love of sport of all sorts, especially skiing.  After six years at university, and some travelling, he returned home to set up his own business.  If you are involved in sport, either as a spectator or participant, you will inevitably collect T-Shirts.  At some point you gather too many but they probably all have a story to tell; Simon recognised this, from his own collection, and decided to do something about it, to create a Memory Blanket from T-Shirts.

I was absolutely fascinated by this and asked Simon to send me a picture of his favourite T-Shirt.  When it arrived, I wasn’t sure what it was a picture of; my guess was that it was about a Japanese Baseball Team.  Simon soon put me right:  “This is a T-Shirt I bought in Japan.  I spent five months living there and this T-Shirt shows all my favourite aspects of Japanese life, the food (sushi), the mountains and the people.”

If you have too many T-Shirts and want to do something with them, I suggest you look at Simon’s website https://toomanytshirts.co.uk

Let me introduce you to Lyn and Liz.  They both have been Guest Tea Towels in their own right; they are sisters.  But this is one of those strange happenstances that needs to be recorded.  Liz and I were at Lyn’s house, one of our regular visits.  Liz shouts from the kitchen  “Come and see this, Barbara.  It’s a really unusual tea towel that would look good in the Virtual Tea Towel Museum. You’ll be really jealous”.   Both Liz and Lyn can spot a good tea towel (been trained well!!).  I went and had a look and the first thing that springs to mind is Jean’s ‘Test It’ tea towel (www.myteatowels.wordpress.com dated 1 April 2016), one of those tea towels with public service information.  “Where did you get it?” I ask.  “I’ve had it in the drawer for sometime.  I got it from work a long time ago.  I can’t remember why but I’ll ask Michelle the next time I see her”.

Lyn is one of those people who, if she promises to do something  she carries it through.  A week later, a text from Michelle comes through “From what I can remember I used to attend Age UK meetings at the Stevenage Borough Council every month.  They used to have Guest Speakers and I believe that they had someone talking about Consumer Rights.  I then invited them to talk at one of my Retired Partners Afternoon Teas.  The speaker brought some of the tea towels for me to distribute to the Retired Partners and said any left over could be distributed amongst staff”.  (To explain, Lyn and Michelle worked for John Lewis and ‘Retired Partners’ are former employees who have retired and meet up on a regular basis for a social).  “I must have been given one by Michelle when the talk was over.  I had completely forgotten about it”.

I said that I thought that this needed to be included in the Virtual Tea Towel Museum because it is a great story; it must be a genetic habit to collect tea towels with Public Service messages, since Jean is Lyn and Liz’s aunt.

I have known of, and about, Con for nearly 40 years.  She is my friend Gwyn’s mother-in-law.  I meet up with her at big events in Gwyn’s life – her 40th Wedding Anniversary, her 50th Birthday and at many Christmas’s where Con has come to stay with Gwyn and Pete.  Con is a serious Scrabble player, she has strong political views and finds it difficult to understand that anyone she knows would not share those views.  Con loves writing, she loves cats, has had cats for as long as I’ve known her and is able to use colour, very stylishly, in her wardrobe that is unusual for someone of her generation.  I remember at Gwyn and Pete’s 40th Wedding Anniversary Party she wore the most beautiful emerald green, velour outfit with an amazing scarf that  looked so elegant.  No matter how many times I’ve met Con, she will always say that she cannot remember my name; and I really don’t think that matters.

Con is 95 and I thought she would make a great Guest Tea Towel because I felt she probably had some interesting tea towels.  She chose this one of cats, from the Feline Advisory Bureau:  “I don’t remember how old this tea towel is but it certainly isn’t new.  It has a few stains.  It was a present from someone who knew I loved cats.  I think it was from Gwyn and Pete. (They confirm that this was probably so and must be well over 20 years old).  I like it because it is not a series of cartoons of cats but quite good likenesses of the different breeds.  I am very fond of this tea towel”.

Thank you, Con, for being a Guest Tea Towel and for your memories.

One of the exciting things about the In Conversation With.. articles is being able to showcase the diversity of brilliant tea towel designers; diversity in terms of style, inspiration, subject matter and use of colour.

I met Clare Baird at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017.  If you go to the Fringe Festival, and want to see a lot of shows, it does involve quite a lot of walking, from venue to venue, often traversing the Royal Mile.  There are always loads of people on the Royal Mile, that you have to fight your way through, people who are stood stock-still, looking lost or people gathered around street performers.  Around St Giles Cathedral are always some small craft booths, different ones on each day.  One day, I was walking up the Royal Mile, looking forward to a One Bowl Wonder at the Friends Meeting House; but I was distracted by Clare Baird’s Booth.  I can spot a tea towel at a hundred yards; I saw her Red Squirrel, peeking cleverly from around the edge of her stall.   I was delighted to see a stall with so many beautiful tea towels.  I had to be strong and restrict myself to just one – the Red Squirrel (www.myteatowels.wordpress.com, Blog dated 25 August 2017) but it was a difficult choice.

Red Squirrel 2017: To read the story http://www.myteatowels.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/red

I knew at that point I would have to invite Clare to take part in In Conversation With…  The problem with interviewing lone artists is the pressure they are under managing all aspects of their work so I am delighted now, a few months later, to be able to present Clare Baird!

”I would probably describe myself as an artist, my work touches a little on illustration but I think it has a stronger sense of fine art and photo realism than illustrative creative works”.  When I showed Lyra, aged 7 years and one week, some pictures of Clare’s work she said ”Wow.  They are really cool.  They look pretty much like real.  I’ve seen one of those birds (pheasant) running across the road.  They can’t be tea towels, they are like pictures”.  Lyra is clearly an art critic in the making

Pheasant: On ‘loan’ from Clare Baird. See In Conversation With…

Clare went on to say ”I have always loved creating.  From an early age I’ve been interested in all things creative.  I studied Art and Design Technology at A Level but outside school I was already designing, manufacturing and marketing my own range of creative wares.  This lead me to study Fashion Design at Edinburgh College of Art where I learnt many valuable skills and developed my love of fabrics.”

”I work for myself.  I first started selling my designs whilst at Edinburgh College of Art at a market stall during the Edinburgh Fringe.  I now predominantly sell to Trade, where a range of small independent gift shops and larger retailers display and market my products.  I also sell through my website (see below) and online retailers e.g. Etsy ClareBairdDesigns.  I currently have a range of 20 tea towel designs and I am in the studio working on a new and exciting collection to launch in January next year”.

I wanted to know if Clare had a favourite tea towel design.  ”I think my favourite has to be the Highland Cow, with it’s Scottish ‘imagery’.  I hope this design captures all the elements I want to achieve as a designer – strength, energy and colour – a definite favourite of many of my customers”.

”I would describe my business as one of the most important things in my life, along with my family and friends.  I am passionate about producing quality products which customers will love, as I do.  My biggest challenge is that I am a perfectionist, always wanting to do everything to the best of my ability – not always possible  whilst managing all the elements of a business.  But from an early age, I have always wanted to run my own business”.

What inspires Clare, I wondered.  “I work from a converted barn, in a small neighbouring village.  I am surrounded by beautiful countryside with much wildlife which is great inspiration”.

Hedgehog: On ‘loan’ from Clare Baird. See In Conversation With…

Mountain Hare: On ‘loan’ from Clare Baird. See In Conversation With…

And the future?  “To develop my Brand by generating  new collections and increasing my range of bespoke work for the world wide market.  I would love to travel more with more with my work and use the research and inspiration to create future collections”.

If I was to ask myself what my favourite design of Clare’s is (can’t count the Red Squirrel), it has to be either the Highland Stag or the Robin (because it does so capture the essence of Christmas).

Rocky the Robin: 2020. To read the story http://www.myteatowels.wordpress.com/2020/09/28/roc

Clare’s designs do translate to coasters, mugs, cushions and greeting cards.  It is certainly worth looking at her website for ideas for Christmas.  After all, who can resist a Christmas Robin?  Thank you Clare for giving up your time for the Virtual Tea Towel Museum.

Whttp://www.ClareBaird.co.uk

Ferryhill Church 2000: Acquired 2015. To be part of a Special Collection

Let me introduce you to Jean.  I have known Jean for nearly 20 years.  She is the reason that I visit Aberdeen so frequently, and, quite frankly, love Aberdeen so much.  Jean lived with her two sisters for most of her life, the last 30 years in a flat just off Union Street.  3 years ago, living on her own, Jean had a bad fall, to cut a long story short, no one realised that a piece of bone from her shoulder had become dislodged, then infected, causing serious illness.  The prognosis was not considered good.  Cutting another long story short, she was extricated from a Rehab Hospital into a Nursing Home and three years later she is healthier and fitter than she has been for many years.  Jean is 91 years and 10 months old.  When she moved into the home, I was privileged enough to be allowed to clear her home, ensuring all her possessions went where she wanted them to go.  She gave me her tea towels, her collection of more than 50; tea towels that she, and her sisters, had enjoyed buying (and using) from holidays, home and abroad, days out and presents they had been given.  They were people who believed that tea towels were for using, not just collecting.

“Would you like to be a Guest Tea Towel, in the Virtual Tea Towel Museum?” I asked.  I could see a strange look come over her face, probably thinking ‘What is this woman talking about?’  Politely she said “What do you mean?”  I explained that she would have to choose her favourite tea towel from the Collection that she had passed on to me and then tell me the story of the tea towel.  It would then be on the internet and ‘go viral’.“I like that idea.  I’d like to do it but I don’t know which was my favourite.  I liked the Gordon Tartan one, but don’t remember the story.  We had a lot of Scottish ones like the one about Wild Flowers of Scotland or Scottish Recipes.  There was a great one from our trip to Beamish and I think there is one of Hitchin where David and Dorothy lived. We used to go down every year.  There’s a nice one from a trip to Cambridge with Lyn and the children”. (I quickly persuaded her against that one because no reader would be able to see the picture; it had been bleached to death!!).

“I know” says Jean “It could be one of two: either the one from Ferryhill Church or the Aberdeen Guides Tea Towel”.  I suggested that the next time I came up, I would bring both tea towels to see if that helped in her decision-making and I would be able to take a picture of her with the one she chose.  “What a lovely idea.  I’d like to see them again”.  Two months later, I took the two tea towels to Jean.  She had forgotten about her agreement to be a Guest Tea Towel, or, more importantly, what a Guest Tea Towel was.  A very brief recap brought it all back.  She struggled with the decision; each tea towel had different memories but eventually chose Ferryhill Church.  I might make an exception and let her have a second favourite Guest Tea Towel in the future, maybe to celebrate her 92nd birthday.

Jean searching the tea towel for her signature and that of her sisters. To read the story of this tea towel, go to Guest Tea Towels 2017 and read Jean’s Guest Tea Towel and why she liked it so much

”I’m choosing the Ferryhill one.  Ferryhill Church was the church we always used to go to, ever since we were children.  David was in the Boys Brigade, Betty ran the Brownies, Myra was a Guide Leader for more than 36 years and had a certificate from the church and her picture in the paper.  There was a lot of socials to do with the church, some ministers were better than others but that would never stop us going.  I can’t remember who decided to do this but to celebrate the Millenium we decided to have one of those tea towels with everyone’s signatures on it.  A bit like one of those from school but at least we didn’t have to draw a picture of ourselves.  How many signatures are there, Barbara?”  Have you ever tried to count signatures, haphazardly written on a tea towel?  But there were significantly more than 100.

Jean’s sister Myra’s signature. Myra died in 2006.

Her sister, Betty’s, signature. Betty died in 2015,

Jean’s signature

”We all had to do it in our best writing.  Betty always had the neatest writing.  Mine was definitely not neat but I did my best.  They had loads printed and everyone on it bought one and I’m sure they bought them for their friends as presents as well.  We gave one to David and Dorothy”.  We then spent some time looking for the signatures of Betty and Myra, as well as Jean.  Just as we found one, we lost it looking for another.  Jean got distracted by finding signatures of her friends, some of whom were no longer alive.  She could remember lots about the lives of the people who had signed the tea towel.  “That’s why this one is my favourite, just looking at it brings back memories of people, not so much of the process of doing it but those names conjure up great memories.   The money raised from the sale of the tea towel was used towards developing new services at the church, like the cafe which opens in the week.  I can’t remember if the money was actually used for that but it was something like that.  It was a good idea.  I’m glad we did it and that I signed the tea towel, even though my writing was scruffy.  That’s what Ferryhill was, a nice community.  When we moved to Thistle Court, it was not the local church but we would never have changed where we went.  It was a good way to celebrate a new Millenium.  Is that ok?”  Thank you, Jean for that great story.  You affirm the premise that ‘every tea towel tells a story’ and Jean still goes to Ferryhill Church.

One of the  exciting things about ChariTea Towels is the range and diversity of charities that sell tea towels as part of their fundraising strategy.  I am really glad I introduced this category into the Virtual Tea Towel Museum because the stories behind the tea towels, and the artists involved, is absolutely fascinating.  Today it is the Woodland Trust.  I remember ‘buying’ a tree in the name of John, my late husband for the Woodland Trust.  It’s an organisation that he really loved and liked the idea that there isn’t a big plaque with his name on, just that he contributed to the growth of native woodland in UK.

Woodland Trust was founded in 1972 by Kenneth Watkins, a retired farmer and is now the largest woodland conservation group in the UK.  The Woodland Trust has three aims (a) to protect ancient woodland which is rare, unique and irreplaceable (b) to restore damaged ancient woodland and finally (c) to plant native trees and woods with the aim of creating resilient landscapes for people and wildlife.  Nassim Gribi tells the story of their tea towels: “As a woodland conservation charity, we need creative avenues that shout about our message for better protected woods and trees across UK.  Tea Towels give us the opportunity to work with artists and help express the benefits woods bring to animals and people.

To keep it fresh and up to date, we release new Tea Towels quarterly, each one unique to the season.  At the moment we have seven Tea Towels available to buy on our website.  Three of our latest include the A-Z of Winter Woodland, Holly Tea Towel and Squirrel Tea Towel – all of which bring the festive spirit of winter woods into our homes”.  The A-Z of Winter Woodland and the Squirrel Tea Towels also provide a lot of information (and Christmas is always the time for a Pub Quiz!).

”Our tea towels are designed by the incredibly talented Amanda Loverseed; she shares our values for the environment and this can be seen through her illustrations.  Her work can be seen on many of our Christmas products, including our new Advent Calendars”.  (Her range of jigsaws is also good and very informative).

“We wanted to have a way of letting people represent their support for woods, in the comfort of their own homes.  We believe Tea Towels represent Britishness but at the same time they allow us to show guests our individual tastes – there’s no better household item to fly the flag for woodland conservation.”

A-Z of Winter Woodland: 2017. To read the story http://www.myteatowels.wordpress.com/2019/01/19/a-z

”It seems to be working well for us as our Tea Towels are admired for their quality and design, which makes them a consistently good seller.  Our Tea Towels help fund our objectives of making woods more protected and more accessible to everyone”.

Since its foundation, the Woodland Trust has planted over 38 million trees, saved 616 woodlands, got over 22,500 hectares of ancient woodland under restoration, planted 250 Millenium Woods in 2000, 60 Jubilee Woods to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and a First World War Woodland to mark the centenary of the end of that war.  With all that under their belt we should all think about giving someone a Tea Towel for Christmas – take a look at their website.

http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk

I’ve just joined a Creative Writing Class.  With tea towels in mind, I thought ‘I wonder if anyone would like to be a Guest Tea Towel’, always good to have a reason to do a bit of creative writing.  My first volunteer was Margaret.  I don’t know anything about Margaret, except that I love her writing and am very envious of her skill.  Actually, her first response was “I would never have imagined that there was such an interest in Tea Towels.  Shows how much I know”.   Saddened, I thought ‘No Guest Tea Towel from Margaret then’.  This was rapidly, and I mean rapidly, followed by a second email: “I couldn’t resist a bit of doggerel”.   If you are wondering what ‘doggerel’ means, it is “comic verse, composed of irregular rhythm” or “loosely styled and irregular in measure especially for burlesque or comic effect”.  The musical equivalent would be Les Dawson playing the piano badly; he could only do that because he was able to play the piano well.  So here is Margaret’s poem:

A Tea Towel

A Tea Towel website, how can this be 

isn’t it just a cloth to dry up after tea?      

Clearly  not according to the site of the

Virtual Tea Towel Museum.com where one can see

 the reality of the global appeal of this unsung

 item, nay, an artefact that will in future be hung

 in the knowledge that it is more than a mere washcloth.

 Traversing the shores of the Americas to the Azores doth

 it’s creative powers traverse, its an art form elevated

it’s days of drying dishes and crockery denigrated.

 And yet a Tea Towel is a Tea Towel is a Tea Towel for all that.

  Ah, but look further and you will find that it is no mere towel.

  In the heady stratosphere of towels, the Tea Towel is an aristocrat.

I love the poem, and I am delighted with the ‘nod’ to Robert Burns.  But things got better! At the next class Margaret gave me a tea towel, a brand new tea towel, never been sullied by wiping up, an Ocado tea towel which she says “I bought on a whim and have never used and I thought you might like it”.  Yes, you’re right, I do like it but the invitation to be a Guest Tea Towel was not to extend my personal collection but thank you anyway.  Thank you Margaret for being my first Creative Writing Class Guest Tea Towel.

Current Aberglasney House and Gardens tea towel, available in the onsite shop. A garden worth visiting!

I visited Aberglasney House and Gardens in 2012 and today I blogged about a tea towel I bought there.  Up until today, I hadn’t realised that the Aberglasney Restoration Trust, which has owned the House and Gardens since 1995 was, in fact, a registered charity.  My image of what sort of charities I would be writing about in ChariTea Towels has been blown to shreds once again.

Aberglasney House and Gardens is set in the heart of Carmarthenshire, a mediaeval house in 10 acres of gardens and winner of a Gold Award from Visit Wales  in the category of ‘attractions that achieve excellence for their facilities and customer service’.  They described Aberglasney House and Gardens as “Spectacularly set in the beautiful Tywi Valley of Carmarthenshire, Aberglasney House features one of the finest gardens in Wales.  It has been an inspiration to poets since 1477.  The story of Aberglasney spans many centuries but the house’s origins are still shrouded in obscurity”.

Having been left to fall into disrepair, it has taken a lot of work to get the gardens ready for visitors and opened in 1999.  Any charity like Aberglasney Restoration Trust is in constant need of funds to ensure that the work can continue and that achievements, already made, do not get lost.  Aberglasney receives 35,000 visitors a year thus the shop and cafe are always an attraction for visitors to spend some money.  A tea towel is part of the merchandise for fundraising:

”We only have one tea towel on sale; the previous one went out of stock in 2015.  The tea towel isn’t designed to be educational.  It is a lovely, cheerful design which provides an abstract look at Aberglasney’s Grade II* Listed Mansion House and its 10 acres of historic gardens which surround it.  The design was commissioned by an employee who no longer works at Aberglasney.  The tea towel is one of a number of popular Aberglasney branded items that are available in our gift shop.  As contributing to the funds we need it is moderately successful as compared with other branded items.  We only sell the tea towel in our gift shop”

I am fascinated by the evolution of the Aberglasney Tea Towel.  My original one was bought in 2012, yet the green colour remains the same, the mansion is on both, and the orange trees are both there.  I am still wondering what the significance of them is; I should have bought a Guide Book.  But thanks to Ellen for the information and I hope that it contributes towards the funds needed to keep Aberglasney House and Gardens in good condition because it is truly a glorious place to visit, regardless of the weather.

Couldn’t resist putting in the tea towel that I bought in 2012, to show the contrast in style. It is no longer available

For several years, in little independent shops, I have seen birthday cards, mugs and coasters produced by Perkins and Morley.  I have loved the range of Venery (Collective) Noun items on sale but it wasn’t until my friend, Fee, gave me a tea towel for my birthday, in 2016, that I realised that they did tea towels.  A tea towel with some Venery Nouns was like my idea of heaven.  Once I set up the Virtual Tea Towel Museum, I knew that I wanted to include Perkins and Morley in the In Conversation With…section.  I wanted to know all about the Venery Nouns Collection but I can’t overlook the fact that they have a wide range of designs, beautifully drawn with a creative use of colour.  So here is their story:

”We are a two woman design team, producing quirky and unusual designs for cards, gifts and homewares.  We have been designing for 30 years (bearing in mind that Jill lives in Devon and Jan in Cumbria.  This must be a strong business partnership that can survive those distances).  We both did a graphic design course at Middlesex Polytechnic which is where we met and more or less starting working together after that, in Sri Lanka.  The business has been going for 30 years;  we started out as wooden toy designers, working for a company in Sri Lanka, moving on to ‘hand to table ware’, producing many designs that sold in Macy’s, Bloomingdales and all around the world”.   They started designing and publishing their own design-led greetings cards in 2010.

Living so far apart, how does the business work?  “I (Jan) design some of the ranges, do all of the digital stuff; I like doing the design layouts for the cards and do most of the day to day running of the business, like emails, doing the VAT etc.  Jill designs some of the ranges and is a very good sales woman, so is very good at Trade Shows.”

”We mainly sell to trade and have an online retail shop.  We have just started selling our second Collective Noun tea towel to the United States of America!”  I was interested in the first item that they produced: “If you are talking about the business, in its current incarnation, then it would be Jill’s ‘Country Walk’ range – if we are talking in the beginning of the business then it would be a wooden Christmas Tree decoration”.

I am itching to know about the Collective Nouns range which is a best seller and available on cards, tea towels, coasters, fridge magnets, mugs, key rings, chalk boards and stationary.  “It was Jill’s idea and I came up with the art work and it went on from there… We have designed six tea towels in total and are currently selling three with a new Collective Noun tea towel out next week.  I have to say that my favourite tea towel is the original Collective Noun tea towel and that is the most popular so far”.

”We are very committed to being eco-friendly, using recycled card, envelopes and fully biodegradable bags.  All our products are made in Britain and are ethically produced.  We love what the UK has to offer.  Not only does it give us beautiful scenery and an immense variety of birds and animals; but talented crafts people we can call upon to make all our greetings cards and gifts.  We are proud to say that we design and make everything in the UK; we print our cards in Essex, our tea towels in Redcar and a range of gifts including coasters, key rings, clocks and chalkboards are all handmade in Pershore”.

I am always interested to know what tea towel designers dreamed of being when they grew up: “I always wanted to be an artist”, says Jan.

Interestingly, the thing that Jan didn’t mention was their calendar, the 2018 Collective Noun calendar.  Now this is something I would highly recommend; I know about these because I won one, in one of their competitions on Twitter last year, so I am the proud owner of the 2017 one.  The best things about these calendars are (a) they are not made of shiny paper that it is so difficult to write on (b) they are not huge so do not take up wall space that you haven’t got (c) while small, there is a big enough space for each date to jot notes about your appointments and, of course, (d) you get 12 Venery (Collective) Noun pictures which you can keep and you are able to bore people in Pub Quizzes about your knowledge of Venery Nouns.

Thanks to Jan for answering all my questions and best of luck for the Christmas Season.  Everyone needs a Calendar, a matching tea towel would go well with it.

Clare is one of Fee’s best friends.  Fee is one of my best friends.  I have known Clare for about 10 years, although I haven’t seen her for a while.  Clare is one of those people who can be difficult to track down because she travels, goes abroad for a while and lives an interesting life (although tea towel-free).  Fee came to stay with me a couple of weeks ago and she was going to see Clare the day after.  “Do you think she would be a Guest Tea Towel?” I asked.  “I don’t know” said Fee, helpfully.  Knowing that Clare had recently moved into a new apartment, I sent Fee with a tea towel, celebrating loose leaf tea, as a house-warming gift.  Much to my delight I received a WhatsApp message with a picture of Clare, the tea towel I gave her together with her favourite tea towel.  The story of the tea towel was a recorded message.  I wish I could post it as it came but, instead, this is the transcription.  Fee always likes to challenge me!

“Hello, my name is Clare.  I actually use tea bags, quite a lot, in fact exclusively but the tea towel (the present about loose leaf tea) is very nice; it’s a nice present because I need tea towels.  I have just moved into a new place and I didn’t have any tea towels at all.  So I do need tea towels.

I bought two tea towels from, I must admit, Primark, I am ashamed to say, in a sort of Hawaiian print thing.  That’s the other one that I am holding up.  I was really sad because my favourite one got burnt on the cooker but I still use it because I really like it with a picture of Hawaiian style women with hibiscus flowers, all pinks and blues and exotic ferns.  It is my favourite tea towel although sadly, a little disheveled.  OK, that is the story of my tea towel”.

That’s a great tea towel story and demonstrates that a Guest Tea Towel doesn’t have to be an expensive, pure linen tea towel; it is just what you like and actually I’m off to Primark because that is a great tea towel.  Thank you Clare.

I have known Ann, scarily, for about ten years; how time flies.  I would describe Ann as my ‘life-saver’, my ‘salvation’; without Ann I would have either just gone crazy or become depressed.  Ann and I had an unusual relationship.  For about eight years, I probably spent more time with her than I did with any of my friends and she did with her husband.  She showed the most incredible patience and tolerance, had a great sense of humour and we shared many interests: Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing on Ice, going on holiday, decorating the house, Simastatins and activities for grandchildren……. I watched two of her grandchildren gradually grow up, went through the story of her husband’s knee, got vicarious pleasure from some of her Groupon trips, especially the one where the hotel had closed down.  So how did this relationship develop?

I have had epilepsy, active epilepsy, for about 18 years.  When I was first formally diagnosed, the consultant took my driving licence away, in order that he could return it to DVLC (and to prevent me attempting to drive again).  Not being able to drive was devastating.  I had driven, every day, since I passed my test at the age of 17.  It was my freedom and independence.  In my job, I needed to be able to travel around to meetings and home visits, often in obscure places, with little or no public transport.  It’s difficult to explain how dreadful that loss of driving made me feel.  The ability to get around was essential to my job so Access to Work funded a ‘driver’ for me.  I had to employ someone to drive me around.  Altogether, I have employed three drivers: the first was a disabled woman who felt the need to eat MacDonalds most of the time, the car stank and she had an appalling sense of direction; she died after a couple of years; the second was a bloke who was patronising and gave me the creeps.  By this time I was getting very wary; you do have to spend a lot of time with someone driving you about.  Then along came Ann, my saviour.  She would take me anywhere, was incredibly flexible, could make last minute meetings, could deal with my inability to be accurate about how long a meeting might last and knew how to get around Leicester (not quite so good on more distant parts).  When you are in the car with someone for long periods, you get to know all about them and I probably bored her to death with my tales.  She was fortunate that she didn’t know about my passion for tea towels until a few months before I retired otherwise I really might have bored her to death.  Ann was an obvious person to invite to be a Guest Tea Towel but she kept saying that she didn’t have any interesting tea towels.  Then a few days ago this arrived….. a wonderful story.  Thank you Ann, for your patience, your company, your sense of humour and now your tea towel:

My Love Affair with Norfolk

“When I was a little girl, I spent a lot of my holidays in a small town called Beer, in Devon.  My Auntie Gwen and Uncle Mick lived there and I used to go to stay with them and my cousin Maureen (Mo).  I remember the main street in Beer having a gulley taking the rain water into the sea and we used to walk right down to the beach which had lots of huge pebbles; coming back we stopped at Auntie Joan’s sweet shop. A lot of my childhood memories are of these holidays.

Then, of course, you get older and other memories are made.

Girlfriends and boyfriends, together we went on several holidays to Norfolk; then on to more serious relationships, I met Stewart and we went away to Great Yarmouth for a holiday and stayed on the sea front for a wonderful few days.

In due course, we married and on came the honeymoon, where else but Norfolk. The Norfolk Broads to be exact, we picked up our boat at Acle and was given a 5-minute lesson on how to drive, “If you can drive a car, you will be fine, forward, reverse or stop” was what we were told, a little bit daunting seeing that this was on the water but hey ho, off we went. One of our night berths was at Oulton Broad and we pulled up at the side of the broad and moored. Went off for dinner and back to bed or so we thought.  Halfway through the night I woke up and couldn’t get to the side of the bed, the boat was tilting to one side and, all of a sudden, the cupboards above us all came open and contents showered down.  We had noticed on leaving for dinner that a lot of boats had moored in the centre of the broad, but not having a rowing boat we could not do that; our hull had got trapped under the ledge when the water rose slightly. There was I trying to hold all the cupboards shut with my legs and arms whilst Stewart had to jump on the side of the boat to free us!! Great fun!!

Another day we thought we would chance our luck and go over Bleydon Waters; this is a tidal stretch of water between Yarmouth and Lowestoft and we we were bowling along quite nicely until another boat hailed us and shouted “Your backs out of the water”, this not being ideal and my hubby is quite an intrepid sailor so a quick exit from there was necessary. Would do it again in a heartbeat though, a fabulous holiday I would recommend to anyone.

Forward on a few years, and our next memorable Norfolk holiday was with our two boys, still not very old; we decided to save on the pennies and go camping. We bought a lovely big tent with separate bedrooms, canopy and all the paraphernalia that goes with camping and set off to West Runton, near Cromer. It started to rain as we got there and it was very windy, (if it wasn’t for the wind). We pitched at what we thought was a very good spot, that was until we had the tent struts in place and trying to peg them down. Next thing we knew we were all chasing down the hill trying to catch the tent. Finally, having battened down the tent, we sat there wet and shivering and ended up going to a laundromat to dry our clothes.

Believe it or not, this did not put us off Norfolk at all. We progressed on through tents, trailer tents, touring caravans and lastly a static caravan in North Walsham. The area became as familiar to us as our home ground. Cromer with its pier, Yarmouth and the Model Village, Wells and all its boats, Sheringham Park with the wonderful park and all the flowers. Norwich, of course, to satisfy my love of shopping and must be one of the best Park and Ride sites in England; there are at least five or six sites around the city centre.

Just recently we have been to Winterton on Sea and had a week reliving all the places we used to go to regularly. Even a night out at the Greyhound Racing; we won on three races but then, sadly, the night went downhill but still very enjoyable. Cromer Crab bought for our supper for when we got home.

All the best of old and new can be found in Norfolk, there is something for everyone and this tea towel shows some of our old haunts and hopefully will be visiting them lots more in the future”. 

Ann is certainly not a woman to be put off by a bit of wind, rain and a sinking boat but she’s right, Norfolk is a great place and this tea towel has certainly conjured up some great memories from over the years.