Folky Flakes Ready-to-Stitch Towel Sets – and some Holly, Too!

Just in time to give you something comfortable, cozy, quiet, and calming to stitch on through the holidays, I’ve added some ready-to-stitch towel sets to my shop.

The new set is a three-towel set of my Folky Flakes designs. These are stamped cross stitch snowflake designs, very simple to stitch, perfect for peaceful, relaxing stitching while you’re taking a break from the hubbub.

Here’s an overview of the towel set, some basic tips for stitching (you won’t need many!), and information on the availability Holly & Evergreen towel set, too.

Folky Flakes comes to you as three 100% cotton flour sack towels that are each stamped with three different cross stitch snowflake designs of varying size.

The towels are approximately 27″ x 27″, white, hemmed all around, and featuring a corner hanging loop.

This is the small design.

I used red (DMC 321) to stitch mine, but you can use blue or any color you want, really. I like the red because it’s very folky and very Christmassy. (But I’m kind of a red person, anyway, if you couldn’t tell by looking at my website.)

This is the medium design.

The towels are perfectly suited to beginners, but they’ll work for anyone who likes to cross stitch on plain weave fabric and who likes to have simple embroidery projects on hand for down time.

Unlike most stamped cross stitch, there is no space between the stitches, so the designs are compact.

Here’s the large design.

The x’s aren’t huge – but they aren’t tiny, either. They’re 1/8″. It’s a nice size for this type of design.

The main designs on the towel are situated in the corner opposite the hanging loop. If you are holding the towel from the top edge of it, facing you, the hanging loop is in the top left corner of the towel and the main design is in the lower right corner.

On the lower left corner of each towel, there’s an extra little stamp of a random flake – or, in the case of the large design towel, three random little flakes.

I thought this was a cute extra touch, but I didn’t take into account the extra work to transfer that tiny little flake! Who knew that something so small could be such a problem?

Still, I like the little guys and I’m glad I did them. They add a fun, stray accent.

Please keep in mind this is a three-towel set. There are no instructions and there are no threads. If you want to stitch them, you should be familiar with how to thread a needle, how to start and end threads, and how to make a cross stitch.

Here are some stitching tips, to help you achieve the best results.

Stitching Tips

1. Use two strands of floss.

2. Strip your floss. You’ll find a tutorial for stripping floss here.

3. “Railroad” your stitches so that the two strands lie parallel to each other. Railroading is simply passing your needle between the two strands of floss before you enter the fabric to take your stitch. This helps keep the strands from twisting. Essentially, it looks like this:

4. Use the no-knot straight stitch start to begin each new thread. It will cut down on bulk on the back of the embroidery. You can find a tutorial for this trick for starting a new thread here. With cross stitch, the resulting straight stitch is one half of the first cross stitch.

5. In order for the embroidery to look its very best, try to work your cross stitches all in the same direction. That is, the bottom half of the cross stitch should always be slanting in the same direction on any given snowflake (it may change from flake to flake, because of the orientation of the design), and the top half should always be slanting in the same direction across the whole flake.

(See how they all go in the same direction?)

5. Don’t carry your threads long distances. You’ll have to carry them between the isolated cross stitches here and there at the tips of the snowflakes, but don’t carry them between the “arms” of the snowflakes.

Use the arms as your stitching path, and try to stitch in a way that keeps you moving in a logical direction. You can stitch the whole cross stitch at once, or you might stitch the first half on one section and then go back and stitch the top half of the cross stitch. Or, you might do a combination approach. Just follow a path that makes sense to you.

6. Pay a little bit of attention to the back of the work. You don’t want knotted clumps of thread back there. But don’t stress over it! The back will be visible. But it doesn’t have to look like the front. You just want it to be neat. Don’t get wild-and-crazy-obsessed with it!

Here’s the front of a flake underway.

And here’s the back.

Yeah, I know. It’s not perfect. But it’s stamped cross stitch on a flour sack towel. It’s not competing with anything. It’s just stitching for the fun of it!

The Nitty Gritty

Please read the product description for the Folky Flakes ready-to-stitch towel set. There, you’ll find all the nitty gritty! Please pay attention especially to the limit of towel sets per order. Thanks!

There are a very limited number of these towel sets – and these Holly & Evergreen towel sets – available right now.

I had some equipment and supply problems that I’m trying to sort. Maybe they’ll be sorted out before Christmas, in which case I may be able to put some more sets together. I hope so!

And I profoundly apologize to my international friends. I can’t ship these internationally. I have explored every possible option for an affordable way to get them to you, but there isn’t one that makes sense. Every trackable option costs significantly more than the towel set.

Looking Ahead

On Thanksgiving, I’ll have a little note for you and a game to play, because I know you’ll want a break from cooking, eating, and watching football.

And the Snowflakes designs and instructional e-book for the Snowflake ornaments I’ve been featuring lately should be available for at some point on Saturday, if all goes according to schedule.

And next week – yay! – a Stitcher’s Christmas starts! Lots to look forward to!

Do check in on Thursday if you get the chance!

Hope your week is going splendidly!