Call them what you like: dish towel, tea towel, or, in the dialect of my Italian grandparents, a mappine ... good cooks need an abundance of towels in the kitchen. My mom, Millie, figures they should be beautiful, and why not? She embroiders each of these by hand. It takes her about a day to finish each one, but she loves the process. The full amount of each sale goes to her, and when I am 94 years old, I hope that I, too, will be coming up with new cottage industries, as Mom did, to keep myself busy. Now Mom is 97, and still enjoying this newly found purpose in life.

Mom does each stitch by hand with needle and thread, and once the embroidery is done, she and my sister Marietta launder the towels and iron them, so they are ready to use once you receive them. They are big and thirsty: 100% flour sack cotton, and just about 28" square once they've had that initial wash & dry. The towels themselves are loomed in Pakistan, but the hand embroidery is done by Mom at the old family homestead in Boca Raton, Florida. Machine wash cold and tumble or line dry. You can iron them if you'd like, but we like ours a little wrinkly. So does Mom.

The tea towels in this series are inspired by the blooming cactus plants found in the deserts of the American Southwest. The flour sack towels are always white, but Mom chooses the embroidery floss colors by her whim and each is made by hand, of course, so each towel is unique. Expect yours to look a lot like the ones you see in the photographs, but the colors may vary.

We try to keep these in stock, but sometimes Millie has to make them to order, so we may need an extra few days for shipping. If time is of the essence do let us know... and if you're wishing for certain color schemes, Millie will take requests: Contact us via email.