Story behind your tea towels? (Lighthearted)

I have a variety from different places and holidays. The ones I’m using at the moment remind me of the my husband’s interests in life.

Most of the really old ones have long been binned.

3 newer ones I’ll be keeping came from the 3 Gdcs’ time at pre-school - they show all the children’s 3 year old self portraits! - with their names underneath.

Also love the one with the map of GB with all the Shipping Forecast areas marked. IIRC bought in the shop by HMS Victory.

I have Glasgow tea towel, with the Glasga sayings. Pressie from my Scottish cousin

Lots from around Wales. Lake Vyrnwy, Bala, and two just the Welsh flag. Two unused that the GDs made at Infant school, with a drawing made by every child in the class. And apart from the ancient ones , three bright ones with peacocks I bought on a whim from Joe Browns .

When I was about 16 I worked weekends and school holidays in a posh gift shop.

Printed tea towels were a great craze then and we had them pinned up all around the shop with numbers on. So the customer just asked for No. 26 for example. There were Union Jack types, Carnaby Street, funny ones, slightly cheeky ones, some with recipes on. They were really popular and I still have a couple. Irish linen so they washed and wore very well.

I don't buy them from places we've been to, like Witzend, we have a couple we haven't used from when our children were in the infants when they and their respective classmates drew a self portrait and the school had those images printed on tea towels which parents bought as mementos.

I have a few with pictures that bring back memories but I usually buy plain ones.

My cousin gave me tea towels as a wedding present. Pretty dull present, I thought at the time. But as each wore out I could take a new one from the pile. It turned out to be a really useful gift and I was sorry when they'd all gone and I had to buy some more.

My favourite one has a recipe for Lincolnshire plum bread on it, which I have now made many times.

When posting presents abroad I use a local tea cloth as wrapping instead of paper. Two presents in one!

lixy

My favourite one has a recipe for Lincolnshire plum bread on it, which I have now made many times.

When posting presents abroad I use a local tea cloth as wrapping instead of paper. Two presents in one!

That’s a nice idea 😃

Have bought most tea towels myself with birds, flowers or anything I like on them but also have quite a few bought as gifts for me from various friends and relatives when on holiday somewhere.

I think that good quality tea towels make excellent gifts. (If not wanted for use immediately, they can be kept for the future; they take up little storage room.) I realise that most of our tea towels were gifts; it's nice to think about the people who gave them to us.

In the late 70s/early 80s I had little spare money. I had been given 3 or 4 interesting tea towels as presents in the past. I used them as the equivelant of posters on my kitchen wall. (One was a Yorkshire pudding recipe). Visitors, who saw them, sometimes added to my collection which ended up as a very eclectic mix. Every so often I would take them down and wash them.

Salti Mum used to do that, had a couple of new tea towels which were slotted into black plastic rods at top and bottom then hung on the wall. One was a very pretty basket of kittens and the other was explaining the rules of cricket in an amusing way, as Dad was cricket and football mad.I’d completely forgotten that.😃

Some of mine are school ones, like Witzend described except they’re KS1 and KS2.
I liked to buy ones with recipes on from places where we are on holiday. Now we have a dishwasher, I don’t really need them.

Last time I visited DS and family, I was proudly presented with a tea towel with all the members of DGS' class (he had just started school). When I found his portrait I was immediately suspicious - he's a very bright lad, but drawing is not his strongest skill. "How lovely, did you draw this?" I asked. "Oh no, I was off that day, so the classroom assistant did it!" His parents, who had shelled out for 3 tea towels were not amused!

I have 7 Russian teatowels given to me when I hosted children from the area near Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster. I guess they were actually from Ukraine.
The teatowels represent the days of the week. This took me ages to work out. I still use one or 2. The others are rags.
I think of that time when I use them.

My family bring me tea towels from every holiday they have. This year I have a one from Stratford upon Avon, one from the Titanic museum and a one from Berlin.
I have a kitchen drawer and cupboard shelves full of them.
When the family visit I use the towels and it gets us talking about the holidays.