No tea party is complete without tea towels. Ours are made of a beautiful natural linen, keeping true to the tea towel's heritage, which comes to us by way of Great Britain where it originated as a special drying cloth for expensive tea services. Linen was the fabric of choice because its smooth, simple weave was unlikely to scratch fine china or glass. Our towel set is a perfect match for the other appliquéd members of our Tea Time team. And although quite similar to our napkins project, we show you a slightly different method for hemming and applying the bottom border accent.

Do you remember the first cup of tea you had as a child? I do, and I recall how charmed I was by the little cups and saucers, how delighted I was with the tiny sandwiches and pretty cookies. What a wonderful world of grace and gentility. That's the world of our S4H Tea Time Collection. Today, we're making napkins, which are a perfect beginner project and a great way to practice hemming and corners. Our Tea Time set finishes at a generous 20" x 20" and includes both a lovely border accent and a sweet appliquéd teacup. We made just two napkins, but you could whip up a whole tea party's worth in an afternoon. It's fun to choose mix-and-match fabrics for the appliqués so each guest gets his/her own unique teacup and saucer.

I'm of the opinion you can never have too many kitchen towels. It's an extra bonus when they are so pretty they actually make you want to clean up! We started with plain white store-bought towels, then added fabric and ribbon strips to build a band of beauty along the bottom. Tie up three or more with a bow and a sweet handmade tag, and you have a bundle of lovely linens for Mom.

Hot pads are a great project for scraps because they are small, simple shapes that cry out for mixing and matching. We 'stretched' our possibilities by making a long, two-handed version. Kind of like those 'idiot mittens' you used to have as a kid; one mitten on the each end of a string that ran through the arms of your coat. However, we didn't think 'idiot hot pads' sounded very good. I don't know about you, but I always set down my pot holders on opposite sides of the kitchen so when I need both to pull something out of the oven or off the stove, I never seem to have two within reach. Problem solved, and a very pretty solution to boot!