Valentine Dishtowel

This year, for our regular Valentine making day, Miss Abigail invited a younger friend to join us. I was a little concerned that Avery might get a bit bored with making valentines, one after another, all day long. So, I planned a couple of extra activities for the girls. We started the day by making Valentine dishtowels for the hope chest. I have reasoned that, someday, Abigail will make Valentine cut-out cookies with her children, just as she and I have done together. I think it would be fun to use a special holiday kitchen set, so this is the start of that set. Eventually, we'll try to add an apron and a set of hot pads for the hot cookie pans, and, of course, some cookie cutters. I will admit that I am also being a little sneaky. I'm hoping that Avery will have had fun making the dishtowel and that she will want to be a hope chest "buddy" and come back to do other things with us.

So, we made the dishtowels first, so that the paint could dry while we were doing other things. The girls used a washable glue stick to hold one of the paper heart doilies to the dishtowel. Then they used a just damp sponge with fabric paint, dabbing the paint over the doily. The edges are simply "feathered" by the sponge - no need to be too precise. The girls did the large doily first. Later, after the paint dried, they layered and sponged a second, smaller doily on top of the first. I think they turned out great!