Book Inspiration :: Kitchen Towel

Grace just loves the book, "Earl the Squirrel" by Don Freeman. It's a cute story about a little squirrel in search of acorns - perfect reading for this time of year. There's one particular page of the book that Grace laughs hysterically at every time we read it. It's when Earl finally discovers a tree full of acorns and one falls right on top of his head, "Bonk!".

We wanted to make something that would remind us of silly Earl. So the idea of the kitchen towel was born. Here's how we made it:


Grace painted a piece of muslin (backed with freezer paper for support) with orange fabric paint.


When the paint was dry she drew an outline of a treetop on the backside of the freezer paper. Then she cut the image out with her scissors.



I machine stitched the treetop and trunk (Grace said of her choice of trunk fabric, "I like this one, it looks like swirling leaves in fall") onto a ready-made flour sack towel. Then I embroidered Earl (wearing his red scarf - a gift from his friend Jill), an acorn, an owl (hard to see in the photo) and the word "Bonk" in Grace's handwriting.

The towel is now displayed over the handle of our oven door - it's a wonderful reminder of autumn and a much loved story!