Date: 9 January 2017. Dish Towels.

© janice142
 

Boating often seems to be a series of getting wonderful things, then hunting for a perfect place to put them. This is an ongoing issue aboard Seaweed for certain. Clutter and chaos interfere with my sense of calm. The latest storage problem was regarding towels. The newest two are great, but where to put them?!?
 

Cramming stuff into a locker is not for me. I need my home to be organized. She should be neat and tidy. And most important of all, I MUST be able to get underway for an impromptu cruise within minutes of making the decision.

This is the original stove with dish towels drying on the rail.

My friend Cheryl gave me some pretty dish towels for the galley. I love them. Before the refrigerator and microwave installation, I had a stove in the corner. It had a rail so I could display pretty towels.
 

I decorated for each season and holiday via $1 dish towels. The problem was that after the demise of my stove I had no place to hang dish towels.
 

This photo was taken during the installation process for my new spiffy two-door refrigerator/freezer.
 

Side Note regarding the stove: There was nothing wrong with it. The new refrigerator fit best where the stove was. Thus I gave the stove to my friend Ken. He will pass it along to someone in the boatyard. I opted for single burners such as campers use when hiking.
 

This is not ideal. It does work and that's what counts. At some point I'll figure out how to have a removable stove that is easy to mount on my locker front by the sink. Ken has something similar on Sparrow for his spare burner. I rather like his set up.

This is Ken's Sparrow. ↓ From bow to stern we are: BOB, HIPPY PAUL, KEN and ME.

 

The thing about boating you'll notice is that none of us "know it all" ... instead we borrow regularly from our friends. I see something spiffy that I like on another boat. Next I either duplicate it aboard Seaweed or tweak it to fit my boat/my circumstances.
 

There is a sharing out here that does wonders for the heart.
I love the camaraderie found in the boating world.
Making friends is one of the best parts of life afloat.
 

The stove was replaced by my refrigerator and a microwave oven.
Now I have no place to display/hang for drying dish towels. Worse yet, the towels I use to tidy up the galley no longer have a home. I needed to find a solution for that problem.

As each holiday came 'round I found joy in decorating via a new dish towel. I'd buy something festive for a dollar or two. Then Kidlet gave me this towel:
 

I created a spiffy hanger for the Livin' the Dream towel. That project is described in the Making a Towel Rack article.
 

One problem I constantly battle is clutter. I want my home to be interesting visually and not too cluttered. Aesthetics mean a lot to me. My Seaweed isn't the biggest boat. By having a minimal of stuff displayed she seems more spacious than she really is.

But I digress. That is a habit my good friends will confirm.
You see Island Time's Cheryl gave me a two small towels with embroidered nautical motifs. They are nifty. The white one has a lobster and the peach towel has a seahorse on it. Seahorses have a special meaning to me. I mentioned that briefly in the Personalizing Your Home article.

The size for these two is perfect. I need to have small towels easy to access. Additionally I want to be able to put them out of sight. Without the towel bar that is a necessity. With a small home keeping the boat from looking cluttered is important.
 

Displaying too many towels would add to the visual distraction. I wanted to hang them though so if damp the towels would dry. That is when I remembered the loops I had added to my sunshade fabric. That article is titled Hoops and Loops. The same process would work for the Cheryl towels.
 

I got out my needle and thread. Sewing on a loop at one corner of each towel was easy. They were done in a jiffy. Next I added a hook to hang them from. Voila: done.

Of course I could have dug around and found matching thread. I went with Easy this time. Blue was in the needle and so I used it. Frankly with my eyes such as they are it is far easier to use contrasting thread colors. This does not have to be perfect.

Not every job has to be perfectly executed. One ring is on each towel at the corner. The loops have survived multiple trips through the washing machine. I'm satisfied.

Good Enough and done is far better that waiting for perfection.

This is Cheryl in Marathon. ↓ You never quite know where a cruiser will be next week.
 

Some day I might have too much time on my hands and opt to fancy up the rings. For now though I am simply happy to have a pair of pretty little towels just the right size for cleanups in the galley. Thanks Cheryl!
 

Do you use your Prettiest towels?
Have you any special ones that are mainly for display?
 

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