Prairie Point Towel

Happy 4th of July everyone!! Hope your day is filled with at least some of the following: a whole hecka bunch of good food- at least some of it barbequed, lots of laughter, perhaps a glass of wine, good music, fireworks, pie- eating contests, bike races, twinkling lights and lots of friends and family [this is what we will be doing at our annual neighborhood block party]!

These quick flour sack towels really couldn't be more simple….

Step 1: Sew (2) 2 1/2" strips together. Press to one side and cut into 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" squares. Make them all from one strip set or make them all scrappy from a variety of fabrics or leftovers like we did. Whichever way you go, you will need 7-8 squares depending on the width of your flour sack towel and how much  you want them to overlap one another.

Step 2: Fold the squares into prairie points as shown below. First fold the square in half and then in half again. One side of your prairie point will be all one fabric and one side will be dual fabrics like shown below. As you fold them, be sure that you fold all of them in the same direction to end up with the fabric in the same positions. You will know what I mean if you fold it in the opposite way.

Step 3: Lay the prairie points along the bottom of your towel, overlapping them as needed, all the way across the towel. The dual fabric side should be right sides together with the towel and the single fabric side will be showing on top. Make sure all the raw edges of the prairie points are lined up with the edge of the towel. 

Sew the prairie points to the towel with a large stitch that is a bit smaller than the 1/4" that you will be sewing with so that it does not show when you bind the towel.

Step 4: Bind the towel all the way around. Given that the towel is so light, it will look better [and the towel will be softer to use] if you make single fold binding. But if all you know how to do is double fold binding [the standard quilting kind] then it is fine to do that as well. Be careful around the prairie points as you bind to make sure that the points are still flat against the towel.

Press the prairie points down over the binding and stitch in place with one topstitched line. Note that the prairie point side of the towel will have a tendency to be stiffer than the rest of the towel due to the amount of fabric that is down there and it might not want to lay folded in half like a traditional towel. It will be more agreeable after you wash it and dry it. Also it might work better if you hang it like we did in the pictures instead of trying to get it to fold exactly in half.

Happy embellishing!

Oh and BTW, if you stay tuned we will have some pattern news in a few hours. Just need to go eat a little 4th of July breakfast!

Joanna