Blue and White Tablecloth

When I was growing up my mom always loved all things blue and white.  For a long time I resisted the blue and white urges, but my mother's influences has come back.  I love blue and white right now.  I'm eager to unpack the blue and white china my mother gave me, want to paint my house blue and white and now I have made this tablecloth.  It's not quite as drastic as painting my house, but it is the first step. 

I got the idea from Eleanor Design and Inspiration.  I have been waiting form many months (I'm talking more than five) to make this tablecloth.  But today the stars aligned, my sewing machine is tuned and ready, the fabric is here, and the pinking shears are bought. 

What I love about this tablecloth is that it is made out of Ikea dish towels.  It took two bundles to make this one, but if I had know I would have bought three.

I did try to iron the finished tablecloth, but those creases were really set.

It took me a really long (much longer than I thought) to figure out the best way to arrange the dish towels. My cat, Rhea, decided to hang out on the table while I was arranging the dish towels.  

Then, while I was moving the towels around she got playful. 

I eventually had to move her and made this design. 

I mixed up the patterns.  That way no two patterns touched.  For the directions follow the link above.  The only things I did differently was to add the last dish towel on the ends.  I cut it in half and stitched it to the long ends. This arrangement made it just long enough to cover the table. 

I must say I really love how this looks in my dining room.  The flowers are from my garden.  Maybe I will make the curtains out of these dish towels ... umm, or maybe not.