Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Vintage Teatowel Tuesday

I thought this tea towel was Italian...


My Italian teacher was obviously on the money when she wrote "Kylie does not have a natural aptitude for languages" on my report card in Year 8 because this tea towel hails from Wales (absolutely brilliant at poetry though, as you can surely tell!)

Croeso o Gymru means Welcome to Wales. It would read Benvenuti in Italia, if it was Italian. Stupida! 

I made the mistake because I bought it from a little old Italian lady, with a pile of others that were made in Italia. I should've had an inkling it was Welsh because the lady depicted on it is wearing traditional Welsh national dress (and I'm sure I had a Welsh dolly in my Dolls of the World collection when I was little...)
Can anyone explain the significance of the spinning wheel?

Lots of famous people were born in Wales: Laura Ashley, Roald Dahl, Tom Jones, Lakota and even the Super Furry Animals(!), but my favourite Welsh person is the one and only Dame Shirley Bassey who was born in Cardiff in 1937.

Here's a gorgeous pic of a young Shirley

image via

Beautiful, but with Shirley it's all about the voice. I especially love her Bond theme songs (because I'm crazy about old James Bond movies) so I'll end with this



Crank up the volume!

***

A quick aside...

Check these out

gorgeous flower pin cushion

These are handmade by Sarah from scraps of fabric. I think they'd make a sweet pressie for a sewing friend, don't you? If you'd like to know how to make your own, Sarah has put together a nifty little tutorial on her blog. It's very easy to follow. Sarah's a teacher so she's good at stuff like that. Click here to check it out. Sarah's blog is lovely too btw.

p.s. great craft-it-forward idea if you're stuck...
and you can check out Tammi's c.i.f. here (it's a nice one)    

23 comments:

  1. Great post, love your pin cushions :) have a wonderful week sweetie

    Bee happy x
    Have a delicious day!

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  2. You forgot BBC Gavin and Stacey, set in Wales! Classic romantic comedy!
    And I do love a good pin cushion thanks for sharing! :)

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  3. I like it - but I'm biased!
    Those pin cushions are adorable, too nice to stick pins in.

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  4. Very cute pin cushions! I love "Vintage Teatowel Tuesday"!

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  5. I'd have no clue where it was from but it sure is sweet! x

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  6. You make me laugh!!!!!! Lovely post, great tea towel. I am the same with accents. I spoke to someone the other day and assumed they were Scottish but they were a Dubliner.....I am hopeless!!! I'd have got the Welsh/Italiano thing wrong too.
    x x x x x

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  7. No doubt lovely Lakota will tell you the significance of the spinning wheel. I love Shirley Bassey. Note to self: must stop playing The Monkees Greatest Hits and dig out Shirley's greatest hits on vinyl. Hope you are feeling better. xx

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  8. Spinning wheel - there's a good article from the Museum of Wales here - http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/wool/about/
    Funnily enough, I saw a wee Welsh doll in the charity shop today, what a coincidence!
    http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/wool/about/

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  9. I love your tea towel Kylie. You taught me something new too! I always knew the welsh word for Wales as Cymru. I looked it up and there are times when it is correct to use Gymru (the explanations are quite complicated!) So something pretty to look at and a new little fact for me to store away! xx

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  10. Bless you as soon as i saw the tea towel i know it was from Wales ;-) Wales is a beautiful place. I grow up living on the borders of Wales if you ever get the chance to come to England go to South Wales the scenery is breath taking and there are some gorgeous beaches to. I do like Tom and Shirly. Those pin cushions are very sweet, Enjoy the rest of your week, dee x

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  11. I'd have no idea where that tea towel came from, thanks for enlightening me :)
    My mum is a huge Shirley fan.
    Cute pin cushions...thanks for the c-I-f mention...there's been no takers yet.
    Xx

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  12. I love the old bond movies too and that picture of Shirley is just beautiful :) Thanks for mentioning my pin cushions! Im taking all of the girls at work one each today!

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  13. I thought I was your favourite Welsh person! I have a picture of me in the same outfit, although I was about 6 at the time. I love Shirley - she's the mistress. I quite like stalking around my house singing Diamonds are Forever when the mood takes me.

    As for spinning wheels, well - we have a LOT of sheep. Spinning and weaving were big Welsh industries back in the day. (when we weren't down the mines or carving love spoons). I've had a go with one, they're pretty tricky to master.

    I think Croeso o Gymru means welcome FROM Wales, Welcome to Wales would be Croeso i Gymru. But it's been a long time and my Welsh is rubbish, I bet Lucy's better at it.

    (I have a couple of things to send you, I was going to put a pincushion in too, but I can leave it out if you're sorted already. Those flower ones are very pretty)

    xx

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  14. I too love tea towel Tuesday!!!!
    The pin cushion are as cute as a button, a perfect gift so a little sewing buddy.
    Happiness to you
    Love v

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  15. Oh rats a few wee mistakes in the comment, sorry sweet!
    Need more coffee!!!!
    Should be:cushions and for a little sewing buddy.
    Silly squirrel

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  16. love these :) popping over to visit the blog now!

    have a great day - Kel xx

    p.s - emailing you is on my list of things to do... eek! silly crazy life! haha!

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  17. We're Bond fans in this house too....hubby has every single Bond film and now Fabien is getting into them....he loves to close his bedroom curtains, lie on his bed, earphones in, plugged into his DVD player, and spend a couple of hours watching James do his stuff...I've even heard him humming theme tunes. I love the Goldfinger song..cracking stuff to belt out, even if you can't sing a note (like me) but you have to be utterly alone to do it justice. :)

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  18. Hi Kylie,

    I just wanted to let you know your little gift arrived yesterday, safe and sound. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! So very thoughtful of you:)

    Leax

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  19. Don't mind a bit of vintage Bond over here, I'll have to share a pic of my Mum and Dad's Welsh souvenir dolls from the 70's

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  20. I might (maybe) have picked it, my Nana was from Wales. She brought home a heap of tea towels when she visited Wales in the 80's.

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  21. Lovely post. It made me laugh, I took one look at the tea towel and thought... that's from Holland! Then read on.... Oh, no it's not. Stupid me. :) xxx

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  22. Funny, I picked up the VERY SAME, yes IDENTICAL, Tea Towel yesterday at our local thrift here in Oakville Canada! I knew it was Welsh right away, but did not know what it meant! Small world!

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  23. Oooh, very nice pincushions. I'll have to try Sarah's method but it a bigger size, which probably means I'll completely stuff it up! x

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