For nearly 100 years, Colonial Patterns has designed and distributed embroidery patterns from its headquarters in the River Market area of Kansas City, MO.
If you see a tea towel with a design on it, there’s a good chance it’s based on a pattern designed by Colonial Patterns. They own a number of pattern brands such as “Aunt Martha’s” and create and sell just about everything needed for needlepoint, or embroidery.
Since your humble author enjoys visiting antique malls, I’ve seen a huge number of tea towels and other embroidery items. Some are truly vintage while others are funny, modern and downright snarky. I really had no idea there was a company that created those patterns! (I’ve driven by their building many times and always figured they made some other type of pattern. I finally decided to Google them.) It’s quite interesting and their website/e-store is well worth a visit.
For those of us with no needlepoint talent, they also offer finished tea towels.
