Marketplace: Cats in the Dishtowels Dishtowels

September 12, 2025 Bernadette

IKEA has the towels back in stock that I’ve always used to print this set of dishtowels! So I printed up three sets of “Cats in the Dishtowels” dishtowels for the farmers market last weekend, and I’ll get more so I have them on hand.

I purchase the 20″ x 26″ Tekla dishtowels at IKEA and imprint the sketches of my fine felines interacting with my dishtowels with a commercial-quality fabric transfer trimmed down to the image. They are absorbent and durable—I first printed these in 2020 and I have been using the test towels from my first run of towels for the past five years. The towels also have a pair of vertical red stripe about one inch from each long edge, none top and bottom.

And I’m so happy to bring back the boys and their antics with the dishtowels. Each design began as a marker sketch of my actual black cats interacting with my dishtowels in the kitchen. My series of daily sketches over three years were done from life to capture their activity as it happened. When I realized I had several bright and colorful marker sketches of my cats and my dishtowels I immediately decided they were a set and I should somehow print the images on dishtowels.

But there’s one thing that makes this run of dishtowels “special”—and that’s in quotes for a reason. They are printed backward! You probably wouldn’t notice unless you already had a towel, knew the sketches really well, or looked closely at my signature from the original sketch in the designs below…I had set it up correctly, but instructed my printer to “flip” the design to intentionally print it backward, which you sometimes do with fabric transfers. But not these ones. I wasn’t going to waste the transfers! So I used the entire dozen of them and maybe we’ll consider them a “limited edition.”

The Dishtowel designs

Below is each of the designs. Click the image to go to the post about the sketch here on The Creative Cat to read about each of the designs. Scroll down farther to find the link for where to purchase them.

“Dishtowels”

I tossed a pile of dirty dishtowels onto the cabinet and they became an instant cat bed for Jelly Bean.

“Lounging on the Dishtowels”

They were clean, but I didn’t fold them fast enough. Mr. Sunshine is very pleased with his ingenuity. He is also daring me to move him.

“Not Blue Stripes”

Apparently Mr. Sunshine doesn’t care for the dishtowel with blue stripes. He scrunched it up and kneaded it as best he could, and it still isn’t right.

“The Dishtowel Drawer”

When three great minds get together to accomplish something, it should be somehow recorded, even if they had no idea what they wanted to accomplish.

Where to find “Cats in the Dishtowels” dishtowels

You can purchase them as a set or individually, though I will say that a full set of all four designs can be difficult because of outside purchases at vendor events and friends who stop by. You can find them in my Handmade Gifts shop on Portraits of Animals.

Marketplace

You didn’t realize a basket of freshly made dishtowels would be a purrfect cat bed?

Take a look at other new merchandise and featured artwork.

Marketplace is a feature on The Creative Cat to share the latest coming out of my studio with my readers. Once a week on Thursday I feature something new in my “shop”.

Read about creating custom items

Find out more about creating custom items for your own home using the images you see here. Visit the “Ordering Custom Art” page to see samples and read bout how to order.

Find out about events and festivals where you can find me and my work.

Sign up for my e-newsletter (below), check the widget on the sidebar on my home page, or sign up to receive posts on Portraits of Animals Marketplace. I plan on plenty of events this coming summer in the Pittsburgh area.

It’s all done under the close and careful supervision of my studio cats!

Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.