Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable..

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.

Judy Tompkins of Citrus Hills, left, talks to Diane Frueh, right, about a kitchen cloth towel with a flower embroidered on it.

This is a display of various work by Diane Frueh.

Here’s a sample of embroidered patriotic trucks and gnomes created by Diane Frueh.

Judy Tompkins of Citrus Hills, left, talks to Diane Frueh, right, about a kitchen cloth towel with a flower embroidered on it.

This is a display of various work by Diane Frueh.

Here’s a sample of embroidered patriotic trucks and gnomes created by Diane Frueh.

Over the years, Diane Frueh has always been creative and loves to craft various items. She also did knit and crochet work. Later, she made golf towels, canvas bags and pillows.

Now, she makes beautiful machine-embroidered cotton cloth dish towels and embroidered aprons for both children and adults, which are as popular as her dish towels. She will add a name to the apron at no extra charge.

Her work is called “DF Stuff n’ Such.”

“I also do special orders as well,” she said. She recently had a special request for cloth dish towels with embroidered owls.

While being interviewed for this story, an abundant flow of steady customers stopped to browse, then purchase her lovely merchandise. Her detailed work is very reasonable: $5 for children’s aprons and $10 for adult aprons and she will personalize an apron with a name at no extra charge. The dish towels sell for $6, but if more than one is purchased, it’s $5 for each cloth towel.

Frueh is the membership chair of the Citrus County Craft Council and besides doing their shows, she also sells at the Depot in Inverness usually on the first Saturday of each month.

“Many people buy my cotton cloth dish towels especially when they want to have an extra gift on hand,” she said.

She embroiders everything from animals such as manatees, flamingos, horses, chickens, roosters, rabbits, cows, dogs, cats and fish, to Holly Hobbie dolls, bikes, flowers, gnomes and more. She also does seasonal items, including all holiday embroidery.

Frueh also does phrases and sentiments on some towels such as: “Beauty and the Beach,” “The Lake is my Happy Place,” “It’s not good to keep things bottled up” (with a bottle of wine or beer on it), “Mermaid at Heart” and numerous others.

“When I first started doing the machine embroidery, I had a small machine, then kept ordering bigger and better ones as I wore them out,” she said.

Diane Frueh can be reached at dlfrueh@hotmail.com or by calling 214-385-5244.

Frueh will have displays for DF Stuff N Such from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 6 and Sept. 3 at the Depot, 300 N. Apopka Ave. in Inverness; from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 20 at the Harvest Moon Arts and Crafts Show at Florida National Guard Armory in Crystal River.

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