I have found flour sack towels (purchased in packs of a dozen through amazon.com) are quick, forgiving and useful. The caveat is that it makes no sense to use an extremely dense embroidery design. Rather, many of the open, schematic or brush stroke appearing designs work and wear well. Another added benefit is that it doesn’t take forever….
most of the designs on this page come from either Embroidery Library or Urban Threads.