how did these stand up to washing? are they absorbent?

Very absorbent and will get better after about 25 washings - no softener. And if you can hang all your house linens (sheets, table, blankets, etc ) outside. And thank goodness they aren’t Terry, hate Terry especially when they add some sort of polyester in the material blend to help with wrinkles. I don’t find today’s Terry cloth to be all that absorbent and they leave bits of debris as they get older. They use to be very much so, but the polyester and other other mystery chemicals just aren’t the same as the old Terry cloth. 100% cotton like the old flour sack towels were great, yes you have to iron them if you are a perfectionist. But since they get wet as soon as you dry the dishes or wipe the counter — what’s the point? I like a decorative set that just hangs for pretty or to use like old pillowcases for cafe curtains and use others that I don’t iron for the duty towels. But the longer they are used and washed, the better they will come. I have some 100% cotton, and some linen ones from the late 60s - have softened so much they really don’t wrinkle. But have stood up well. And as someone said — don’t use softener if you want anything to be absorbent. Even high quality swim suits and some nicer fabrics don’t recommend no softener. Natural and more organic fabric does better without it (cotton, linen, wool, silk, bamboo, etc). I’m beginning to feel softener isn’t really good for fabrics, nor the environment as it’s released from the sewer to rivers, lakes etc. Those of us almost 70 years came from the tail-in of where you ironed everything from bedding, men’s boxers, curtains, table linens, tea/bar towels, all the clothes including jeans — and everything looked great. You can take a 25-50 year old linen or cotton table cloth etc, lightly spray with bottle of starch solution (has bluing in it), roll up, put in plastic bag with no markings or a white towel and then rolled up, put in frig overnight, iron on appropriate setting with high quality pressing cloth and they will look brand new, crisp and cool. Same with cotton or linen clothing. Also some of these young girls who have never used an iron — just expect everything to be no wrinkles. The only way is to add some form of polyester to get that. If you want natural good old cotton - well you will need to iron if you want them crisp and wrinkle free. The bottom shelf of our frig always had linens, clothes rolled up ready to iron. Of course you can take out of the dryer or bring in earlier and starch and iron then. But for some reason applying starch and letting them be rolled up all nice and flat produced a better result. And I think this was better than drying to use spray starch on really dry fabric..it can’t absorb into the fabric to do it’s job. There is probably an article somewhere about this. Give me 100% cotton, 100% 200 ct percale bed sheets (smooth and cool), 100% linen, and 100% wool — they will still be around decades later for someone to use, or to be recycled into other projects. And it’s better on the environment than all these chemistry projects we wear on our skin and slick marketing tries to convince us is better.

Does anyone know if these are made from Egyptian Cotton?

Thank you for showing interest in our products. The Birdies on Wire kitchen towels are made from 100% cotton Twill Fabric and not from Egyptian Cotton.

What color is the solid side?

It's a mint green -- the same color seen on the bottom trim.

Can someone please describe the colors for me?

Colors pretty true toPicture- teal/pale yellow/pale green/slightly darker green/pale orange /slightly darker orange./brown stems on branches. Background is an off white or linen color. They work in my kitchen which has white cabinetry and woodwork, dark hard wood floor /chocolate walls and orange accents. They are pretty and well made. Good Luck. Helen