I usually buy sulky sticky stabilizer the I get at Hancock fabrics. I have also ordered some kind of stabilizer from Nancy's Notions. Hope this helps you but I'm kind of a novice so I am sure you will get lots more better responses.

Steam a Seam is not something I would use. I have used cut-a-way for my towels with medium weight wss on top. I trim the cut-a-way about 1/8 of an inch away from the design when finished. The only type of stick on stabilizer I've used is Inspira that I purchased at the Viking store. And I have not used it on towels.

The Steam a Seam is for bonding two fabrics together so I wouldn't use that-besides it is too expensive to use as a stabilizer. I usually use a heavy weight tear away, hoop it but not the towel. then position your towel and use the basting around feature to hold the towel to the stabilizer. put a layer or two of water soluble stabilizer on top of the towel, back up your stitch order and baste around again, then do your design. Hope this makes sense.

I like to use a heavy tear away for my towels as I still like the stability of the design after many washings. Have done numberous towel and haven't had a complaint yet....yeah me....lol. Of course you still want to use a wss on the top so your won't lose your design. You can use TA with your potholders too. I don't think you'd want to use anything sticky on the back of the towel as when you go to remove it you could pull out some of the loops. Hugs Karen

I use a wash-away stabilizer for towels (and along with a cut-away for other things). I purchase Floriani locally (but you can get it online too) and WorldWeidner Vielene Plus online. The first is a bit more expensive but stickier than the second. I have very good luck using just the sticky hooped and sticking the item to it (with a patch of cut-away for things like shirts). Solvy makes a tear-away sticky that is sold in lots of different shops - I don't like tear-away personally. Solvy is supposed to be coming out with a wash-away but I have not seen it yet in AZ USA.