make something - bigger and smaller gifts

What's your favourite colour? Knowing your friends taste and their fav colours I decided to make a small throw cushion. I gathered some fabrics from my stash for this cushion.

I used linen with a script print and fuzzy cut AIR MAil for my centre piece.

Mismatched with Kokka prints.

The luggage tag

This is a beautiful little gift done in no time.

Choose a heavier canvas fabric and you need clear or frosted mylar for the sleeve. A clear cover from a binder will do too. I used again the fabric with the travel images. 

Here are my cut pieces. They measure 6 1/4" x 4 1/2" and a 1 1/4"wide and 13" long strip for the handle.

travelling in style.......

Northern Star, Ohio Star and Wacky Star

I spend four days in the country. My basket was packed with all kinds of fabric from my stash and my sewing machine was ready to work with the wood stove on. Feeling the warmth in my back from the heat is a sign that winter is coming soon. The early mornings are greeting me with hue of white frost.

I am so fascinated by this object which is basic and useful - clothes pegs

( Thanks for all the wonderful comments on the last post)

I decided to make some traditional star patterns with modern quilting cottons.

This will be the front for a doll mini quilt.
Northern Star
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Ohio Star
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These are the front and back wacky stars of a big zipper pouch.

Every laundry room needs a hero

bubble texture from Nancy's photoshop texture challenge

things from the past..... I remember the fresh scent coming from my mother's laundry room. Every house wife had her favourite and trusting laundry detergent to tackle soiled socks and shirts. My mom's is Persil and every time when I am in Germany I buy a pack and after my return to Canada my laundry days are sweetened with the scent from my childhood when the white, gleaming wet sheets were carried out into the garden and the wind did the rest.

My sister and I had to straighten out the large cotton bedsheets before carrying the basket to a local laundromat. One of the boys in the neighbourhood returned a few days later the pristine pressed sheets on a black heavy european bicycle which had a special stand for the laundry baskets.

Doing laundry the old fashion way without a dryer is not for the weak arms for a family of 6.

Even now I still love ironed bedsheets.

.... and there are the laundry heros which have their pockets full of twenty five cents and spent the time in a laundromat.

Encaustic work with resin

" finding places to land "

Mom's best biscotti's

To be correct the plural of these yummy cookies is biscotto (italian) . I can't keep up baking biscotti before my two sons  head back to their universities. One likes the dough with ginger the other prefers semi chocolate chips and with a cup of coffee.

Here is the recipe:
Chocolate or Ginger Hazelnut Biscotti
1 1/2 cups of hazelnuts ( the secret is to buy dry roasted for best flavour)
2 cups of cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cups of sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, cloves and allspice
2/3 cup finely chopped crystalized ginger or 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips the small kind
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla


preheat the oven to 350F. Chop the hazelnuts and mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a small bowl mix the eggs and vanilla, stir the wet mixture to the dry one. Knead the dough until smooth and divide into 3 small logs 1" high and 4'' wide.

Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar and bake for 30 minutes.

Let the biscotti cool for couple of minutes and cut with a serrated knife crosswise and return for an additional 20 minutes into the oven. 

This will make around 20 biscotti or not depending if your kids & husband are home.

            Buon Appetito!

I have a confession to make.....

I love cooking risotto by candle light ( with a glass of red wine) and listen to Etta James.

I am in love with yoga. Honestly it took me a while to last 1 1/2hr and challenge my body to stretch. I do it now 3x a week and listen... breath in and be calm, breath out and smile at the world.

I  love my camera Nikon D90 and took a class at Henry's (a local camera) to get more knowledge how to use it.
I love to sew and create .