Red Pepper Quiche

I got loads of red peppers for a really good price on the weekly marked
and backed them in the oven at 180`C with aubergines until they where cooked,
then pealed them and put them with an egg, cream and a ripe goatcheese mixture, salt and pepper
on top of puff paste. After backing the quiche for about half an hour, it was only a matter of a few minutes
to see it disappear with a glas of red wine ...

Oven backed veggies is a  traditional way of cooking them here in Catalunya, and they are just delicious that way!!!!!

Hey there, I am back to routine

...it's every year the same story, getting the kids back to school routine after an eleven week brake
and then organizing myself into the workshops again, takes it's time.
But thanks to my lovely students with their eager exitement to go creative again it's so smooth to get back into, what I call, the rest of the year life here in Catalunya.

getting started with Kaffe Fassetts "Mary Mary" Quilt

New this year are the workshops I give in the creative shop "Entredos" in Calella, a fantastic place not only for sewing, but also for knitting and crochet.

My summer location...

...is far more north and western than Catalonia, of amazing beauty and full of fine people.
Rough and sweet, colourful in harmony, that's Connemara.

here I get inspirations for my handcraft, relax from last years rat race,  put on a few
pounds-what seems to be especially appreciated by my love-
and try to let our guests in the Old Monastery Hostel experience an unique stay..

Summertime in Connemara

...and living is easy!!!
The Whitestrand in Renvyle spreads its fine sand blanket
out for us, to enjoy todays incredible 25degrees.

Busy, busy

designing and sewing for a new shop, which opened its doors
1th of July in Calella, Barcelona, Spain

I will give Patchwork and creative sewing workshops from next September on
in this great space, where Elisenda and Carmen, the two owners, will offer a wide
range of creative classes..

All excited with the arrival of the first fabrics from the "Ring a Roses" collection by Guetermann,
I got started....

bird houses

...we made them last Saturday in one of my weekend workshops
and had great fun.
except for the little bird, there was no sewing, but
sticky fingers from the clue.

scrap cushion

....made from the scraps of the "Far from Africa" Quilt

ready for my kids to jump on it!

Work in progress

..so, the top of my "Far from Africa" peace is ready,

just in time when temperatures here in Spain are picking up

and quilting gets a sweaty job.

I thought about a kind of all over wood grain texture,

you know like the lines in the wood, where branches a growing out.

But if there is anybody out there with an other suggestion????

flower power

..much of my day I spend driving around
picking up my kids from school, getting them to their
training, games, doctors etc..
and like I hate to be late,
I am always min. 10 minutes too early!!!
Usually this lost time freaked me out as much as being late,
than I discovered crochet again - after more than 25 years
I still know to do it, wow!!
Now 10 minutes hanging around for my
kids, gets me a crochet flower done
for rings, brooches, scrunchies and other stuff
to be pimped up.

...and I JUST LOVE THEM!!!

Wise man said...

“Let’s not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things. A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation. For all crises bring progress. Creativity is born from anguish. Just like the day is born form the dark night. It’s inventive in crisis that is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies. He who overcomes crisis overcomes himself, without getting overcome. He who blames his failure to crises neglects his own talent, and is more respectful than to solutions to problems. The incompetence is the true crisis. The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems. There’s no challenge without a crisis. Without challenges, life becomes a routine, in slow agony. There’s no crisis without merits. It’s in the crisis where we can show the very best in us. Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us work hard instead. Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it.”

                                                                                                                       Albert Einstein

sowing and sewing...

carrots!!!
they are loved by my whole crowd.
Never have enough of them in the house,
since the kids were toddlers, there was always
a bowl of pealed carrots and sliced apples as snack
before lunch on the table.
They are a must in every green salad or standing alone with
lemon dressing and sunflower and squash seeds.

Now it's the season here in Catalonia to get sow them,
weather is getting warm and sunny, soil is prepared...

so I put the tiny seeds in their bed...
and knowing that it still takes about 3 months to have them on
the table, I started sewing some...
with help of the tutorial I found in
clarescraftroom.blogspot.com

Far from Africa

In the small catalan village, where I live, there are several families from Gambia,
the tiniest country on the african mainland, situated on the westcoast, running along
the river Gambia and surrounded by Senegal.
The women are dressed in fabrics of bright, adventurous colours in wild designs
and I am always stunned by the natural grace they wear them.

Intrigued by how the fabrics act together in a Patchwork, I purchased a scrap bag in
a local shop, and with other bits and pieces from friends I got started....

...and exited!!!

I will definitly go for an african Quilt...

Love is in the air....

...the almond trees are in blossom here,
the birds are singing sweet tunes,
first violets show their face to enjoy the late winter sun
and it's true "Love is in the air"

I oppened one of my most appreciated scrap boxes,
the one with Japanese fabrics...
made tiny hearts,
a wreath of vine twigs and crochet flowers
- a cage of love -
for the purple bird twittering among them.




Happy Valentine's Day !!!

Jeans recycling "la vida es bella"

I love the blues!!!
their textures, their seams, pockets, buttoms...
I like to wear them new, used, tattered
and I go mad recycling them
actually there is hardly no other fabric inspiring me the way
denim does.
I have a big box of old jeans and scraps of them
and often I just open, go through them, cut bits and pieces here and there
and start creating.

Here one of my " La vida es bella" projects, a huge, heavy stuffed reading cushion
for my lovely nice Rosalie

Blackboard Nostalgia

When my kids asked me about my time in primary school,

I liked to explain to them, that we had no copy books in

the first years to learn and practice writing and mats.

Instead of these, we used a small blackboard, a kind of

framed natural slate- if your parents were old fashioned-

or a fancier plastic version, with a small sponche tied on it

and a slate pencil to write. That all our efforts were wipped out

after each lesson, and no evidence of our beginnings remained.

I beleave it was the perfect tablet to deal with the huge task,

and sometimes I would like to have some for my little daughter,

when she tears out a page from her copy book in frustration.

....my slate tablet was smashed on the head of my

best primary school friend, and my father decided, for the security

of my class mates, to buy me a plastic one....

doing the blackboard writing again!!!

Breakfast bags for the little ones

I made these breakfast bags for a friend of mine

and enjoyed the application work and the free

motion stiching on the maschine.

Hope the little ones like them too,

or at least the yummy food they will find 

in there!!!

Laces&Roses

For the splendour of the day of happinesses in the air

To live the taste of colours easily

To enjoy loves so as to laugh

To open eyes at the final moment

She has every willingness.

                   Paul Eluard

Journal covers out of the scrapbox!!!

Coloring a dull sunday

Yesterday the kids were off, so there was no need for a big sunday cooking.
The day was dull and chilly.
I set up my sewingmaschine in the kitchen, beside the open fireplace,
put on my music and worked away to the voices of Marla Glenn, Alanis Morissette, Kirsty McGee...
and by the end of the day, I had made these wristlet purses 

you will find the pattern in here:

or join my workshop
soon

made this diary cover for friends
and wish them all the best for 2013!!

hello there!!

with 2012 just gone, and 2013 still young
I make myself a proposal:
this year I'll start my own blog!!!
and here I'm to share with  you out there
my creative projects
I warn you, it's all about scraps,
like my personal economy is hitten by a deap depression,
but happy ernough,
in more than 15 years of teaching Patchwork and Creative sewing,
I have bags, stacks and boxes
of fine Kaffes, Amys, Anna Marias, KOKKAs and nameless dots, strips, flowers
ACCUMULATED!!
and all these years I watched them, called them my treasures, feeling like Golum
to give scraps, odds and ends now an outcoming

hope you like it!!

Silvana