Sara's Basket Liner

This is made from the same pattern as the basket liner below. I added a coffee/beverage holder and a cellphone pocket. Now I need to make one for my friend Barbara, then I need to update mine so it has the same cool features!

Card/Cigarette Case

I found this cigarette case at a thrift/mattress store on Grand Avenue in Chicago. I wasn't sure if it was authentic, but since it was like $2 I figured I couldn't lose. I called my dad immediately and described it - and he was pretty certain that it had been purchased on the RMS Queen Mary. It wasn't until about a year later that I realized it was the perfect size for a business card case. Note the actual cigarette burn at the top. Incidentally, when my son Leo was 4 he called smoking "cigaretting" - it's one of those things he likes to remind us of - "remember when I called smoking cigaretting..." and we all laugh and say "yeah".

You've Got To Have Friends

Anybody ever heard that song by Bette Midler? I have been humming that tune in my head since last night when my gal pals came over for cocktails in our garden. I don't know if it's because I'm out of work, but every one of them has to have a Practically Necessary basket liner! I've got work to do!

Smock Apron - 1967

My sister Sue and I make peanut butter cookies in our house in Saginaw, Michigan. The cookbook is the Betty Crocker Cookie Book. My mom made the apron in her highschool home economics class. We lived in the house at 1626 Stone until 1971, and then moved into a ranch house in Saginaw Township - a city to suburbs move.

Studio Tour

My worktable. Textile stash underneath.

We always had crates like this because my grandfather had a grocery store and my dad saved a lot of the orange and bottle crates. I like to make little scenes in them.


I love my Viking Husqvarna. When I realized that I needed a new sewing machine last year I went to the Singer store. I broke into a sweat when I say down to one of the machines, I just didn't like the way the new machines looked or felt. I left the store unsure about what to do. Then I went on ebay and found this model. All metal, top of the line in 1978. I just fell in love with it. I bid on at least 4 of them until I finally won this one.

Ping and Pong

Mae strikes again!. She really worked hard on this one - she's been wanting to make a 2 sided creature since she made Blueper. I'm so proud of her!