Fabriano: Adoration of the Magi

Another cropping of an iconic picture by Gentile de Fabriano (1385-1427) entitled Adoration of the Magi seems appropriate to display on Christmas Eve.  The entire panel is 300 x 282 cm and is housed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Double click on the picture to see the remarkable detail of emotion portrayed on the faces of the adorers.

Potica: Famous Christmas Bread from Russia

Our neighbor Mary, shown below with the pups, gave us her delicious home made potica bread.  I am eating it now (warmed) with coffee.  It is delicious!

This is a picture of the dessert bread:

This site gives the time and labor intensive recipe for potica. 

Mary was born in Denver, although her parents came from Russia.  Mary said her mother made this bread for Christmas both in the "Old" country and after they immigrated to the USA.  Mary and her siblings were reared in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Merry Christmas!

Making Fabric Labels

Personalized labels for special hand made items can be produced using an ink jet printer.  A special quilt or hand made item can be finished off with an individualized fabric label. 

How do you begin?  Instructables comes to the rescue with a simple method of transferring printing onto fabric. All that is needed is freezer paper, a pair of scissors and an iron, along with the fabric for printing.

A Piper Knits showed a nice label for her prayer shawls, thusly:

Instructables will be the guideline to use for my future labels to be made and sewn into hand knitted gift items.

It's a good idea.