Preparations for a Wedding

Erin and Andrew's wedding is just around the corner now, and it's keeping the crafting hands busy. First thing when I got back to Waterloo was the wedding shower! There was a food and drinks table with jumbo straws that I wish I had stolen every time I have an avocado smoothie (a new favourite).

And a Bronwyn Snyder cake which, despite worries, was delicious. But the sudden realization dawns that I never got a strawberry... 

Some BORING punch. Actually it was delicious AND there were mimosas outside.

But all I really did was provide transport and show up, basically. Oh, and tack up some flowers in doorways.

Hannah, on the other hand, cross-stitched badges for everyone.

AND made adorable cupcakes! So it's almost like you were there now, isn't it? Hm?

In other news, I've been helping out some since then. I got my sewing machine all oiled up! I am way more excited about this than most things. That sewing machine is a good reference point for me in life.

In any case, I brought it over to Erin's for some quilting madness!!!!!!!!

We got all of the rows done so it shouldn't take too much more time to finish, because of Erin's sensible choice of quilting method: knots!

And, during downtimes, putting together giant paper flowers has taken over all other duties. These are amazing. Instructions available here and I highly recommend making a bunch of these without having any purpose in mind. They're fun.

Bit of a Brag

Last time I talk about the holidays, promise.

I admit it. I watched all of Scrooge. I just like watching a young Albert Finney try to play an old man, and comparing it to today's Albert Finney.

More bragging: I got to snuggle this robed old man for three weeks.

And oh my goodness, by (my) request, lovely steak in madeira sauce with perfectly baked potatoes and green beans for Christmas Eve dinner. I do like green beans.

And yeah, that's the table runner I made last Christmas. Looks like it's going to be a regular Christmas feature.

First use of a Christmas present: boiled egg forms. The heart maybe didn't work so well, but the other one?

YEAH. It's a BUNNY. Unfortunately the method is to peel a hot boiled egg, stick it in the egg form, and dunk it in ice water for ten minutes. At first I thought this would work just fine with soft-boiled eggs, so I could get my Christmas morning runny yolk fix. You know how it is. Anyway, it's really hard to peel a soft-boiled egg. That, and of course being in ice water for ten minutes would make anything cold. So Christmas morning breakfast was adorable, but not very hot on the whole.

Never mind. There was the traditional salmon terrine. It's just not Christmas without this stuff.

And Christmas dinner? Coq-au-vin. Back in the day, my parents made this sometimes, but it's FULL of mushrooms, and mushrooms were one of those things I just would not eat. Mushrooms and pretty much anything that wasn't pasta or boiled potatoes slathered in ketchup. But there was one late evening, and I remember it vividly, that my dad was making coq-au-vin (so the flavours could marry overnight) and the smells came wafting up the stairs to my room. It just smelled so delicious that I promised myself I would try it at dinner. Of course, it's always lived up to my expectations. Oh, except the pearl onions in this particular rendition were a little undercooked, but that was my fault since I was in charge of the onion and mushroom sauce bit. Shame.

Ah, and finally, family Christmas. We'd all been to a late turkey lunch, so dinner was mostly soup and snacks. But check out that gouda, straight from the Netherlands! Also, the second salmon terrine.

And of course, Talia tries some bean dip. The chips were ok, but the bean dip "accidentally" fell into her bowl and stayed there. More for the rest of us!

Most of Christmas was just me and my mom. One of the first things I did when I got home (after snuggling the dog) was download Love, Actually and force her to watch it. I was so happy she enjoyed it since, ignoring the blatantly romantic bits, the movie always reminds me of her. Maybe because she always picks me up from the airport. Or maybe because Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without her.

Quilting Detail

 I figured maybe instead of just throwing pictures up of all my projects (because doing that every week would be really boring), maybe I'll show you HOW I make each one of them. Starting with the quilt, since a couple of people have been curious about that. Usually I sit on my bed, throw on some Netflix, and hoop up the next square I'm going to quilt. In this case, it'll be that boring grey square in the middle. These squares are very simple to do, just straight lines to make a smaller square inside.

 Next step is to measure half an inch inside whichever line you want to start with. Of course, you always want to start your quilting in the middle, so it's always better to start with whatever part of the square is closest to the middle. in this case it's the top left corner, so I'll be going from left to right.

 Mark the line with a piece of masking tape so you know you'll be making a straight line.

 Mark your start and end points.

 Clearly I've used the same piece of tape several times, so I have to start getting creative to keep track of what I'm doing. It gets messy quickly.

 Then take your needle and make even running stitches along the line. This is my favourite needle because it's bent in the most convenient way. I don't what I'll do if I ever lose it. Before you begin you want to make a small knot in the in the thread, which you'll pull through the top layer of the quilt only, so it sits nicely inside and keeps everything in place.

And that's finished!