A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine, and a Flimsy

Okay, so the jug of wine will come later. Maybe not the whole jug. Maybe I'll stick with just a glass. The loaf of bread and the flimsy, though. Those are real.

Sugar fiend that I am, one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is the baking and candy-making. I've made White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge, Divinity, and regular Fudge fudge so far this year. Mike and I each had a few pieces of each, and then I sent the rest to work with him. Last night I gave Mike his choice of Cranberry Bread, Cranberry Bliss Bars, or Cinnamon Swirl Bread for my baking project on Saturday. He chose the Cinnamon Swirl Bread, and so I started on that first thing this morning. It has two rises, and so I needed to get it going. After that I worked on my embroidery for a while and then went downstairs to finish the Shoot the Moon quilt.

Yesterday I finished making the final eight stars for the cornerstones. There were 20 of these in all. Each one had to be appliqued and then top-stitched using a tiny stitch and rounding three times. It wasn't difficult, but it was tedious and time-consuming.

I'd been cutting them out, fusing them, and top-stitching as I needed them, and so the project went a lot quicker once all the stars were finished. While the bread was rising, I sewed on the third row of blocks.

I messed with the bread a little more then and got it ready for its second rise. While that was going on, I finished the fourth row of blocks.

It was time for the bread to go into the oven at that point. Once I had that safely installed, I spent some time auditioning border combinations, more cornerstones, more appliques, all kinds of stuff, and I really couldn't come up with a way that I liked to finish this quilt off. Finally, I asked the Resident Engineer to step into the sewing room for a design consult. It seemed to me a fresh pair of eyes was in order. He messed around with it a little bit too. In the end, we both agreed that no borders and finishing it off with a yellow binding was the best way to go.

And may I just say Fine. With. Me. I hate sewing on borders second only to sandwiching quilts for quilting. Those are really the only two things about quilting that I'd almost rather pay someone else to do for me. It ended up a small quilt at 32 x 36 inches, so pretty much a mini. I have no plans for this quilt behind entering it in the fair this year (assuming I can quilt it to my own satisfaction). Here's the fabric I have for the back.

So by then the bread was baked, and it had spent some time cooling, and we could cut into it. I've made this bread several times, but I think today's loaf was the prettiest I've ever made.

Usually I end up with the top not level, or the loaf sort of wonky, or else the cinnamon swirl leaking out the ends of the loaf. Today's loaf was almost perfect. Cut into it, and oh my, my.

It was so moist and delicious. It's especially good toasted with butter, and it's going to be mah-velous for breakfast tomorrow. I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchens. You have to be a member to see their recipes, and so I can't link to it. There are plenty of cinnamon swirl bread recipes online, however. I've also made this one, with good results.

So, aside from that, we hung the Merry and Bright quilt in our family room downstairs. We don't usually decorate the family room beyond hanging Christmas stockings by the fireplace. It's nice to have something new for that room.

And now, I think I'll be lazy. What're you up to today?