Anaïs's Quilt and Wedding

            About a month ago, I started cutting up fabric for a quilt I was making for my friend Anaïs's wedding.  The one other quilt I've made for a wedding (last July) I finished more than 3 months in advance.  Since I was only starting the quilt with about a month to go until the wedding, this was very last minute for me.

            Luckily, the blocks did come together rather quickly once I started the sewing.  Nate's family was in town last weekend and Nate's mom helped me baste the quilt and mark the lines for quilting.  I had some fun with the binding; when I was at JoAnn Fabrics last week, I found the Bias Tape Maker machine I had been eyeing on sale!  So that should help with a lot of quilts to come :-)

             The fabric I used was a jelly roll of Amy Butler Love fabrics.  I like the different colors in this Amy Butler collection, and I also like that some of the patterns come in flannels as well as cotton, so I made the backing a warm cuddly flannel.  The front of the quilt was a Daisy Chain pattern which I got out of a book of Jelly Roll Quilt patterns by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  This is my first Jelly Roll quilt, but I had some fun doing it, so I definitely will try more of the patterns.  The main color of the quilt, yellow, was a fabric I found at JoAnn to supplement the jelly roll.

          With about 24 hours to spare, I finally finished binding the quilt and threw it into the washing machine.  Friday evening was spent box the quilt, wrapping it up, and finding the perfect card (a repro of an old postcard) to go with the gift.  

            It wasn't planned, since I didn't know which wrapping I would use, but the wrap job ended up matching my wedding outfit perfectly!

            The wedding was a very nice affair, just outside of Chicago in Elmwood Park.  We had a whole table full of Colgate people, many whom I "knew" from Colgate, but had never gotten to talk to before yesterday.  Many Congratulations and Best Wishes to Brian and Anaïs!

4th Annual Easter Brunch

Easter started a few days early for me, on Thursday.  What would normally have been a totally terrible afternoon (my car practically broke down on my way to work; I had to turn around, and leave it at the shop, so I cancelled work and came home) was magically turned around when I was home to receive a special delivery from my mom: a beautiful pot of hydrangeas, which helped get my house in the Easter spirit.

            Today was our 4th Annual Pot Luck Easter brunch.  I played Easter Bunny yesterday, filling little baskets for everybody (16 people!) and snacking on lots of candy while doing so.  The brunch was a huge success, and the weather cooperated this year.  It was the perfect temperature for a little post-brunch walk, which I went on with a few of my guests.  The spread of food was epic as usual.  Lots of full plates, and, soon after, full bellies.  The guests have all dissipated to sleep off the meal, but it will be Easter for a few more days at our house, where leftovers have taken over the fridge.