A hectic month and a miserable year come to a conclusion. But not without completions.

First, as promised in the last post – a family photo of this year’s cookies. I tried to have smaller batches of only ten kinds, but was foiled by a concerted group effort.

Working it clockwise (recipe links for most of these can be found in my last post.

• Noon – Lemon cut-outs, magically maniacal. Special thanks to friend Laura Packer, who sent me the twisted cutters. Oh, and bonus tiny leaf (see below).
• 1:00 – Chocolate pudding cookies. A surprise addition courtesy of Elder Spawn, who for a first fling into the communal cookie pile, did quite well with an intensely fudgy bit of delight.
• 2:00 – Orange marmalade cookies with fresh orange icing.
• 3:00 – Cinnamon swirls. A specialty of Younger Spawn, who dazzles with flavor and presentation.
• 4:00 – Mexican wedding cakes.
• 5:00 – Classic Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies
• 6:00 – Our Oysters – a hazelnut spritz sandwich, with dark chocolate ganache filling
• 7:00 – Meringues (also see below)
• 8:00 – Bourbon/cocoa balls
• 9:00 – Triple Ginger/white chocolate cookies
• 10:00 – Earthquakes – Most folk call these “chocolate crinkles” but we like the more dramatic nickname. For some reason the crevices closed up. Possibly due to overbaking this year. My cookie, my fault.
• 11:00 – Peanut butter cookies
• Center of dial – Jam thumbprints, with mixed berry jam. Another contribution of Younger Spawn.

But that’s only the start. Younger Spawn also made a magnificent Buche de Noel (Yule Log Cake), with chocolate buttercream outside, and hazelnut buttercream rolled in a rich cocoa genoise. Including the traditional meringue mushrooms and little leaf-shaped sugar cookie leaves.

Not to be outdone, The Resident Male rose to the occasion and presented us with a Christmas Eve feast – seared fois gras with chanterelles; French onion soup au gratin; rack of wild boar with maple/chili glaze, plus potatoes Anna and spinach souffle.

And there are more year end finishes!

My Bony Boi piece, back from the framer and suitably hung in its place of honor in the Resident Male’s office:

The Great Masking

And I also finished my three blackwork plague masks.

I used one of Ancient Elna’s specialty cams to make a multi-stitch “hold fast” edging around the outer edge of each of the embroidered components. Then I cut out the shapes with confidence that the stay stitching would prevent any unraveling. (The stay stitching will be buried in the seam allowances, and never be seen.)

After that I sewed my stitching together down the center to make the outer layer. I toyed with a couple of treatments for the center seam to disguise the mismatch, but settled on a simple line of stem stitch, done in Krenick #16 metallic braid. The Elizabethan plaited braid I had originally envisioned was too heavy.

Then I cut the actual protective layers, traced from the same template I used to lay out the stitching, plus the lengths for the ties (I favor ties over elastic). Each mask has two layers of high thread count percale (harvested from retired sheets and pillowcases) in addition to the decorative outer layer.

When that was done, I sewed my linings together down the center, pressed them, and pinned on the ties. Those get sandwiched between the right sides of the lining and decorative back double-layer, with care taken to make sure they are not accidentally sewn over when front and back are seamed together. The two fronts, with the ties pinned to the lining are shown below.

Once that was done it was a simple matter to sew front to back (right sides inside), leaving a bit of a turning space between the two ties on the left. The thing is flipped right-side-out by teasing the ties out and yanking. A press followed by a line of topstitching all the way around to set the edges and seal the turning aperture, and I was done:

Now on to the next thing. But first I have to decide what that is….