Finished Flowers Blocks and Thanksgiving Memories

My One Monthly Goal for November was to finish quilting these two blocks of my Flowers quilt, the bromeliad on the right and the morning glories on the left.  I had already quilted around the edges of the bromeliad and some of  the triangles around the edges of that block, but nothing on the background.

You can faintly see the diagonal quilting lines in the photo above and the two below.  The lines are about 1" apart.

I decided on the diagonal lines (that are not at right angles to either edge) based on another Linda Brannock quilt I saw online here.  To me this Flowers quilt is quirky enough to handle non-right angle parallel lines.

I think it will be tricky to keep the lines straight and parallel across the whole quilt, though.  I've been marking a few lines on one or two blocks at a time using a yardstick.  I use a piece of paper folded to the diagonal angle I want and then place it along one of the straight edges of the quilt to mark the line.  I hope that by the time the quilting is finished all the lines will be fairly straight and close to parallel.  It that's not so, I hope the quilt is quirky enough that the quilted lines being slightly crooked will look like they were intended to be that way.

Before I decided how to quilt the background and before I saw the inspiration quilt (link above) I'd already outline-quilted some of the half-square triangles that form the sashing.  I've decided to quilt right across those triangles with the parallel lines, which means I have to decide whether to remove the stitches from the triangles I already quilted or leave the stitching.  In the photo below you can see the lines marked for quilting and how they cross over the already-stitched triangles.

After having quilted these two blocks I realized that this quilt would have been a good candidate for big stitches using perle cotton.  But that's a change I'm not going to make this time.

Thanksgiving was fun, interesting, and challenging.  We have such a mix of personalities, likes/dislikes, and needs in our family.  My daughter, son-in-law, and their five children (ages 10 to 18 months) came.  Think fun, energetic, noisy, and curious, and not all were perfectly healthy.  My nurse daughter had just finished working five 12-hour night shifts on Wednesday morning.  (Read that as exhausted and in need of sleep.)  

Some highlights of the weekend, small memories that I think will be indelible in my mind:

• Seeing my year-and-a-half granddaughter moving glass votive candle holders into a small glass baking dish was such a treat.  She was very carefully holding the dish and even more carefully lifting and placing the holders into the dish.  She looked so pleased with herself.
• We recently discontinued our home phone service but hadn't removed all of the phones yet.  Our 10-year-old grandson noticed one of the phones and asked if we were still using it and, when we were finished with it, if he could have it.  I immediately removed it from the wall and gave it to him.  What fun to see his imaginative play focused on that phone! 
• Our daughter and family shared a thankful poster with so many items.  Amongst the commonly-listed family members and other people, all named individually, they included beets, ice, lettuce, avocados, chickens, moon, oven, pain medicine, Cheesy Bacon Brussels Sprouts, and many more.  
• They brought a huge stem of Brussels sprouts.  I've seen them at farmers' markets but had never purchased them.  It was fun to cut them off the stem and, with the help of the two older children, wash and cut them, then roast them to go with Thanksgiving dinner.
  

My horticulturist son-in-law gave a video class on wreath-making earlier in the week.  He gave me the wreath he used for demonstration (which I just now noticed is crooked hanging on the door).  I don't decorate for Christmas until December 1 or after but for this, I made an exception.  It is beautiful!

I'm linking this post to November One Monthly Goal Finish at Elm Street Quilts.  Thank you for hosting, Patty.

I hope all is well with you and in your world.

--Nancy.