Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a lovely day!  This adorable holiday greeting was delivered to the door in mid afternoon by our sweet neighbor, age 10. 

Once again we failed to take any pictures at all, but the house was full of good smells, tons of family, and lots of laughs, along with plenty of eating.  After enjoying appetizers of a relish tray and some delicious homemade guacamole SIL Mariana made, we had two turkeys, gravy, some duck my sister roasted, along with her truffle oil Yukon gold mashed potatoes and House Special mashed potatoes, plus yet another family favorite potato dish made with hash browns DD Erica made, as well as broccoli slaw salad, fruit salad, green beans, corn muffins, stuffing, ham and jello.  Then there was apple pie, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, and some incredible sea salt chocolate fudge brownies with caramel sauce made by my sister, Kathy, for dessert.  There was tons of food left over after all 18 of us had eaten--even with two teenaged boys in the house (Nephew Joey had five pieces of apple pie).  My eldest brother and one of his sons stopped by to visit before their own dinner, and DD Elaine and Chris visited after theirs with Chris's family.  My dear sister in law Melanie and her eldest daughter did nearly all the clean up of dishes while I played a board game with some of her other children. Kathy's dog is all tuckered out today from all the action with the little ones in the family.  It was a wonderful day and worth every minute of cleaning, cooking, rearranging, and planning.  I'm so glad I took Wednesday off work--the mad rush was cut down a bit :)

As part of the decorating, I hung my newly frosted (by Mary of Quilt Hollow) but unfinished Picnic quilt over the upstairs railing.  You can't really see the texture of my chosen ginkgo leaf design in this photo but trust me, it's perfect!

It remains untrimmed, but one of today's tasks was getting the binding made.  

 This is really a red fabric with a soft tan dot, despite the color distortion making it look orange.

I also pulled this pieced Christmas top out of the closet to be quilted next.  It has been waiting a year for a backing.  Thus began the remeasuring and planning, since once I got out the intended backing, I remembered that it was too short (the hazard of whacking off fabric for another project!), which is definitely why it didn't get done before. 

Here you can see a number of designs were proposed and rejected.  I like this print a lot but being directional, has it's difficulties.  The final choice will use the WOF in three sections and I'll pull from my very full Christmas fabric box for the three chunks for an offset design. The fabric has already been washed but needs ironing, and after spending 3.5 hours in the last week ironing linen tablecloths and napkins, I'm not really in the mood just yet, today.  But it is only Friday and I have two more days off work.  Bliss!  Hope you are all playing with needle and fabric too this weekend.  I see a lot of folks have joined Bonnie of Quiltville's Celtic Solstice mystery; despite my Irish heritage I won't be joining but will download the patterns anyway!