Thanksgiving on PEI and some free motion work

Once again, we were lucky to have the perfect weather for our Thanksgiving weekend in PEI. It was a bit windy and cold on the first day making for a brisk beach walk, but the following days warmed up considerably.

We visited the beach several times over the 3 days. The clean air, sparkling waters and the gentle crashing of the waves were balm for the soul. Also, I was quite surprised to find that the plovers and the sandpipers were still there.

 The plovers especially run around like little motor boats gone amok and it's quite a challenge to catch them on camera!

We were able to get up to Charlottetown to shop, to see my mom's new apartment and to have dinner with her and her husband. They will leave in two weeks for Florida, so it was nice to her before they go for the winter.
Sunday, we had a lovely potluck turkey dinner at the cottage. The food was wonderful! Boy my brother does a special turkey and the best gravy ever. My husband is vegetarian; I call myself a 'flexitarian', so I opted for some turkey. My brother made a special dish for my husband. We got to see some family that we missed during our summer visit too.
This morning, Gord flew to Labrador City for work, so I'm on my own for a few days. I met friends for coffee this morning and  did some errands.This afternoon, I sat down with my Fantasy Garden piece to do a little more free motion work.My new machine and I are still getting acquainted, meaning that I'm working even more slowly than usual!
I have to think about how I want to quilt each section, audition some threads and try a sample before I actually get down to it. I made a decision, finally, and free motion zigzagged this little section around the flowers where I'm now stitching the beaded centers.

Then I free motioned some leaves on a small section of silk and added some variegated silk thread quilting to make them pop.

Next, I used the same variegated thread to outline a floral section.

I did a small stipple in the background. Each day I'll continue to do little sections as I work my way around the hanging.  The area above measures about 4" by 7" and the whole hanging is about 20" by 21 1/2".