Vintage quilt progress

I had a relaxing sewing time when I added all the machine button hole stitch around these blocks.  I had enough supplies on hand to do the blocks below.

I drew a diagram and counted up what I have yet to sew, and I need to do 7 more alternate blocks, and 10 half blocks for the edges, which means I have 136 more petals to cut.  I'm out of Steam a Seam so I am switching to trans-web now.

In the mean time, I sewed up the center three columns so that I could start the machine quilting:

Here it is laid out with the batting and backing ready to baste.

After the pin basting is done, I cut the extra batting away. 

I'm doing this quilt in sections to make it more manageable since it will be pretty big.

This morning I googled FMQ designs to get a few ideas on quilting patterns to fill in the nice white areas.  

This won't be an heirloom quilt, but I do intend to have some fun with the quilting, and try out lots of patterns.  

On another note, I got a gardenia at the grocery store.  It's quite pretty but has quite an overwhelming scent. 

and this little half grown cardinal came to visit yesterday.  It was trying to figure out how to control it's flying.  It would fly into things and then have to rest.  It's mother watched it and occasionally tried to guide it by showing it where to go.  it was interesting to watch from behind my window.