Haiku shawl and a traveling quilt

Some time last year I bought the pattern and yarn for the Haiku shawl and I finally pulled it out to work on it.  If you go to the Quince website, check out their yarn while you're there.  I really love the colors and the bird names, and now that I have tried it, the Tern yarn is just wonderful.
When I was in grade school we learned how to write a Haiku, and I still remember that assignment like it was yesterday.  The teacher taught us about syllables by clapping her hands as she pronounced each syllable in a word.  We all joined in reading aloud and clapping together.  Then we wrote a Haiku printed in our best penmanship and made a special cover out of colored construction paper that was decorated with blobs of paint blown across the paper with a straw.  Remember doing that?  This resulted in not only getting dizzy, but being sprayed with paint by your nearest classmate.  Usually it was a boy doing the spraying, as they could never contain themselves while brandishing such delightful weapons as straws and paint.  I remember my cover paper was pink, and my paint blobs and sprays looked like tree branches filled with blossoms.  My mom saved it, and I was quite proud.
I loved that assignment because it combined the mechanics of writing, with art and creativity (Thank you Mrs. Rhiehorst, wherever you are.)  It's what I like about quilting and crocheting too.  You follow a pattern, measure, and count stitches (mechanics), and choose colors and textures with fabric or yarn and embellish a pattern to make it your own (art and creativity).
Anyway, I have no idea where I'm going with this, but I can tell already that this shawl is going to be pretty, especially if I block the haiku out of it.  Maybe I'll give it to my mom. She'll be so proud.

The roses are from my yard, I can't seem to cut them fast enough.  The fabric was a sale purchase at Joann's, justified by the 5 projects I made this year out of my scrap bin (two more are in the works).

The quilt blocks are going to be a family gift.  So far the plan is to make 64 blocks, resulting in a wall hanging about 45x45, to be hung in my living room.  When we all get together this Thanksgiving, everyone will sign their name on a block.  Each time we add a new family member through marriage or birth, they sign a block.  Like a family tree quilt!  Then, maybe the quilt can "travel" to different homes of family members, stay for the year, then get passed along to someone different every Thanksgiving.  I told my daughter, that when I'm gone, someone has to keep the quilt "alive" until all the blocks are filled up.
She said that when I go, she goes, like an Egyptian tomb kind of thing.  I laughed and said just don't bury the quilt.