And the answer is ...

Hi dear blogging friends,

Can't believe how long it's been since I posted.  Anyway, the answer to the question on what to do to fix the piano bench?  I ordered a new one!!  It's contrary to my goal to recycle and reuse but one morning, the sun was beaming across the kitchen to my piano bench and I saw that the legs were totally beat up.  They looked awful. No new seat cover would have fixed that.

So I found a very nice one on Overstock and plan to deliver the old one to the Second Tern, which is a goodwill-type place near our house that benefits the Nature Center.  Win-win, right?

First of all, I need to share my June mini!  Yes, it was done well before the end of June.

This was a Kathleen Tracy pattern and I had fun whipping it together.

Then, I finished my July mini, again well in advance of the deadline!

There were orphan blocks I had and tried to get a placemat together in time for July 4th!  it's a bit large than a placemat, but it works.  So now I'm done with June and July!  TADA!!

In other sewing news, I did do the Blockheads appliqué block, bird on a branch.  In fact, I had so much fun doing it, I made two more!  I'm not going to show you the other two yet--they went into a quilt that is a gift that's not yet gifted.

I did go to the Sister's Quilt Show last weekend and was treated to some wonderful quilts.  There's no doubt that the trend is towards modern fabrics and patterns rather than traditional.  I found many I liked and had to take pictures.  We got there early (as I like to do, before it's hot and crowded) and we were able to get access to the Teacher's "tent" (it wasn't in a tent this year!) and we got to see some fabulous quilts;  our favorites were those by Tula Pink, who had a whole section.  Her use of fabrics is terrific.  Here are some quilts and a close up!

Take a good look at the fussy-cutting in these hexagons.  Fabulous job!

Here are a couple of Jen Kingwell quilts- there were lots at the show this year.

I really liked these, using selvages, of which I have many many bags!

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I really liked this house quilt by Lawry Thorn, who works at the Stitchin Post.  I ran into her at the show and am going to get the pattern from her.   I love the variety of houses interspersed with trees.   She apparently taught it during Covid as a mystery--I'm very sorry I wasn't aware of that as it would've been the perfect project during that period of staying home!  The Stitchin Post, which puts on the show every year, has a building with a huge outside wall that they always put their employees' challenge quilt on.  It's quite a sight.  I only took a picture of this one, though.

I thought this was a great use of lights with words printed on them, one type of fabric I've been collecting.  I might put a different dog or maybe birds, but still cute!

I'm presently into using orphan blocks (I was quite surprised at the number of blocks I have laying around from quilts I started but gave up on for various reasons!!). This was one quilt I thought was really nice, depicting the Three Sisters Mountains, which sit right outside Sisters and are the big part of the Cascade Mountains in Central Oregon.

Here's another one:

Assembling a quilt with different sized blocks is a challenge, which I do enjoy.  It's almost like trying to make a puzzle.  I've been working on another one, which I'll show you soon.  But it was truly eye-opening to see how many quilts I have started but quit before they were done because I either didn't like them or got bored.  Know what I mean??  I think it's a bad habit I need to break.

so you will likely see more quilts finished up, using blocks I thought were insufficient for a quilt or because I didn't like them.

Hope you are having a great summer!  Take care, be grateful and generous, and be happy!

xxx

Randy