The very groovy winners of the Benartex Piece, Love & Quilts contest featuring the "Woodstock" fabric line are posted at www.benartex.com; to see them and several other entries - over 30 quilts! - click HERE. The grand prize winning quilt, shown here, is "Walking on Sunshine" by Serena Brooks of Los Angeles, CA. Way to go, Serena!

I finally finished the guest towels from Amy Butler's In Stitches - the ones I started back in May. Here's what they look like neatly folded...and hanging from a hook in the guest bath. (It needs some paint - right now everything is white, white, white.) Next guest suite project - a curtain & valance for the window in the bathroom. It already has mini-blinds, so all I need is a something pretty to cover all the hardware. I have a few yards of "Flower Mosaic" from the Benartex "Woodstock" collection that I think will work nicely.  I'm looking for something easy, but more interesting than just "cut a rectangle and hem the edges." I've marked pages in several books and magazines - more on that in late July, early August (next occupant expected mid-August).

I've been poring over Amy Butler's In Stitches for quite a while and have finally decided to do two of the projects at the same time - the Big Dot Pillow from the cover (for my new guest room) and the Decorative Hanging Towels (for the guest bath). Right now the guest room is my "ironing room" and storage area, but soon all the boxes will be empty and there will be room for a bed and some pretty pillows. Instead of using solid fabrics on my towels like Amy did, I'm making extra patchwork and using it for both the pillow and the towels.

I've decided on a color scheme - remember all those lucsious fat quarters I got in February? The Woodstock collection from Benartex has the perfect shades of blue and green for the bathroom, plus the red/pink/orange I've already started in the bedroom. No, really, it's not garish, just cheerful and sunny. I picked up a few things at IKEA and the Crate & Barrel outlet (Naperville, IL) and the Springs/Wamsutta outlet that used to be here in Asheville. The cool colors tone down the hot ones, and the warm ones perk up the cool ones.  

I just finished rotary cutting my strips and I'm ready to go! Time to get out my trusty machine and Patchwork Foot #37... More on my patchwork adventures and changes I'm making to the applique instructions in future posts. Gotta check my stash of Steam-a-Seam 2 and make sure I have enough for all those circles!