WIP Update: Quilts and Books

Summer has been very busy, what with watering the new garden and everything extra I have to do while my husband recovers from knee replacement surgery.

BUT I am working on some quilts, although slowly. I have the Peter Pan Story Book quilt ready to layer for hand quilting. I got back two tops from my long-arm quilter friend Barb Lusk. I had too many tops piled up to hand quilt them all myself!

MODA Bee-autiful quilt blocks. Hand embroidery by Nancy A. Bekofske
Machine quilting by Barb Lusk

I loved working on the MODA Bee-autiful block of the month quilt last year.

I used different fabrics than most because I wanted more bright clear pastels. I  found the inner border and outer border fabrics from Hawthorne Threads.

I made this Big Block Quilt with fabrics I had on hand. My son wants it! I found a great quilting pattern that looked very MCM to me which matches his style. I will bind this baby off this weekend.

My Bronte sisters quilt is progressing, too. There is a lot of machine work left to do.

As usual, I am deluged with books to read. My own fault, mostly, but Meet Me At the Museum was a surprise arrival from the publisher. I am enjoying reading this epistolary novel while sitting on my new paver patio (now that the over 90-degree heat wave is over!)

The book is shown with my Postcard Quilt of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I am reading Frank and Al by Terry Galway about FDR and Al Smith from NetGalley, and Rush by Stephen Fried from First to Read about Dr. Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia founding father, both fascinating books.

I have barely begun Ohio by Stephen Markley, a book which has won much attention and acclaim.

And have on my Netgalley Shelf some books by authors I have read before,
The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay (Author of Sarah's Key and the Daphne de Maurier biography Manderley Forever)
The Library by Susan Orlean (Author of Rin Tin Tin)
The Unhold Land by Lavie Tildhar (Author of Central Station)
Lessons From Lucy by Dave Barry

And books by authors I have not read before.

The White Darkness by David Grann whose Killers of the Flower Moon I would love to read! I saw the movie based on his The Lost City of Z.
Wanamaker's Temple by Nicole C. Kirk intrigued me--I loved shopping in Philadelphia's Wanamaker's store.

I am waiting for several books to arrive: There There by Tommy Orange, which I won from the First Look Book Club, plus Ahab's Return by Jeffry Ford and Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo both won on LibraryThing and Virgil Wander by Leif Enger from Bookish First.