aren't I clever?

I just posted on the Spring Fling Round Robin site about the 4 seasons swap quilt I received today, and the one I was ready to mail out. After posting, I looked at the blog, and realized that -- duh! -- it was two different swaps and I had posted on the wrong site! Thank heavens for that "delete" button.
So here we go again. Today I received this lovely "summer" quilt from Karlie, along with a sweet assortment of ocean-colored goodies. I am so impressed by anyone who can hand-sew all those hexes together... I tried hand-sewing a Lemoyne star for a Nearly Insane block a couple of years ago, and it pretty much looked like I had done it blind-folded and with my right hand (I'm left-handed, of course -- LOL -- can't you tell?)And, I finished up my summer quilt which will be mailed off on Monday when I get back from Long Beach -- anyone else going to Long Beach this weekend?

I'm calling this "summer in my Japanese garden". It's going cross-country, and I hope that *** likes it, although I'm always just a little bit worried that I've made the wrong thing -- style, colors, etc -- for my partner in these swaps. I think round robins are easier in that sense, because the entire weight of the project isn't on my shoulders!

Gotta leave you with the latest picture of Bucky -- I couldn't believe the way he was sleeping the other day. p.s. anyone want a really ugly sofa?

Saturday

Aren't these beautiful beets? I don't think I've ever gotten beets to grow for me before, but this year everything is doing so well! There were supposed to be some yellow ones in the seed mix, too, but I don't seem to have any... I planted more seeds today. I'm determined to pick the zukes before they become lethal, and so far so good. Today's cherry tomatoes all got eaten (by me) before they made it into the house to be photographed. And, I have a ton of "volunteer" winter squash -- acorns and butternuts -- that are going gangbusters. Yum!

I had an interesting afternoon today. We have a neighborhood association with a Yahoo list, and a week or two ago I noticed a familiar name... so I sent Terri an email and asked if she had gone to Claremont Jr High in about 1966... and it was the same person! She was one of the very first friends I made when my family moved to Oakland and I started Jr. High. She lives about three blocks from me, and we hadn't seen each other since she moved to a different school in 9th grade -- about 41 years (yikes! How can that be?) So we got together for a couple of hours in my kitchen and got partly caught up. We're pretty different, and have lived very different lives, but it was a lot of fun, and we're going to try to round up some of the others from the (very) old crowd and have a reunion!
I'll end on a quilty note. Wanda had a blog anniversary give-away recently, and I was the lucky winner of this wonderful tiny quilt. It's about 8 inches tall, and has lots of itty-bitty stippling! Since I bought another tiny quilt from the Alzheimer's Initiative auction last month, I only need one more to make it a collection, right?

monkey time

Vicki's been posting about her very cute baby quilt made from the latest Sock Monkey fabric, so I thought I'd pull out an old photo of the one I made from the first fabric series -- this stuff was so much fun to work with! It was a gift for the executive assistant of one of my clients. I was a little bit worried that it was going to be too wild (actually I always worry about that with baby quilts, but I just don't "do" pastels very well) but it turned out they had decorated the room in a tropical theme and the monkeys fit right in!

I've finished up a bunch of little projects -- I suckered myself into a row robin and a round robin on one of my online groups, and this month's bits are done just in time. And a couple of birthday blocks are ready to go as well. Now it's time to think about finishing the "summer" 4 seasons quilt and making a million more little stars for Shakespeare in the Park.

Is this not the coolest thing?

If you have a Capital One credit card, you can have them create a new card for you with any picture from Flickr on it -- for free -- and you can get a new one when you get tired of the current picture! So I am now the happy owner of a credit card with my "green beauty" on it -- how cool is that? (green blobs added to attempt to protect my identity, of course!)

heat wave!

Doesn't this look yummy? I was reading the current issue of Bon Appetit in my dentist's office last week, and had to go and buy a copy... then Al got inspired to make this "red, white, and blueberry shortcake" with white-chocolate whipped cream. I thought the biscuits were too much work compared to what I usually make, but the whole combination was pretty amazing!
Bucky has adopted my booty swap quilt as his own spot next to the sewing machine, where he can have an elevated view out onto the back patio. The good news is that it seems to keep him off of whatever I'm working on, and I think he looks pretty cute curled up in the leaves...

And, the Queen of Quiltland has issued a royal challenge to all her subjects. We are supposed to have a non-quilter go into our stash and pick five fabrics with which we are supposed to create a small piece of quiltiness. I think we're allowed to discard one of the five, and we can add additional fabrics. Which is a good thing, because here's what Al picked out for me:
He definitely has a stripe thing going on today... and I think there's also a touch of retribution for all the times I've asked begged him not to wear a particular purple t-shirt with most of the rest of his clothes!