Swap wrap-up!

Here is my little sister quilt to the one that I sent Helen for the Doll quilt swap 4. I love it. I may love it more than my bird+house quilt. Maybe...
Here is my 4 seasons SUMMER swap quilt. It feels like a party quilt to me. I just love the quilting on the cone and the ice cream has real beaded sprinkles. Michelle also sent me some of the "fruits" of her summer canning!! I love jam! Blueberry, Peach, and Strawberry...yum yum yum!
And here we have the cutest mushrooms that I have ever seen...OK, so they are poisonous...I am not going to eat them. I love a red/green combo, year round and this really hit the cute quotient on a high mark. (This was the Doll quilt swap 4 quilt that I received.) I got some wonderful goodies along with this from Manuela in Germany...but the chocolate got "et"...the boys swiped the little toys and the seeds got planted....we will have to just take some pictures after they sprout. (Blogger doesn't want this quilt to be upright...I guess it would be too cute!??)
Finally, not part of an actual swap...but sort of a swap anyway. This beauty I won from Helen's (see above) blog anniversary a few weeks before the end of the Doll quilt swap 4...so we swapped, but she just didn't know it until it all got settled in the mail. Funny.

What is up next?
I signed up for a Strawberry Swap...because I was in a strawberry making frenzy and the lady running the swap, code name "Chickenfoot", is a total gas! (I mean funny, hilarious...not stinky) (and don't you just LOVE cool code names?? What I could have done, if I knew then what I know now...)AND I am liking the swap thing right now... it is totally brushing up my construction skills and I have "met" GREAT people from all over the world. Craft our way to world peace I say....

I have also joined some flickr groups, which is quite addictive. Currently, I am in a group that explores a different theme every month and we straight swap (just back and forth, no secret) a 6-12 inch quiltlet. I think that I might have to hold back (we'll see if that actually happens...) on any other swaps until after the holidays....Holidays??? did I just day that?? Yep, I got to get it going on for the handmade holidays this year...I think I can, I think I can....
Toot-toot!
JMB

There and back again...

Can I do anything but a collage of pictures these days?? I don't know.
I have been going a little heavy on the fabric shopping...must stop...now!
I read this in like a day and a half at the beach. I hate to say it because EVERYONE is reading it, but I LOVE IT! Like brain candy, finally a book I could finish, I don't know why, but yum!

I had been reading this...which EVERYONE is reading also...BUT it is not holding my interest. I love Barbara Kingslover's fiction, but her prose seems a bit heavy handed and just not "good"(I know that I am going to be unpopular for writing that...sorry.) I will finish it, but I felt like this was a FAR better commentary on America's eating habits and modes of procurement. I liked the parts that she wrote about her own garden (I thought that this was going to be the "meat" of the book, but it just wasn't for me.) I like the factual articles that her husband had in the book. Maybe it is because I am truly a scientist and gardener at heart, but I felt that she oversimplified things to make her points and that her audience is actually smarter than she gave them credit for. All of my piss and vinegar aside, I totally support what she was/is trying to do and say. I live in a "crazy-environmental-liberal-hot bed" type of town so perhaps I am not her target audience...I can accept that.

***NOTE! I just looked at her web site and it does seems like she is also trying to make a community for people interested in the local food movement and THAT is something that I can really back....so I am a picky crab, I still liked "The Omnivore's Dilemma" better.

SO to sum up, I plan on blogging more as the days shorten. I am still trying to milk the sweet parts of summer, so that when the dark, crispness of fall rolls in, my memories will be full of laughter and times with friends in the sunshine. Hopefully this will keep me satiated through the our wet Oregon winter. The blogging will wait.
JMB

How does your garden grow?

I think enough with the words today. I like these just as they are. I will describe them later, perhaps tomorrow...

good night friends,

JMB

the doll quilt surfaces...

I have been scolded for my blog posts being too "quilt-centric", well when you have a million (OK, 3) swaps to get out the door, sometimes it happens. I hope to finish posting pictures of my Rocky Mountain trip later this week. The slowest part is editing the pictures and making myself chose one or two images to keep instead of the 20 that I take of each waterfall, different angles and everything.

Here is a peek at my doll quilt swap 4 that I have been working on. OK, I admit I started it last night. I have been thinking about it since I signed up but last night I started cutting the fabric. I was so proud of myself. I cut fabric that I have only been hoarding for 2 months!!! I even sliced my turquoise bird fabric that I bought in Colorado. This is a big step for my addiction, a big step. I love these birds and the colors so much that I decided to make a series of 2 so that I can keep one for myself. Exciting times!

SNAP! I still haven't taken garden pictures...it is going crazy and I am going to try to dig some new potatoes after I log off. I planted some kind of Russian purple one and I can't wait to taste it! Be back soon!
JMB