Visions of summer picnics ahead

Regular readers will recall that summer is not my favorite season. The heat. The bugs. The constant packing up of towels, snacks, goggles, etc for an afternoon at the pool, to be closely followed by an evening of unpacking a variety of empty snack wrappings and wet towels. Packing for day or overnight trips almost every weekend, wherein I as the mom get to make sure all bills are paid; everyone's laundry is clean; supervise packing for three young girls who remember their DS games but forget their actual clothes (yes, this has happened); be sure we have all accoutrements for wherever we may be going which may or may not be limited to food for a week, bicycles, scooters, 765 floaties, air mattresses, air pump, sleeping bags or other bedding, enough towels for 10, projects and books for everyone, and Smore making supplies; load it all in the car along with the children after having set up the video system and have the husband stroll in 15 minutes before we leave, throw his bag in the back and say "Wow. We did a great job packing and we're only 10 minutes off schedule." Operative word: We. Operative level of annoyance: High.

But I am not bitter. He's lucky to be cute and he does do most of the cooking at the lake.

Anyway, even in midst the deepest cold we've seen thusfar this winter, I must turn my thoughts to summer, because I am participating in Becky from Patchwork Posse's latest Round Robin adventure, which this year has the theme of "Summer Picnic". So I must start thinking of ideas for my row which do not involve heaps of laundry, attack bees swarming my daughter, sweating off 10 pounds a day during heat waves, or the words "I'm bored." Hmmm......maybe gin and tonics. It's all I've got at the moment.

I participated in Becky's round robin last year, and the result is just about to be quilted. This means, of course, that it has been hanging on one of the ladders in my sewing studio buried under several other UFOs for almost a year. But yeah, it's time to quilt it. I'm thinking of adding another of the top and bottom borders (which also happened to be my contribution to the project) to the sides. What do we think?

The new project starts January 13 and goes to May. Lots of awesome designers will be participating, and dreams of summer will dance in your heads. Or give you nightmares, as the case may be. Check it out at www.patchworkposse.com/blog! Hope to have you participate!