RECONCILING WITH THE FARMER

I left the Farmer eight weeks ago....too busy for him.  This is where we left off
http://retromamaramblings.blogspot.com/2011/06/farmer-and-hell-or-if-everyone-jumped.html

We reconciled over the weekend and here are five more blocks....

Block 7

Block 6

Block 8

Block 10

Block 9

SUMMER SWAPS AND OTHER SUNDRIES

Tom and the kids (not really)

Greetings from Dallas!!!

My Backyard...just kidding (sort of)

We are in the middle of drought and extremely high temperatures.  I feel like loading the RAV4 and heading to California...
During this long, hot summer, I have participated in a few swaps with fellow quilters.  The first swap was the 80's Swap.  Remember the 80's??  My partner surprised me with the best gift, a replica of my Sony Walkman...

I don't know if she realized how much I loved my Walkman.  I mean...you could walk around and listen to music...shocking in 1982!  I took it with me to California in 1984 when I spent six weeks on a friends horse ranch.  I took it with me to Law School where it finally broke..

 Me in my Sony Walkman days...and when I used to exercise!

 
OTHER GOODIES SHE INCLUDED

More Ruby Star Rising fabric

A needle holder

Some of my favorite fabric!

Outside of the needle holder

A retro bag!

An MTV Pincushion!!!!!! I loved my MTV

 THANK YOU SO MUCH PINKBRAIN AND MR. CHICKEN (JEN)....I LOVE IT ALL!

 Then, I participated in another Doll Quilt Swap.  My partner requested colors of orange, aqua and gray.  I came up with two ideas....

Eventually, my finished version looked like this...

Finished quilt...now to bind

Closer view of hand quilting

Bound and ready to mail

My partner has two little girls so finger puppets, Christmas monkey fabric, awesome Christmas book and a Sarah Jane fabric panel

And I received this from my partner....

Isn't this little quilt so cheerful and bright?  I love it!
THANK YOU A GIRL IN PARADISE!  I LOVE IT!

Now...to work on a quilt for a sick little boy and my project for the next DMQG meeting!

HEAT IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD!

I will not discuss how incredibly hot it is here or how we need rain...instead, here are some snippets of my favorite dancing scenes from favorite movies!  Enjoy Elvis and Ann Margret in Viva Las Vegas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb9mdFmnKMI&feature=related

or one of my favorite scenes in Grease (the lyrics are English but the dialogue is in German)....I love John Travolta in this scene....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYSKZkb6Wx8

or this one from Hairspray (James Mardsen and Zac Ephron...hello!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8exH-bRvqEE&feature=related

and the "funky" version in this one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlDnSqRv-B0&feature=related


So did you forget about the heat?

Here is a quilt I found at the first of the summer.  It was VERY dirty...but I used this method http://retromamaramblings.blogspot.com/2011/03/lovely-lonestar-clean-at-last.html to clean it.  A practically new quilt....I love it!

Border

Back

Now I know you've forgotten about the heat!!  My next post is going to be about the gifts I received in my 80's swap...they are fabulous!

CATCHING UP

I have been playing catch up with my "real work."  I found time to  mail my 80s swap project last week.  My partner said she loved "Rainbow Brite."  I was able to find a pillowcase on etsy and made her a tote.

Rainbow Brite tote

Back of tote made with Kaffe fabric

Pink polka dot fabric for interior

Package for my partner

I was also able to work on my doll quilt for DQS11.  This is what I have made so far.....

Which design will my partner choose?

This will have five more "lanterns" and some hand quilting on the white

Or will my partner like scrappy HST?

Off to a busy week...and more heat!  Boo...it is supposed to be 107 here on Tuesday!

SWANS

Last night we had our  "ugly fat quarter exchange" (http://dallasmodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/2011/05/ugly-fq-swap.html) at the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild meeting.  I am always amazed at what our members create.  I had originally gotten a polka dot fat quarter as my "ugly" but a rumbling of discontent among the members took place....whispers of "that looks like it belongs in your stash" etc., etc.  To stop the backlash and quell the angry mob (!), I picked another fat quarter courtesy of Sarah (Pink Pixie).

Oh yea, underwear!

Hats, boots and mittens

Yippy...underwear again!

 This is the little quilt I created using the "ugly" fat quarter

My first effort at paper piecing (unintentionally wonky)...pattern from Sarah Fielke's book

The back

It was a fun night...more photos can be found here http://www.flickr.com/groups/dallasmodernquiltguild/ and here http://dallasmodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/

BEACH TIME AND DQS 11

View from our condo balcony

My family has been at the beach for the past week...we are on beach time.  It was hard to come back to the heat that greeted us in Texas....102 here right now.  Yikes!!!!!  I think I see a lot of sewing in my future.

I recently found out I was selected to participate in the  DQS11 (Doll Quilt Swap 11).   Here is my mosaic inspiration for my partner....do you think you can figure out what colors I love the most??

DQS 11, originally uploaded by Retromama61.

My mosaic for DQS11

I am VERY excited about my partner and have fabric choices dancing around my head!
Finally, Thursday is the DMQG (Dallas Modern Quilt Guild)  July meeting.  We'll see if everyone  made a "swan"out  of their "ugly fat quarter."  Can't wait!!

DON'T BE FOOLED BY ANGELIC FACES

My sister and my two great-nieces were here for the past week.  Don't be fooled by their angelic faces

Mischief is formulating......

We spent the week swimming, swimming and swimming.....visiting great-grandparents in East Texas.....watching their Aunt (me)  get a ticket in a small Texas town and then get stopped and receive a warning ten minutes later (oops)....watching an IMAX movie (Under the Deep) and getting wigged out by the trailer for "Tornado Alley"...getting to see "Mr. Poppers Penguins" and then watching a real life penguin drama on the news http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=penguin%20new%20zealand&tnr=21&vid=

We had our own animal drama here as this morning we found a baby duck swimming in our pool.

What fun he was to watch ...diving and swimming...and the sweetest little quacks...precious! I was afraid that it would get too hot for him today (over 100 is the estimate) so I had to call animal control.  The AC officer said that he would have probably drowned if I hadn't.  Goodbye sweet little duck!

In all of this....I was able to only finish two blocks for my FWQ (a third was a complete failure)....

Need to add basket top

Summer is certainly here....thank goodness for air conditioning....sweet reason to sew!