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I hope everyone had a fantastic Friday! My friend Lauren, who is getting married in a month, came over and we addressed her wedding invitations and had some seriously awesome girl time. I always have fun with her! 

A couple months ago, I submitted my blog to this website. If accepted, my blog would be in their regular roll, and they would promote my blog from time to time. 

Today, I got an email saying they accepted my blog! 

This is very exciting :) :).

To the right, you will see a link that will lead you to this website. 

I highly recommend you hop on over and check it out.

Not only are they a hub for quilting blogs, but they also have a giveaway radar, quilt shop locator, and online quilt store locator. 

It's pretty cool :). 

And I'm pretty excited that they accepted my blog. 

It makes me feel like the internet is starting to notice my little corner of blogland :) :).

In other, non-quilty news, our realtor is showing the house on Monday! I'm kinda hoping that whoever it is will absolutely love it and buy it immediately :). I'm liking the idea of moving more and more.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I am hoping to get some sewing done tomorrow. I have way too many WIP's and need to get this nonsense under control :o).

Have a blessed weekend, and Happy Quilting!

Sandy Gervais and Denyse Schmidt

I'm finally back in the swing of things. Everyone needs to decompress, and sometimes you just need to step back and just take a break.



We've decided to put our condominium up for sale.

I haven't decided if I'm happy or sad about it yet :o). 

We've totally outgrown this place. Crazy-sounding! How much space do two people need?!

Either way, it gives me an excuse to make pretty things to stage the house!

Our kitchen table is...bare to say the least :). 

So, to Moda Bakeshop, I went! They always seem to have something quick and easy when you're in a bind!

They had this tutorial for a table runner. It was an amazing solution for my ever-growing stash, and my bare-table dilemma. 

I didn't use Verna by Kate Spain, but I did use a Giddy by Sandy Gervais charm pack! I am also using a little of the Denyse Schmidt fabric I picked up several weeks ago for the inner border, backing, and binding. I think it's turning out nicely! The brown ties in with the colors on the wall, and the red compliments the color of the sofa! I think the bright blue gives the whole thing a nice punch :).

This will be my first go at hand quilting, and I feel that this is a good project to start with. It's small, manageable, portable, and any mistakes are easily hidden by the large prints and bright colors.

If you're interested in making this quilt top, I highly recommend it! The tutorial was very easy to follow, and it looks so cute when finished!

You can find the tutorial here.

Also, I made this block with the same line of Denyse Schmidt that can now be found at Jo-Ann Fabrics website!

I think this block is really perfect for this line. I've been struggling to find a suitable block to compliment the fabric, and I love the endless possibilities of this block.

The piecing isn't great, the lines of the checks slant, but that doesn't really bother me :). 

Now, with this line, I haven't decided if I should use all the prints in one quilt top, or just stick to 2 or three coordinating prints and colors.

I would love to hear your opinions, and I take everyone's comments to heart. You guys never fail to inspire me!

Oh! I think I will definitely be doing a scrap swap. However, I don't think it will be until June because I'm going into the second half of the quarter at school, and life just tends to get crazy during the second half :).

So, if you're interested in the swap, just send me an email directly at skippitydodahquilts@yahoo.com

I will be doing a post on the swap with more details once the time comes, but I want to make sure I have enough people who want to actually participate in the swap first :).  

Happy Quilting!

NQR

Not Quilt Related.

I am so sorry that I haven't posted in a couple days. 

I've had a rough week so far.

Sunday, a young woman I went to high school with was found dead in a house in a neighboring town. 

She was 19 years old. 

Way too young to die. 

I don't understand it. I'm not sure I want to understand it. 

She was beautiful, caring, nice, any man's dream girl. 

When I thought about how young she was, I thought how young I am, and how it could happen to anyone. 

In our small school community, we thought we were untouchable, nothing like this would happen to one of us. Things like this only happen in the big city. 

It wasn't supposed to happen to one of us. We were untouchable, invincible. I suppose that assumption has gone down the drain. 

Again, I'm so sorry for not posting. I promise I will get back in the swing of things. Please, keep quilting, keep sewing, keep making beautiful things, and please don't stop reading my blog. I promise I won't get so sappy.

I don't usually get all weepy and religious, but prayers would be greatly appreciated.

Her name was Emily. She will be missed forever.

I'm in the middle of a muddle

Nothing quilty to show today :(. I've been workin' hard for my money, though! Hopefully I will have something to show you early in the work-week :).

However!

I need some suggestions, readers. 

I want (very much!) to participate in some kind of swap.

But, I've been looking all over the place, and anything I can find, they have rules that require you to participate in a swap prior to their swap.

I have a (huge!) bag of Punctuation scraps that I feel should go to a new home, and I think a scrap swap would be something good to start with?

So, I thought I'd just do my own! 

I always love hearing your thoughts, so please put your two cents in on your experiences with swaps!

Who's game? 

Leave a comment if you're interested, and we'll see where this shin-dig goes! 

Happy Quilting!

WIP's

First, I see I have a couple new followers! Thanks so much for reading, I truly value your thoughts and words, so please don't hesitate to comment with words of advice! You all inspire me to live up to the best version of myself :). Oh, and I'm up to double digits in followers! It may seem insignificant to some of you, but it's a huge milestone for me :).

Okay, enough sappy, on to serious business :o).

WIP's

Oh man, have I got WIP's. 

In addition to the WIP's I'll be showing you, I'll also be quilting the quilt for my aunt, starting on my first show quilt, starting on the disappearing 9-patch I talked about several weeks ago, and two rag quilts for my Etsy store. 

Fun, huh? :). I like it! 

So, firstly, I'd like to introduce you to the Schnibbles 'Bennington' wall-hanging that will go in my sewing room. 

In true Emily fashion, I couldn't let this lovely pattern be swallowed up by serious fabric! So, the decision has beem made to make this wall-hanging into a COLOR WHEEL!!!!!

The fabrics I chose are all Moda Marble Solids, except the red

The light colored snowballs are going to be light grays. I love the music notes!

The inner border and backing is going to be the multi-color words from Make Life by Sweetwater for Moda. 

How fun!!! I'm so excited for this quilt!

My next WIP is also just as colorful!

In Baker's Dozen, there is a quilt called Slushie. Who could resist making this quilt with a name like Slushie?!

I love the colors in this quilt, and I stuck pretty closely to what they suggested. The fabric I chose for this quilt is Botany by Lauren and Jessi Jung for Moda.

The solid colors I chose are all Moda Marble Solids, and they stick pretty close to what the pattern calls for. But I did choose a yellow outer border, also, from Botany. The pattern calls for a pink outer border, but I felt that it would compete with the pink I had already chosen. 

My third WIP is from a book called 5-10-15+ Fat Quarters. The pattern is called Snowballs in Plaids. 

I had to change it up! I'm using a Punctuation by Sandy Klop of American Jane for Moda in place of the plaid. How fun! 

I felt that this pattern was perfect for this fabric, because of the time period both of these have. I wanted to keep with the 30's theme of the fabric, and not pair it with a modern pattern. In the time period that these fabrics were the inspiration for, quilts were made for a functional purpose, and that's what I love about this pattern. It looks the part.

Something to be aware of - This block is a little time consuming because of its size and the small squares involved, so you will want to be aware of that if you plan on doing this block.

So, what are your WIP's this week? Anything colorful?

Happy Quilting!

Bella Vita

When I was a little girl, my parents and I lived in a very old farm house in the country. I remember one day, running through the yard with one of those plastic pinwheels that you get at the dollar store. It sticks so firmly in my mind because of the bright colors and the sun reflecting off of the blades as it spun wildly in the breeze.

That is one of my favorite memories. Such a simple, beautiful time. 

That's what this quilt reminds me of  - summers in the Midwest, drinking slushies in the car with the windows down, my ice cream cone melting in my hand. 

"Bella Vita"

The literal translation is 'Beautiful Life'. I feel it's very fitting. 

The blades of the pinwheels, borders, binding and backing are all from Make Life by Sweetwater for Moda. The white is Bella Solid. 

I used four charm squares for each block - two white and two printed. 

The original pattern called for the blades to be the same color, but I feel that some rules are just meant to be broken :). This is one of those times. 

I ventured into unknown territory with the quilting of this quilt. For the outer border, I did large loops and swirls. The inner border was small loops and swirls.

And the blocks are quilted in almost a swirly pattern. I was inspired, again, with the idea of the pinwheels spinning, and that's the most literal translation I could do :). I feel as though it turned out nicely.

The backing is so cute :). It's the white with the blue words.

As I finished the quilting, I wanted to keep this one more and more. So here it sits, on my quilt rack. I'm so glad I'm keeping it!

This quilt was very easy to put together and the blocks were put together surprisingly quickly! 

We're having really awful weather here in NW Ohio, so that's the reason for the really...really ugly pictures :). I promise I'll take much prettier pictures once the weather turns around!

Happy Quilting!

Sharing the love

You all know my love for Whimsy by Fig Tree Quilts :). 

I've been debating weather or not to let go of the scraps I've been hoarding of this stuff. 

I feel that with the quilt I'm working on now with the Whimsy, the scraps just don't have a place in my life anymore :(. 

BUT! I do want someone else to love them and take care of them :).

So, they're listed in my Etsy store. 

I reeally hope they go to a good home! I am enjoying making the current Whimsy quilt so much and I want someone else to enjoy Whimsy just as much as I do :). 

You can find the listing here. Enjoy!

Happy Quilting!