Monday, April 29, 2013

Bloglovin or Feedly?

Whoever thought that blogging would have it's own evolution?


I love my Google Reader, but like all things, there is eventually an ending or changing of some sort. And the ending of Google Reader is part of the evolution of blogging...I guess.

Many blogs that's I follow, quilting and non-quilting, are having to make a choice on a different RSS feed if they are wanting to keep up with blogs they follow. Two choices seem to stand out...Bloglovin and Feedly. Currently I am testing both.

Some likes and dislikes I have found:

1. Bloglovin:  They have a button I can place on my blog. I can follow easily and others can follow me just as easily. In order to get your stats you need to claim your blog. Feedly: No follow button is used.

2.  Ease of transferring over the blogs I follow: Both transferred over quickly but Feedly was almost instant. Bloglovin took just a few minutes (I follow over 400 blogs). This has something to do with Feedly using a browser extension (See link to articles below for more information.)

3.  Accessing your reading list:  Bloglovin standard preference sends out a daily email with new blog postings. This can be set to receive emails with each new posting, one email a day, or not receive emails at all.  Feedly requires you to sign in to view any new postings. So far I like to receive the daily email from Bloglovin. It's a good reminder for me to browse blogs that have new postings.

4. Feedly offers more choices on viewing options. The viewing page can be set up to view as a listing, magazine or boards for quick glancing. (I do like this). Bloglovin offers just one style...a listing that can be marked as read. Both offer side menus that can be organized to your liking.

I found this article and this article that did a really good comparison of the two. Whichever your choice, Google Reader is going away July 1st so make your decision quickly so that you will be able to transfer over the blogs you follow. It would be really discouraging to me to know that I had to start my follow list from scratch again. Not to mention all the great quilting projects that I would miss seeing and reading about!

I hope this information has been helpful. Evolution is not an easy thing sometime...but this is pretty easy to do!


Thanks for visiting. I love to read your comments!

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!




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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Determined Little Squirrel and Another Quilt Loaded on Longarm

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Happy Sunday to All



This morning I snapped a pic of this determined little squirrel. The bird feeder is suppose to be squirrel resistant and for the most part it is. S/he jumped on it and fell off at least three times before finally succeeding. I guess s/he deserves the seed reward. Poor thing was hanging on with it's back toes!






I definitely can't eat while hanging upside down.




Ah...a much better position to be in to eat! And a much earned reward. I'm glad I don't have to work this hard for my daily meal!


I think I'll buy some squirrel food the next time I'm out. I'm sure the birds will appreciate it!


My Kaleidoscope quilt (K quilt) is loaded on my longarm. I hope to have it finished so that I can show it at Strip Club next weekend (We show whatever project is finished, not just 2.5 inch strip quilts). The quilt patterns come from Cozy Quilt. They have some really nice patterns all made from Jelly Rolls. Click here to see some fantastic projects that were shown at last month's club.

This is a King size quilt even though the pic seems to be deceiving. It has 49 different kaleidoscopes blocks. 

I picked these two fabrics for my borders. The quilt measures 103 x 103.


Thanks for visiting. Hope you all have a very pleasant week ahead.

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!


Monday, April 22, 2013

A Fun Time at Retreat and Mug Rug Hop Giveaway Winners

Don't you just love quilting retreats? The people you meet, the projects that get completed (or not completed), the food you eat, the door prizes that are won (not by me this time) and the new and old techniques that are shared. It's always such a fun gathering! (Tiring too)!


This past Friday and Saturday my LQS, A Scarlet Thread, which is, by the way the largest quilt shop in Georgia, had their quarterly retreat. Yes...they host a retreat every quarter (except in July when they host their Quilter's Camp (day camp) that last for an entire week!


The retreat is a day time retreat from 9am to 9pm Friday and Saturday. You can pay for one day or both days.  And talk about reasonably priced...$35 for one day and $60 for both days and that comes with breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day. Supper is ordered and paid for separately and advance orders are generally through the local Chick-fil-a or BBQ place...anyway, you get it, lots to eat! The classroom holds about 30 participants and that makes for lots and lots of sewing, laughing, and all around good fun.

I generally bring my Featherweight to classes and retreats because it's so portable. This is how I started my day.



As the day progressed with all the machines humming and the participants chatting there were several demonstrations. This one was on Hexies...I didn't realize you could do so much with them!



My favorite new tool is this magnet pin "cushion" for the wrist. I thought I might stick myself but I didn't. It works really well and was so convenient to use! Ummm...I wonder if it has arthritis magnet therapy properties too..ummm.



Here is the package it came in if anyone is interested...The Gypsy Pin Pal. They have lots of cool gadgets on their site.



Yay! Someone is almost done with their Amish with a Twist. This is a BOM that is offered through the quilt store.  The colors are fabulous.  The border has a beautiful applique design.  (How do you like that thread catcher and pin cushion hanging on the table. Several retreaters had them. I guess I will need to make me one too)


I worked on my Kaleidoscope quilt at retreat and got them all sashed together. Today I'm going in search of border fabric. This quilt came together nicely. I'm glad I looked through my UFOs and found all the blocks. I plan to make pillow shams with the 6 kaleidoscope blocks that are left.


These are some of the blocks up close. I have 49 blocks in the king size quilt and none of them are the same. All the block designs came from about a yard of fabric....8 yards of course with the same repeat pattern. (8 pieces to the pie).





To see the original fabric design uncut... click here.


Once I finished putting the sashing on the Kaleidoscope quilt I started on another UFO from this strip set. These are not really my colors but I guess when I started these blocks I was coming out of the safety range of my box...which is good to do every now and then.



I made these blocks...it's the only piece that you use.....


...to make this block. 


I think I can live with it and the colors are growing on me. How many will I make? Who knows...I may just make place mats. It's kind of a "no thinking" block which is good when coming off a bigger project. Kind of a relaxing the brain sorta thing.

As a bonus, I do have these little HST now that I can do something with. This is definitely a no waste block.


The block pattern came from this really neat book.  Actually it's the clover quilt on the front. This is a very versatile book and should be a part of your collection of quilting books.  It offers a lot of border suggestions also which I find very helpful when I'm in rut. 


Thanks for sticking with me during this post. I hope you will soon treat yourself to a retreat and have as much fun as I did. We all deserve a little time away with our sewing machines and other folks who like doing the same thing together.

And...

My Mug Rug Blog Hop winners are:

MoeWest who won the first set of fat quarters 
and
Joyce Carter who won the second set.

Congratulations to both. They've been contacted and all is set for their prizes to arrive at their doors soon. Thanks to all who follow me!

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Mom Back Home With Her Quilt

Happy Spring Days to all. 
Hope that everyone is having a great week. 

Mom finished her quilt! Hooray. She pieced and quilted the whole thing...a King size thing at that in about a week!  Way to go Mom!  She jumped right to it using all my machines and not intimidated by any of them!

Quilt loaded on the Longarm. I gave her instructions on using the machine and....


 away she went...jumping right in.


We decided on a meandering design since it was faster and we were working against time.


She did a fantastic job and it was her first time on the Longarm!


I generally use my serger to stitch the edges together before I put on my binding. Here is Mom using my serger (any serger) for the first time.


I find that serging the edges makes it easier to handle the fabric for binding and helps to make the binding a little stiffer.


Mom working on that binding. (I really dislike doing the binding part but Mom went right to work on it)


Now to bind the quilt. We used a wide dec0 stitch to make sure all was caught in the stitching on the front and the back. 


Ta Da.....

...the finished quilt!


She picked out this pretty green fabric for the back and the mauve for the quilt label. (She named the quilt "Wounded Knee"...umm)



Whew!...we were both glad the quilt was finished. We were at that "tired of this quilt" stage!...and she was flying out the next day. We folded and stuffed the quilt into a small carry-on size piece of luggage!


The pattern is Take 5 from The Teacher's Pet and is a very easy and well written pattern. 

Thanks Mom for helping us during my first month of knee surgery recovery! We could not have done it without you. Looking forward to you being here in July when it will all happen again with my other knee. (We already have fabric waiting for another quilt to be made!)

Thanks for visiting. I love to read your comments!

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!


Sunday, April 7, 2013

April Showers Mug Rug Blog Hop and a Giveaway

Hello there! Welcome to the April Showers Mug Rug Blog Hop...Day 1

Wow...you've made it to the last blog of the day. Congratulations! I'm sure you've seen some really awesome mug rugs today.

I want to send a big THANK YOU to Erin at Sew At Home Mummy and Madame Samm for all the hard work they did in getting this Blog Hop organized. Great job you two!

I thought it would be simple to create a mug rug. Making it was easy. Designing it proved to be a challenge. So many ideas floating around in my head it was hard to decide what I really wanted to do. I came up with two mug rugs. I wanted to do more but life just kept getting in the way...you know how that goes I'm sure!

I love to machine embroidery and I love combining quilting and embroidery. I searched through some of my embroidery designs and found an Anita Goodesign pattern from their Quilter's Dream collection. The design stitches out in four sections and then the four sections are sewn together. 


I sewed the pieces together then stitched down the center to tack the backing and batting to the front of the mug rug.


 I used my featherweight to sew the sections together. I just love that little machine. It's such a joy to sew on!




My first mug rug completed...



...and put to use! Yay!


For my second mug rug I decided to do an applique pattern that I did on my embroidery machine. This design came from Emblibrary.com. They have thousands of instant downloadable designs (which has been proven dangerous).


It was fairly easily to do. I had to just make sure the fabric pieces were in the correct place and position.


The stitched out design fresh off the embroidery machine.



After I applied my batting and backing I decided to do echo quilting around the design to finish the mug rug off.



Second mug rug now completed. A double Yay! Yay!


I hope you enjoyed my mug rugs. I had a lot of fun making them. 

I'm also offering a GIVEAWAY...Yay! Not just one but two! Yay! Yay! Don't you love giveaways. I would like to give these two sets of fat quarters as a prize to two lucky followers as THANKS for following me!






I bought these fat quarters from Mama's Quilt Shop during the Christmas Holiday. A lovely quilt shop in Independence, La. The top three fat quarters will go to the first follower that is picked and the second three will go to the second follower that is picked. 


The rules are simple...

1. Follow me and leave a nice comment letting me know...that's it!
2. Winners will be picked on April 19th.
3. I have to be able to reach you by email so please make sure that I can.
4. I will ship to international followers...no problem.

Here is today's list of participating blogs...

Erin @ Sew at Home Mummy
 Patty @ A Stitch in Time
Jenny @ Squawk That
Stacey @ The Tilted Quilt
Daryl @ Patchouli Moon Studio
Lisa @ The Boon Docks
Julie @ Jolie Maxtin: the project girl
Beluah @ Sowing Stitches
Karen @ Bungalow Bay Quilts
   and then me....
DeAnna @ Georgia Girl Quilter
Thanks so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of the Hop...I know I will!!


Saturday, April 6, 2013

Hooray for Mom! - Second Quilt - A King Size


It's A Saturday Sharing Day at Pigtales and Quilts. Go take a  look at what everyone else is sharing on this Saturday(and Sunday) and share something yourself. It doesn't have to be about quilting and can be about anything you want to share. It's easy to link up! This is what I would like to share...

 I finally mastered the stairs (somewhat) enough to go up  into my sewing studio. My mother who has been with me during my knee surgery recovery has finished her very own second quilt and it's a King size one!! Hooray for my Mom! Once we got into my sewing studio it was no stopping her! She pieced 50 blocks and sewed them together in 2 days! Way to go Mom!

Here it is! I love the colors. 



Not sure what fabric collection this is. The fabric was bought from Mama's Quilt Shop in Independence La. about a year ago. The pattern is Take 5 - Teacher's Pet. It's such a great pattern! Easy and fast! 

Tomorrow we plan to load it onto my longarm for HER to quilt! She will be with me another week so it should be finished by the time she heads back home to Louisiana. She is such a Great Mom. Love you Mom!

I am participating in the April Showers Mug Rug blog hop hosted by Erin at Sew at Home Mummy and Madam Samm at Sew We Quilt . The blog hop will take place April 8th - April 18th. I'm scheduled for the first day and my sister at Sew Much and More is scheduled for the second day. Come check out all the participating blogs that will be featuring Mug Rugs. Come and get inspired!

Here is a preview of one of my mug rugs...all mixed up. 


Visit me again on Monday April 8th to see it all put together.

Thanks for visiting. Have a great weekend! I love to read your comments!

Happy Living! Happy Quilting.