Grow Your Blog - A Blog Hop and A Giveaway

Hi there and welcome to my blog, Georgia-Girl Quilter. My name is DeAnna and I'm so very happy that you stopped by for a visit. A huge "Thank You" goes out to Vicki at 2 Bags Full for all her hard work in pulling this Hop together. The number of participants is astounding and surely everyone will have fun visiting and following as many blogs as they can...I know I will!

When visiting my blog you will see posts about my journeys in quilting, machine embroidery, Serging, and becoming a Longarm Quilting Diva. Its amazing how these different machine functions can add to the finished project and I love sharing with you what I've learned, here on this blog. I also love to cook so I've created a "Recipe" tab to share my favorite recipes with you.

Here are three of my Kaleidoscope blocks from my Kaleidoscope Quilt. This was a fun quilt to make.

I come from a sewing family and it's such a joy to have family members who all enjoy the same craft. We rely on each other's opinions and you will often time see links to my sister at Sew Much and More. (Who, by the way, is also participating in this Hop!)  I'm inspired by the many blogs I follow and visit and you will also see links to these various blogs hoping they will inspire you too!

I enjoy participating in Blog Hops and they really help me to expand my comfort zone while expanding my creative abilities. 

I love using my Serger to create edges such as these on my projects.

There is so much a Serger can do and I'm only touching the surface. I hope to start a Serger Series soon so that I may share all I'm learning with you.  

So...check back soon!

When quilting, I have a chance to stitch out something nice on my embroidery machine. I set it up and let it do its thing while I go about my quilty business.

And I always like a quilt loaded on my longarm...ready to be quilted. 

                                      

This is one of my favorites. The string piecing technique made a striking two color quilt.

I'm looking forward to following and visiting you and getting to know you too. You can read more about me in the "About Me" section on the sidebar. I always enjoy reading your comments and learn so much from my readers through their comments.

To see a list of participants visit Vicki at 2 Bags Full and start visiting and following all the different blogs. There are many who are having giveaways too!

Anyone up for a giveaway?

What about two giveaways?

I have for you:

Giveaway #1

Four fat-eights

Giveaway #2

A personalized pen embroidered with your name

1.  Just leave a comment and also tell me which item you prefer. Make sure I can get in touch with you, especially if you are a no-reply blogger.

2.  If the two winners requested the same item then the first drawn will receive the fabric and the second will receive the personalized pen.

3.  Winners will be drawn on February 15, 2014.

4.  This giveaway is open to anyone and I will ship anywhere.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of the blogs participating in this Hop.

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!

The Road to Being a Longarm Quilting Diva...

...is a very bumpy road indeed with seam ripper and tweezers in hand!!!

I wanted to quilt this top I made several years ago. It's one of the five I need to do that's on my "To Do" list for 2014.  I've never used the laser light on my Longarm to trace pantographs so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try it.

From EQ7 I found 2 stencils that looked rather easy and then combined them....Leaves and dragonflies. I then traced the design on some long tracing paper. I practiced for about an hour going over and over the design with my machine not threaded to get the feel of the design. I know this sounds very lame to all those great Long Armers out there for this so simple design...but I have to start somewhere right?!..and some day I want to be a great Long Armer too!

I'm always afraid to start quilting a top and have to constantly remind myself that it's only thread and it CAN be removed...hence the ripper and the tweezers!

 

 

 

 

I thought this dragon fly came out rather nice...it was near the center of the quilt after I quilted several rows...practice, practice, practice. The quilting stitched out very dainty looking.

 

 

 

 

And I'm not afraid to show the "not so good" ones either. I'll get better with practice, practice, practice.

 

 

The leaves came out well and by the end of the quilting adventure I no longer needed the pantograph design.

 

 

I then let my Serger do its thing...cutting off excess fabric and finishing the edges. The quilt is now ready for binding. Hmm...should I do a serged thread binding or traditional binding. You all know how much I like using my Serger!

 

I'll post an updated pic as soon as I get it binded.

 

Thanks for stopping my. Have a great day!

 

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!

 

 

 

 

Another Finish

My Kaleidoscope quilt has been finished for several weeks now and resides on my bed. I love it and my DH loves it. My Longarm quilting still needs to be perfected, but the only way that's going to happen is by doing. (This is the 3rd quilt I've done on my Longarm). It's hard to see the quilting from the front of the quilt because the Kaleidoscope (K) blocks are so busy. When I arrived at the part of quilting the K blocks I was in quite a dilemma because I didn't want to take away from the K design. So, I just went with it and followed a design pattern from the K block itself, resulting in each block being quilted differently based on the K design of that block. So...I quilted and quilted and quilted for what seemed like forever thinking I would never get to the end of this king sized quilt. 

Well....I didn't know what was happening on the reverse of the quilt...when I unrolled it from the frame this is what I discovered....

My quilt is now reversible. I wasn't even thinking about the back of the quilt! I was totally blown away. Now,  for you expert quilters, this may be nothing to you, but after seeing the reverse of my quilt I was totally impressed with myself!

Every single block is different...just like on the front!

Here is a partial view of the front...on my bed. I used my serger to create a wave stitch for the binding. I totally dislike doing traditional binding and call my methods "Binding without Boundaries" or maybe "No Boundaries for Bindings".

I don't want this post to get too long so I'll do another post later about my experimentation with bindings...especially my serger method. I would love to put together some serger tutorials...there is so much that can be done with the serger in general and combined with quilting. I've even done a mitered border using my serger! Maybe tutorials are in my future (More to come on that too).

Thanks for visiting! Have a blessed day!

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!

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!

It's A Saturday Sharing Day at Pigtales and Quilts. Go take a look at what everyone else is sharing on this Saturday and share something yourself. It's easy to link up! This is what I would like to share...

Happy Saturday! And Happy Saturday Sharing Day.

 

I sewed the last quilting stitch on my black and white diamond quilt which I'm naming "DeAnna's Diamonds" This was the first quilt that I quilted on my longarm...I finally showed that machine who was boss, after saying to myself..."self, it's only thread and not a permanent marker...thread can be removed". I realized I was right...and I removed all stitches that I was unhappy with. (It also helped that the thread was black and I was stitching on mostly black and the backing was a busy white flower on black...you really couldn't see the stitching at all)

 

 

See..you really can't see the stitching on the back..maybe if you zoom really close...but you don't have to do that...just take my word for it that there's stitching there!

 

 

 

This is the border. I quilted the arches between each diamond on the border. Sorry for the poor picture quality...but you get the idea. My sister at Sew Much and More gave me these rulers for Christmas.

 

 

I generally serge the edges of my quilt before I put on the binding. It holds the layers together PLUS cuts off the excess batting and backing all at the same time!

 







 

Serging makes a nice support for the binding. This is a wide three thread overlock so it doesn't add too much bulk.

 

This is my serger. I love, love, lover her! She is so versatile! I've pieced several quilts with her and my seam allowance is always perfect...she sews a perfect 1/4 inch overlock stitch! And my edges are neatly finished.

 

 

But threading and tension adjustment is such a horrific chore you say? Not this "Baby"...I just put the thread about a half inch inside the threading ports and press the "Push to Thread" button.... and with a whiff of air it threads...

 

 

 

...even threads the looper needle eyes!... Amazing...it's certainly an Evolution in serging. Like I said...I love, love, love her!

 

 

Let's see what else I can share today....oh yeah...

I'M A WINNER!!!

 

I blogged hopped in the Dare to Dresden Blog Hop and I won this beautiful fat quarter from Debbie over at a Traveling Quilter. Thanks Debbie for offering the giveaway...especially since I won!

 

 

 

 

 

I am also taking an online quilting class at Quilt University. I'm taking Designer Pinwheels taught by Dena Crain  She is a really awesome designer and I look forward to learning a lot in the 4 week course.

 

 

Now..on to finishing my quilt...binding and a label and I'm done with "DeAnna's Diamonds" and a February UFO project.

 

Oh... and a quick and easy beverage recipe for a cold winter night:

 

Irish Coffee

 

 

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons sugar, or to taste
• 2/3 cup hot brewed coffee (decaf can be used)
• 2 tablespoons Irish whiskey (or Irish cream Liqueur)
• whipped cream

Preparation:

Combine first 3 ingredients; top with a generous dollop of whipped cream. Sprinkle with nutmeg if desired. Makes 1 serving.

 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting. I love reading your comments!

 

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!