batiks

A new month, unlimited possibilities..................... from Exuberant Color

As usual at the beginning of a new month, I'm looking ahead to what I want to work on. The last 18 months have been devoted to emptying storage boxes with partial projects in them. 9 of the quilts last year came from these empty boxes. The bottom supports on my drafting table are a great place to store lots of the boxes.

As I go through more boxes, I'm finding more pieces leftover from previous projects. These 180 four and a half inch squares are left from the Double 9 patch quilt I made in 2008.

These ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 4 days ago. under batiks , organization

Sewn, not pressed.......................... from Exuberant Color

The top half of the quilt is folded up so I would have room to design the bottom half. The blocks on the bottom aren't sewn in this photo. I changed one because I had a light block where a dark block was supposed to go.

I finished sewing the top at 10 last night and even though the last seams haven't been pressed, I wanted to check it out and make sure I didn't have any blocks turned wrong. Now seeing the photo I can see I have one dark block where a light one should ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 6 days ago. under batiks , double 4 patch , nature

Blocks are ready.......... from Exuberant Color

I really thought I was going to have blocks up on the design wall yesterday. I pressed the final batch, sorted them into 2 piles with one light block and one dark block of each combination in it. Then I took other projects off the design wall to make enough space to design the top half of the quilt. That was it, no more ambition to get anything done. I'm going to blame the cold weather for it. We got up to 17 degrees yesterday, a couple degrees higher than they predicted. We have had sunshine for 2 days ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 1 day ago. under batiks , double 4 patch , stash

2 projects........................... from Exuberant Color

It was time to trim the little strips that I sewed a few days ago. For some of them the 2.5" ruler and the rotating mat worked well. A few of them were too narrow so I had to move the ruler.

I got all three sewn together but haven't pressed them or squared them up. They will be 3 nice little mug rugs soon.

I got one of each of the last four sets of strips sewn into blocks.

Strips were cut for 3 more stratas and they got sewn last night. I need to press them ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 1 week ago. under batiks , mug rugs , strip piecing

First quilt top for October 2025............... from Exuberant Color

It took less than a half hour to finish this little quilt top. It is 34" square. It will be put with next month's pieces to be quilted.

I had to clear off my table top so I sewed the last group of tiny pieces into 4 more strips. This set isn't as colorful as the first 2 sets shown yesterday

Yesterday morning I did some more cutting for the Nancy Crow fabric 16 patch and for the purple Rosy quilt. I started sewing the stratas for the NC 16 patch. This is all 1990s fabric. I have ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 1 week ago. under batiks , quilts made with triangles , strip piecing

Sidetracked, or is it derailed............................. from Exuberant Color

There is a table in my main floor studio that I have been slowly cleaning off (we're talking piles here) and when I say slowly, it is like 2 items a day. One of the items yesterday was a little 4" x 4" bag of small batik pieces.

The 7" ruler gives you an idea how small the pieces were. They were all end pieces when I was cutting some project a few years ago and I couldn't throw them in the trash.

I decided to piece them into strips, 4 of which would make a little mug ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 1 week ago. under batiks , black and white , strip piecing , triangles

Not working...................... from Exuberant Color

Sometimes you have to play with some blocks to find out what isn't working. I had company yesterday so last night I just pulled out the baggie of 44 three inch 9 patches. I placed them on my sewing table edge to edge to see if they would make a nice table runner top. What I quickly realized is that there are lots of dark colors in these blocks.

I had a stack of batik squares in the same size so I just put them on every other block that was on the table. My conclusion? Neither of them ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 4 weeks ago. under 9 patch , batiks , knitting

Just a little mindless sewing............... from Exuberant Color

I did my tomato plant trimming yesterday morning before it got too hot. There should be better air circulation now through the plants.

After lunch I decided to use some 1.5" batik strips in a bag that were left from a previous project. Here is that project on this post in 2009. (I quilted the quilt in 2016.) There were 170 strips originally in the bag but over the years I have used some strips out of the bag for other projects. The strips are all half width (20" approx.) and I used 60 so far for this group ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under batiks , strip piecing

Hot, hot, hot............................ from Exuberant Color

I know most of the US is under this heat dome and it isn't fun. It's the humidity that is the worst part.

I spent most of the day working slowly, some quilting, some knitting, a little organizing in the basement. One good thing happened; I found my missing Kaffe Quilts in Italy book which has been missing for several months. I sewed 2 pieces of batting together with the triple zig zag for a piece 48" x 58". I will check and see if that works for any of the small tops waiting in line. If not ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 7 months, 3 weeks ago. under batiks , knitting , machine quilting

More hand stitching................ from Exuberant Color

I have 3 more hours into the hand stitching of the binding on this Tilda Whimsy quilt so I have 2 1/2 sides done. Maybe 2 more evenings and it will be done.

I did more die cutting yesterday on the batiks strips that are between 3" and 6" wide. I'm cutting 2" x 3.5" rectangles, 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles and 2" squares. The piece that is leftover on most of the pieces is large enough to cut two 2.5" squares or 4 triangles. I'll do them later. This is the group I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 9 months, 3 weeks ago. under batiks , binding , nature

Scrappy quilt with stars from Pieced Brain

Create this scrappy quilt with stars using fabrics you’ve been collecting over the years. It will add vibrant colors to your home decor!

Spiral Galaxies appears in the June issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, hitting the stands on April 18! It measures 72-1/2″ x 81-1/2″ with 10″ star blocks and 9″ nine-patches with half-square triangles. It features bakits from my extensive collection. No single fabric was purchased for the quilt, including the (pieced) back, which I will show you soon.

One ...

added by Denise Russell 10 months, 1 week ago. under batiks , easy quilts , handmade gifts , home decor , modern decor , modern home decor , quick projects , quilt backing , quilt pattern , quilting , scrappy quilts , star quilt blocks (Comments)

Rows sewn, not pressed............... from Exuberant Color

All of the rows are sewn but I haven't finished trimming the right side. I need to take it down to the basement to my big table for that. After I press it, it will become clearer how the trimming needs to be done.

My other project is trying to find a binding fabric for this quilt. Here you can see the backing fabric which has little shots of green in addition to the red and yellow.

I have a lot of pieces of batik that are between 1/4 and 1/2 yard so some of them are ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 11 months, 3 weeks ago. under batiks , kaffe fabric , strip piecing

Moving Ahead from Art In Search

Not one thing particularily has sidelined me, just a lot of little things. I am not going to try a bunch of catch up posts. I have been keeping a list of photos to share, so I am just going for it even if it is not in order. Besides computer issues, nasty winter weather and physical pain stuff, I, at times, feel overwhelmed and just try to keep taking steps. I have finished quilts and been able to keep the comfort quilt pipeline going to recipients. I read all the great quilting blogs I follow. So that's good ...

added by Linda Swanekamp 12 months ago. under batiks

Binding........... from Exuberant Color

I found a binding fabric and cut it and also cut the hanging sleeve from the leftover backing fabric.

The binding was sewn on and I started the hand stitching last night. I'm over half way around it now.

A view from the other end.

It was 46 degrees yesterday and the wind finally died down. We are expecting rain Friday morning. We have a had a very dry winter so far.

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year ago. under batiks , binding

Onto a different project............... from Exuberant Color

There are decisions to be made on the other projects I have worked on lately so I sewed the binding onto the big neutral batik 16 patch quilt. This one was 72" x 96" before it was quilted so the binding will take a while to do. I'll start the hand stitching today between other things I need to do.

On other projects, I found 3 light Christmas fabrics I can cut 2" squares from so I can use up the remainder of the dark squares. I also took the floral star blocks off the design wall in columns ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 2 months ago. under batiks , binding

Staystitching the quilt top edges............... from Exuberant Color

Someone asked a while ago how I do the stay-stitching around my quilt tops. At the time I didn't have one to demonstrate on. What I do is put on the zigzag foot and move the needle to the right. I have 9 needle positions from center to right on my 22 year old Pfaff and I set it at 7 to the right. This allows the whole foot to be on top of the edge of the quilt top and still stitch less than 1/4" from the edge.

This shows that the stitching is approximately 3/16 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 3 months ago. under batiks

Looks better sewn together...................... from Exuberant Color

A quilt top always looks so much better than just blocks on the design wall. I love the rich colors in this one. I think it would look great thrown over a leather chair in a wood paneled library.

It would have looked a little better with one more row in length for a better rectangular shape, but I was done working on it. It is 64" x 72", a nice throw quilt size.

How did I choose the fabrics for this quilt? I was looking for some no-brainer sewing so I opened 2 boxes full of 2.5" strips ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 3 months ago. under batiks , strip piecing

First layout................ from Exuberant Color

All 32 blocks are sewn and pressed now. This last group of 4 will add more color to the group.

Last night's layout. There is one block I want to exchange with another but I haven't made the decision which one yet. I thought I would wait until this morning to look at it again.

These are definitely the colors of the outside in my town. Still lots of green but more colorful trees every day.

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 3 months ago. under batiks , strip piecing

Prepping time...................... from Exuberant Color

I continued cutting batting and backing for quilts that I will do the quilting on. I think this might be the first time I have used a non-Kaffe fabric as backing on a Kaffe quilt. The top is 48" wide which would have meant piecing a back. I had this 58" wide fabric that looks great with it so no piecing required.

I was able to get both battings from one width of batting off the roll. I decided on a large print floral for the back of this small quilt.

Next I searched through my batik stash for the ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 3 months ago. under batiks , strip piecing

A little progress................ from Exuberant Color

Four more strip sets are ready to be pressed and then made into blocks. This is my favorite of the 4.

I added the other 4 blocks of the original 24 to the design wall. I need to take this to the basement for a larger design wall before I add any more blocks.

This one that might look like pink on your monitor is actually a coral color and goes well with the other orangey/rusty spots in other blocks.

I got one more batting cut and a backing pieced so my longarm quilter can pick up 2 to ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 3 months ago. under batiks , strip piecing , zig zag

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