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April 15, 2024
Sorting.............. from Exuberant Color


I didn't have anything lined up to sew last night so I sorted 1.5" batik squares instead.  I sorted into colors and into light value.  Then I went through the light squares and pulled all of the ones that had at least 4 alike or 4 similar.  I have over 30 light groups ready now to pair with 5 darker squares for 3" finished 9 patches.  This will be TV night sewing.


I was going through a closet to find my father-in-law's slides to give to my son.  In there was a box of nostalgia.  In the ...

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March 15, 2024
More blocks................ from Exuberant Color


 I sewed one of each of the 13 new combinations and saved the other 3 of each to sew later.  I wanted to see the yellows and oranges on the design wall.

It was cool enough yesterday morning that the heat came on and I should have gone to the basement then and started quilting the flannel quilt.  I waited until afternoon and by that time it was warm out and cold in the basement.  Today it should be warm down there so I hope the quilting happens.

That left my "in between things" project as the only thing to ...

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March 4, 2024
A few things............. from Exuberant Color


 I wasn't very organized yesterday but I got a few things accomplished.  This quilt came back from my longarm friend Robin and it was time to trim it to prepare for binding.  This one is called Autumn Coneflower 2 and you can see the whole quilt here.   This one is made of batiks and it is one of my favorite quilts so I think it needs a hand stitched binding.  I need to look for a suitable fabric today.

I also added one more batting strip to a pieced batting to make it large enough for the bright color ...

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February 18, 2024
Trimming........... from Exuberant Color


I trimmed the second quilt I got back from my longarmer last week.  I wasn't sure if I wanted a black batik or a red fabric for the binding.  Finally I came to a decision.




I decided on one of the reds that is in the quilt.  This is one of my favorite Martha Negley fabrics.  I needed a break from being in the basement so I didn't get it pressed and cut yet.



There were 15 more blocks ready to sew last night.





I did get some flannels chosen for more blocks so today I'll turn ...

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February 10, 2024
First finish for February 2024............ from Exuberant Color


The scrappy batik Bear Paw quilt is finished.  I trimmed the edges yesterday and sewed the binding all by machine.  It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it. 

It is 70" x 85".  The top was finished in March 2023.


Since the top is made of many colors I decided on a neutral color backing and binding.

It was in the mid 50s yesterday, the second day in a row, kind of unusual at the beginning of February.  It's way too early for any outside work here because we will still have another month of winter.

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February 3, 2024
View from the sewing chair............. from Exuberant Color


I opened the box of batik orphan blocks again.  I do this a couple times a year and end up just putting the blocks back in the box again.

In October last year I sorted all of the blocks by size and clipped them together.

Here is the design wall the last time I played with them.  Very underwhelming.

This time I decided to try a row quilt since they were already sorted by size.  A column quilt with long batik strips between columns might be nice too.


Not up on the design wall is a stack of 16 patch ...

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January 24, 2024
On the design wall..................... from Exuberant Color


At the left are all of the rows of the Marcia Derse fabric quilt I was working on.  No decisions made on how to finish it.  I decided to put some columns of Crooked Cobblestone blocks on the design wall to see what I have available.  I used 5 different widths of blocks for this.




I spent the earlier part of the evening hand stitching the binding.  I have 3 corners done and 1/2 of a long side and 1/2 of a short side left to stitch.  Batik binding and batting make it a slower process of hand ...

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January 23, 2024
Old blocks................ from Exuberant Color


While I was in the basement doing laundry I started looking for a bag of crooked cobblestones.  Since I have emptied 4 project boxes so far this month I thought I should continue looking for blocks already made in past years.


In the bag were all of these separate bags of crooked cobblestones that are measured and packaged by width.  On the sidebar of this blog is a photo of a Crooked Cobblestone wall hanging, the first one that I made.  Here is a post when I was sorting them by size, 2016.  They have been waiting a long time ...

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January 22, 2024
Still hand stitching....................... from Exuberant Color


Not a lot of time was spent on the hand stitching yesterday but I do have one long side and half of a short side stitched.  I may take a break from it this morning and trim the second quilt and choose a binding for it.



The red double Amaryllis has one open flower now.  There are only going to be three blooms on this one.






There is hope for more blooms though because there are more bud stalks on this bulb.  The third one is still pretty short but they grow pretty fast.

My internet provider sent me a ...

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January 20, 2024
Trimming............. from Exuberant Color


I got 2 quilts back from my longarm quilter and they are 2 favorite quilts.  I got this one trimmed so it is ready for me to choose binding.  It is all batik fabric so it will be a batik binding and will be hand finished.



There are lots of colors in this quilt so almost any binding color will work.






The back is a batik too.  I think I will look for a medium value for the binding since there is a light end and a dark end to the layout of the blocks.

I finished pressing another huge ...

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January 19, 2024
All rows sewn............... from Exuberant Color






I tried to straighten the rows many times but they still ended up on a slant.  The good news though is that all of the rows are sewn.  I put a few gold triangles in the spots at the right side but still am not sure how I will finish this.  It may linger on the design wall for a few days...  I think maybe it needs dark triangles and maybe a border.




For the last 2 days I have been working on batting and backings for 2 more quilts to send out for quilting.  The pattern for this quilt ...

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December 30, 2023
Finish # 7 for December 2023................. from Exuberant Color


I finished the binding on the Soft Colorwash early in the day yesterday.  It is made of all batik fabrics and it measures about 20" x 33".


It is ditch quilted in the vertical seams with Invisifil thread.









I mentioned yesterday that I put squares folded diagonally on all 4 corners so a hanging rod/dowel can be slipped into any 2 on a side to display it in the orientation that is desired.











The next in line project was pressing all of the edge blocks for the Rosy quilt.







Then I started sewing this top together.  By 7 p ...

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December 7, 2023
Beginner-friendly modern batik quilt from Pieced Brain

Beginner-friendly modern batik quilt

Make this beginner-friendly modern batik quilt using your favorite collection or as a scrap buster! One easy quilt block is all it takes!

Use with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting®. ©2023 Meredith Operations Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Nature Study is my latest quilt, published in the February 2024 American Patchwork & Quilting issue. It measures 67″ x 82″, and the blocks finish at 6″. I used greens and blues from my batik fabric ‘collection’ – I still have enough fabric to make five quilts in the same palette! The photographer, Adam Albright, always transforms my quilts into works of art when he ...

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October 20, 2023
Beauty for a small person from The Academic Quilter

 Good day everyone! How are you today? I'm hanging in there. It's getting to be that time of year when it's dark when I get up and getting dark when I get home. This is no fun, especially because, somehow, the darkness makes people forget how to drive. Get it together, people! We can still see you trying to go 100 miles an hour through the traffic, even if it's dark outside.

Ah, well. Today I have something much brighter and happier to show off-- a finished baby quilt! Here she is:


Look at all that ...

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October 4, 2023
Final layout............... from Exuberant Color


It took 3 tries to get to this final layout of the African/batik quilt top.  I stacked the rows and took the pieces up to my main floor studio for sewing.

Then I spent time outside pulling weeds in the front garden.  It isn't done, I just did the amount of bending that I can do in one day.  Then I mowed the other half of the front yard and the side and backyard.  I wonder how many more times it will need mowing before we are done for the season.  It all depends on how much rain ...

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October 3, 2023
Starting final layout............. from Exuberant Color


The final layout has started with the African and batik blocks.  I have to build it sideways on the design wall because it won't fit the other way. This is one each of the 16 patch blocks; a duplicate of all but 2 are in the next group to put up on the design wall.  I have 88 blocks total to work with and will only need 80 so I can eliminate anything I really don't like.  I'm putting 2 of the alternate large print batik squares in each column (which will be cross rows when sewn ...

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September 19, 2023
Looking at seeds..................... from Exuberant Color


I'm going to have some out of town company later this week so my time is kind of scattered between chores and fun.  I vacuumed the main floor carpeting yesterday, baked some beer bread, mixed up some dough that needs to be chilled, and went through stacks of magazines.  I never made it to the ironing table.  Last night I just wanted to look at fun stuff so I pulled out these "seeds" for another project.


This photo is from April 2016 when I trimmed them all to whaterver maximum width I could.  This is all of the sizes ...

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September 4, 2023
So much prep work and no sewing............... from Exuberant Color


This colorwash is finally ready to baste.  I'll do a few lines of basting each time I am in the basement.






This quilt is next in line to finish.  I need to replace the needle so that is my hang up on this one.  As I have mentioned before the tops of the needles don't have a flat side so it takes some fiddling to make the machine happy.


I have some fabrics with African motifs but they are printed by our regular manufacturers so they aren't officially African fabrics.  Some of these are Matters of the ...

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July 28, 2023
Choosing fabric for pinwheels................. from Exuberant Color


I re-read the section on colors used in the Fonthill quilt in "Passionate Patchwork" and decided to add more of the moss greens.  I have a few already in pinwheels but this will help with variety.  Then I searched for more light fabrics in gold and peach tones.  Also I added in a few more of the rust/orange and a couple pale periwinkle blues.  I didn't get any triangles cut....I am just wiped out.  Two window A/C units in the center of the house make that area too cold and the far reaching areas to each ...

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July 26, 2023
3rd and 4th borders - Fonthill quilt............. from Exuberant Color


There was a little progress yesterday on the borders.  The third border is the pinwheels and the fourth border is the striped fabric again.  The two are sewn together and then the huge pinwheels are the corner blocks.  I still have to cut the side striped pieces but I wasn't in the mood to turn on the iron yesterday.  So....what I did yesterday was to sew on border 2 all around, border 3 on the sides, make the huge pinwheels and sew the complete section of 3 and 4 with pinwheels for the top edge.

Here again is ...

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  • batiks
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