colorwash

More prep work........................... from Exuberant Color

I have been cutting more 1.5" batik squares since there wasn't a good variety left on the trays.

One of these trays was miscellaneous and the reds aren't spread out on the other tray. I can switch them over to the pink tray and just stack the miscellaneous pieces that rarely get used.

I cut 15 more stacks of 6 layers and each piece yields 4 squares so this pile will be 360 little squares when cut.

It was a beautiful day in the mid 60s yesterday. My company and I went to my son's house ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 5 days ago. under batik , colorwash

Creative play................... from Exuberant Color

I used a lot of the leftover 1.5" squares from the colorwash trays and tried a still life. In the photo below you can see the scale.

I worked on the Kaffe medallion top yesterday. I pinned up a border all around and have covered the purple stripe near the bottom with 2 options that I'll look at again this morning.

This is what it used to look like.

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 1 day ago. under colorwash , kaffe fabric

Sewing after the storms............ from Exuberant Color

Noisy storms passed through early in the day followed by very strong winds. I had the machine unplugged. We got .6" of rain before 2 p.m. There was a little more rain in the evening so I'll check the rain gauge again this morning.

I got this little colorwash sewn in spite of the interruptions.

Here are the two for comparison. The top one has a yellow center and the bottom one, white or cream background light fabrics. Working with the 1.5" squares has its challenges since I'm seeing the whole square when designing it and ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 2 days ago. under batik , colorwash

Three hours of tweaking................... from Exuberant Color

I needed to cut a couple more pink to lavender fabrics to fill in the last 2 spots on this new mini colorwash. Then I started the serious tweaking, 3 hours of it. At the left is after I put in the 2 pink pieces and then I started working on the light lavender area in the top center. At the right is the final result.

Then I started working on the top right in the blue and turquoise area and the lower right side where green met brown. I wasn't happy with the straight line between brown and ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 3 days ago. under batik , colorwash

Finished plus new................ from Exuberant Color

This 12.25" colorwash has been pressed and is up on the design wall for its portrait. I'm happy with it, so now I need to quilt it and finish it.

I started to clean off my table but then decided to start designing another 12" one. I cut a bunch of brown and rust (which aren't in the first one) and this one doesn't have any yellow in the center. It needs some serious tweaking but it is a good start. I need to do some more cutting too.

It's really hard to get a ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 4 days ago. under batik , colorwash

The shrinking colorwash................ from Exuberant Color

Since the squares were 1.5" cut size, they lose 1/3 of their size when sewing them together.

Now shrinking in the other direction. This little colorwash took me over two hours to sew, going slowly, matching each seam.

The corners were matching well until I got to the next to last seam. I will have to pick it off and try again.

The sewn piece is laying on the same mat that the pieces were on the last few days. It was 18" of cut squares, and after sewing and pressing I expect this to be 12.5 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 5 days ago. under batik , colorwash

Three variations...................... from Exuberant Color

I cut reds and a few yellow, gold squares yesterday. At 9:30 last night I thought I was done for the night playing with the layout of this mini colorwash.

Then I started adding a few pieces and took this picture to see if I was done. On the right side I didn't like the way green met the orange.

I changed out a few pieces and kept at it until I had this layout. I think it is ready to sew but I'll look at it again this morning to be sure. I actually did change ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 6 days ago. under batik , colorwash

Trial colorwash........................... from Exuberant Color

By doing a trial layout of the 1.5" squares I can judge whether I have enough of each color cut. I knew there weren't enough in the red before I started. This layout is 11 x 11 and I wanted 12 x 12.

I analyzed where the problems were and moved the left and bottom rows out. Then I started playing with a rearrangement. I will cut reds today and figure out what else I need.

I spent over an hour outside yesterday breaking off all of the dead coneflower stalks and other stalks that were littering the ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 weeks ago. under batik , colorwash

A lot of trays.................. from Exuberant Color

I continued on with my sorting on the 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles which I usually use for colorwash wallhangings. They are all batik fabric. The brown and purple fabrics are on one tray each.

Yellow/orange and pink/red each have their own tray. When I'm actually ready to use these I'll pull 3 empty trays to use to spread out most of the pieces from one tray in single piles instead of overlapping piles.

It took 2 trays for all of the blues.

The greens filled 2 trays and they are prettier than they look ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year ago. under batik , colorwash

Behind the scenes work..................... from Exuberant Color

I have been avoiding a lot of the behind the scenes work that leads up to a successful quilt. I have the choice of not posting on my blog until I have a project in progress but I choose to continue to post every day, a safety net for me. There are a few of my readers that contact me if there isn't a post some morning and ask if everything is OK. Occasionally I forget to click on Publish or forget to change the time of the post to 3:30 a.m.

Last night my task while ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year ago. under batik , colorwash

Sorting and stitching........ from Exuberant Color

These trays are the 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles of batiks, most of which will be used for colorwash. There was one tray of a previously cut group and I added another tray and worked the newly cut rectangles into them. On the right is the stack of trays with one color on each and they are a mess and need to be sorted and straightened. I'm spending a couple hours a day on organization in the basement, nothing to take photos of.

Last night I continued on the hand stitching of the binding of this Bow Tie ...

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

Basement doings.................... from Exuberant Color

I was in the basement doing laundry and finished up a few other tasks. One was stacking the trays with the 2" x 3.5" rectangles. I store these in a large bin with trays of 2 other size rectangles.

I found this partially sewn project. I could slice and sew the strata and make another section like the first or I could cut it into 2 sections and add stripes to both sides of the sewn section, lining up the fabrics to continue the design. The first option would make one piece 24.5" square. The second option would ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year ago. under baby quilts , colorwash , knitting

Small projects................. from Exuberant Color

I finished quilting the second table topper last night and will get it trimmed today and get the binding sewn on. This one is more scrappy where the first one had matching strips at the corners.

I pulled out all of my trays of 2" x 3.5" rectangles and worked on feeding the new cuts (shown at the center on top of the trays) into their color group. The trays were all a mess, not straightened up after making the last quilt.

This is what they all look like now, ready for the next project.

Now I need to ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year ago. under batik , colorwash , machine quilting

A finish for January 2025.......... from Exuberant Color

I'm so happy to finally have this batik colorwash finished. I finished designing and sewing the quilt top in April 2023 and it waited 1 3/4 years to be basted and quilted. I chose the back and cut the batting 6 months ago.

It is 31.25" x 50.25".

The pieces in the colorwash are 1.5" x 3" finished.

I need to record the details in this online journal.

The backing is a green/orange/gold batik and the binding is a brown design batik. The batting is Warm and Natural. I used Invisifil thread to ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 3 months ago. under batik , binding , colorwash , machine quilting

Quilting.................. from Exuberant Color

The basting was finished a week ago and I finally got around to the quilting on this colorwash. It is designed with 1.5" x 3" rectangles. It took 3 hours to complete the ditch quilting and had 5 colors of thread used. I'll look for a binding fabric today and maybe squeak in one finish this month.

I sent 2 quilts with my longarm friend to be quilted for some February finishes. They are a couple of my favorites.

It was 45 degrees yesterday and will maybe be 50 on Thursday and again on Sunday. Quite a change ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 3 months ago. under colorwash , machine quilting

Past quilt from parts department............ from Exuberant Color

To expand on my "parts department" post yesterday, this is a quilt I made in 2016. I had a lot of batik 2" finished triangles that I had previously cut from scraps. I made the star blocks as my mindless evening sewing for a few months. Then the blocks got placed on a shelf. One day I came across them and on the next shelf were leftover red 16 patch blocks from another quilt. As I moved them and placed one pile on top of the other, I saw that the both sets of blocks were the same size and ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 4 months ago. under basting , colorwash , flannel quilts , kaffe fabric , star quilts , strip piecing

December 2023 monthly recap................ from Exuberant Color

December was my best month for finishes. Three were just waiting for binding so that was pretty fast. Four of them were gifts that needed to be finished. On the left are the two I Spy quilts for my two families of great-grandchildren. (64" x 80.5" and 67.5" x 79"). Next to them are Soft Colorwash and Small Colorwash (20" x 33 and 18" square). Next is layered churn dash, 77" x 101" and below it flannel baby quilts, 38" square and 39.5" square. At the right is Batik Stars, 73" x 99".

Only one quilt top ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 4 months ago. under colorwash , monthly recap , nature

First and only quilt top for December 2023 from Exuberant Color

This month is quite a contrast with most months with only one top and many finishes. Usually it is fewer finishes and as many as 5 tops made in a month (Jan and Apr this year).

This top is called Rosy in the Kaffe Fassett books, first shown in 1997 and made with other commercial prints because he had only designed the yarn dyed woven stripe fabrics at the time they were writing the book.

In the book the blocks are 9". Mine are 6". This top is about 52" x 70".

I thought about taking this block out but ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 4 months ago. under 9 patch , colorwash , kaffe fabric , nature

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 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 4 months ago. under 9 patch , batiks , colorwash , kaffe fabric

Racing to the end with 2............ from Exuberant Color

I started working early yesterday and got all of the top row blocks sewn. I also have all of the 3.5" squares chosen for the bottom row. I think I'm going to go ahead and sew this now and I'll add the bottom row to it when I get it finished.

I sewed the binding onto this small soft colorwash last night (only a portion of it is shown here). I have had the quilting done for several weeks but couldn't decide which edge was the top and couldn't decide between a facing and a ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 4 months ago. under 9 patch , binding , colorwash , kaffe fabric , one color quilt

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