crazy piecing

Third quilt top for October............. from Exuberant Color

I got the piano key border sewn onto the African fabric quilt top, cutting off the excess of each strip as I got to the end. I don't think it shows much that some strips are narrower than others. The side borders are 1/2 inch narrower than the top and bottom borders. It ended up at 52" x 69". I will use a dark binding on it, maybe the same fabric as the next to last border.

Before lunch yesterday I cut all of the green tomatoes off the last 2 plants and put them in a box ...

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

Border strips and auditioning positions........... from Exuberant Color

All 4 border strips are sewn oversized so there will be some trimming when they are sewn onto the quilt top. I wasn't sure if I was going to flip the top and bottom borders end for end but I think they look OK the way they are.

I went out and harvested the green tomatoes late yesterday afternoon. I threw away anything smaller than a golf ball. The Rutgers and Big Boy tomatoes are a good size but have been green for so long. I hope they will ripen. I had good luck last year with them ripening ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under crazy piecing

A crooked trial layout..................... from Exuberant Color

I put this quilt top on the design wall at a level that I could reach above it to put a border up there. That meant bending over to add the border audition to the bottom so it is quite crooked. I think I will need 13 Geese blocks so with the new batch I sewed I have enough for a top and bottom border.

A new book arrived yesterday, a gift from my daughter. I might spend some quality time with it today.

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 7 months, 3 weeks ago. under crazy piecing , triangles

More strips and more.............. from Exuberant Color

There are 6 more pairs of strips in this photo (added to yesterday's 12 pairs) and some more of the mottled strips waiting for a partner. I'm up to 18 pairs, 36 blocks. There are 11 more mottled strips. I have decided to make 2 quilts so there will be 2 blocks alike from each pair of strips and the duplicate strips will go in the other quilt. Here is another African fabric 16 patch quilt top I made in 2020. I used Kona cotton solids in it and had some blocks of a large print in it ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 7 months, 3 weeks ago. under crazy piecing , strip piecing

Still quilting.............. from Exuberant Color

I'm still quilting...9 blocks quilted, 6 to go, 3 small ones and 3 large ones. I'll look for binding fabric this morning.

Tami at Thrift Shop Commando showed her Christmas pin collection. That prompted me to pull out my mother's pin, also called a brooch on ebay. I found it at 2 sites, one selling it for $54 and the other selling for $64.

The name Hollycraft is on the back of the trunk.

I need to pin this onto something this year.

We had a big temperature drop late yesterday and it is going to ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 4 months ago. under crazy piecing , machine quilting , nostalgia

Two layouts.................. from Exuberant Color

I made 7 more blocks to go with one of the sample blocks and put these up on the design wall overlapped so the strips line up like they do on the Tapas pattern.

What I really wanted to see though was the 8 blocks in the alternate layout that I came up with. I have 14 more stratas to sew in addition to the duplicates of the 7 new blocks. One strata makes 2 blocks. If I use this second layout I need to make 2 additional stratas.

I have had this wallhanging basted and ready to quilt on ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 5 months ago. under batik , crazy piecing , kaffe fabric , machine quilting , nature

All over the place............... from Exuberant Color

I have too many days where I wander all over and do a little on a lot of things. It doesn't feel like progress somehow.

I chose a batik backing for this crazy pieced wallhanging. I needed a little under 1.5 yards and looked for a yellow but didn't find enough yardage on any piece. Second choice was a black and white and this very early 1990s Hoffman batik is perfect. It is one that isn't easy to use in a lot of patterns and there was plenty for a back with almost 2 yards still ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 year, 8 months ago. under crazy piecing , stash

Flannel quilt trimmed.............. from Exuberant Color

I got the pointy side edges of this flannel quilt top trimmed and did the staystitching around the edge. I have a large piece of dark red flannel that a friend gifted to me so I think that will be the backing. The top measures 71" x 90" before quilting. The tumblers are 9".

The pressing and backing seam were completed yesterday afternoon and I loaded it on the longarm. Then I added the batting and the Seed Packet quilt top. This post shows the whole quilt top. I did vertical straight line quilting with the channel locks to keep ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 2 months ago. under batiks , crazy piecing , machine quilting

Getting a quilt top finished.......... from Exuberant Color

I finally cut an assortment of lengths off the 2" yellow batik strips and pieced borders. I got them all sewn on but haven't pressed it yet. This is somewhere near 36" x 46".

I also cut 2 lengths for a backing for an older quilt top and spritzed the creases. Today I'll press the fabric and get it sewn together and load it on the longarm.

Late yesterday afternoon I baked some Amish Friendship bread, top view of one loaf here. This loaf is for a granddaughter. I ate some of the other loaf; someone had to ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 2 months ago. under batiks , crazy piecing , food

Final layout sewn........... from Exuberant Color

I moved the top small block section down in the right column from the photo yesterday. I was happy with the layout now and sewed it all together.

Next on my list was to make a sample block with the pickle dish die. There are little tiny notches to match every single piece when sewing the outside arc and inside melon piece to the arcs. That is what sold me on it and I waited for a good sale to buy it. I haven't decided what fabrics to use in a quilt yet but I think I will have ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 3 months ago. under batiks , crazy piecing , kaffe fabric

Last block in place............ from Exuberant Color

I had one more block that was too small so I added strips until I could trim it to 10.5" and now all of the blocks are made. I can't see that this one would become any better by adding a lot more blocks. It is only 30" x 40" so it will get a border of some kind. After I decide whether I want to rearrange the column on the right I just need to sew this together and then it will move over to the side of the design wall for awhile.

The Amaryllis was so ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 3 months ago. under batiks , crazy piecing , nature

Analyzing an older project............ from Exuberant Color

This project has been living in a box for over a year. Since my design wall was empty yesterday was a good day to get it all out and see what I had. The large blocks are 10" finished and the small ones 5" finished.

I wondered if it needed more black so I pulled several pieces that I had stored in the same box. I think that might give it a little more life. Now I have to decide if I want to make more than the one crazy pieced block and make it larger.

The second stalk of ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 3 months ago. under batiks , crazy piecing , nature

Portrait time........... from Exuberant Color

The seams are all sewn, the pressing is done, time for a portrait.

I posted this on my Instagram feed too and it looks a lot brighter there, the difference between a real camera and a phone camera. I think the colors are truer in this photo. This one ended up 68" x 92". It will shrink up a little with quilting.

(Reminder: this quilt was inspired by the Gridlock quilt in Kaffe Fassett's book Glorious Patchwork and again in the book Kaffe Quilts Again. Both of them in the books were made by Liza Prior Lucy).

I had ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 5 months ago. under crazy piecing , marcia derse fabric , nature

Fun play time............... from Exuberant Color

Yesterday was my rest day after digging plants for 2 days. I didn't get anything cut and ready to sew so I grabbed the bag of Marcia Derse scraps.

There was a group of tall triangles left over from die cutting so I paired them by height as much as possible and sewed pairs together. There is a selvage on the edge of each of the pieces so I need to do a lot of trimming before they can be sewn together in a strip.

I sewed some of the smaller scraps into crazy pieced blocks. I added a ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 years, 11 months ago. under crazy piecing , marcia derse fabric , triangles

Crazy piecing project.............. from Exuberant Color

A friend was doing some de-stashing and I was the lucky recipient of some new yellows to continue this yellow/black/white crazy pieced project. I had run out of any variety in the yellows so the project stalled. Here is a post where I showed some progress with it. This post shows the blocks on the design wall.

The white cactus is blooming again. I think it bloomed about 5 times last winter.

I have played with this panel and the leftover blocks several times and I think I should work on it now. If I trim the center ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 years, 1 month ago. under batiks , crazy piecing , nature

Miscellaneous........... from Exuberant Color

Working on a few different projects: Jewel toned batiks for a 16 patch quilt now ready to slice and create blocks.

More of the stratas for the 16 patch quilt.

On the design wall, I cut some of the bird batik to see how I like it with the crazy pieced blocks. This is a long term project. Don't expect to see it finished any time soon.

We had heavy storms Wednesday night and it knocked off a lot of the petals on the Redbud trees. The trees are starting to leaf out so it was time for the ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 years, 11 months ago. under batiks , crazy piecing , nature

Playing with stash again.......... from Exuberant Color

While I am sewing my African fabric 16 patches I also continue to think about this yellow black and white project. I decided to look for some fabrics to use for some alternate blocks with the crazy pieced blocks. These 2 positive/negative prints aren't batik and all of the fabrics so far have been batik.

I have been looking for a place to use the birds batik.

This pair of positive/negative prints are batik also.

I have many black and white zebra batiks so I tried this pair.

I'll continue sewing and pondering..........

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 years, 11 months ago. under black and white , crazy piecing , stash

Rainy day sewing........ from Exuberant Color

I loaded this quilt on the longarm on Tuesday but I didn't change the needle until yesterday morning. I quilted it shortly after lunch. I didn't even have this one on my 'to quilt' list. A friend pieced the top and left it with me along with her flannel scraps when she moved away. I had it tucked into the garment bag with other small projects and when I spied it I thought it would be a great 3rd finish for this month.

I pieced the batting using the 3 step zig zag to hold the butted edges ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 years, 12 months ago. under baby quilts , crazy piecing , flannel quilts , nature

Still playing............ from Exuberant Color

I have filled in the space between the panel and the blocks which are sewn together as 2 side panels and a top and bottom row. I still haven't decide which panel or for sure what fabric will fill in the space around the panel. I hope to decide all of that today.

Both of these panels have the same fabric surrounding them. I surprised how different the intensity of color is in the crazy pieced blocks in the 2 photos. The camera is adjusting for the contrast between the panel and the blocks.

This is the early Peony ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 years, 12 months ago. under batiks , crazy piecing , nature

7 batik panels, which one?.............. from Exuberant Color

Luckily I had just looked at these panels recently and knew where they were. We had them at a quilt shop I worked at and when they went on sale half price I bought several of them.

#1 zebras on orange

#2 three masks

#3 elephants

#4 zebra landscape

#5 packed zebras

#6 two masks

#7 rainbow zebras

The panels are in the 17" - 19" size range and the spot they need to fill is 20" x 20" so a border would be needed to make them fit. Some would need light borders and other dark borders so the look ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 years ago. under crazy piecing

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