crazy piecing

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 4 years, 9 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 4 years, 10 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 4 years, 11 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 5 years, 5 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 5 years, 8 months 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 6 years, 6 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 6 years, 6 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 6 years, 6 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 6 years, 6 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 6 years, 6 months ago. under crazy piecing

African crazy piecing progress......... from Exuberant Color

I made 2 more blocks and took them down to the ironing table. This is what they look like before trimming.

This is the rest of the batch that was waiting to be pressed before trimming.

Here are the new trimmed blocks with the original six that I made earlier. They are 10" finished size blocks so I'm not sure where I'm going from here on the project. I do have several batik panels with African scenes on them that might look great with these blocks.

This is a leftover block which will probably get used somewhere. It ...

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

African fabric crazy piecing............ from Exuberant Color

Yesterday I opened the box of finished African crazy pieced blocks, partially made blocks and lots of scraps. I decided I would make more of those blocks before I pressed and trimmed the yellow/black/white ones from yesterday. Then I can press and trim all of them at once.

I now have 6 finished blocks previously made and 5 new ones ready to trim. The scraps left in the box will be sorted by size now so I can make a 12th block.

This is my happiness photo for the day. Many of these quilts will be shared when ...

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

Sunny day project............ from Exuberant Color

I guess sunshine was on my mind yesterday when I chose a project to work on. It was a beautiful sunny day and I got some more garden cleanup done.

Last night I pulled out the box of yellows and black and white scraps and continued making blocks for a project started in January this year. I haven't pressed and trimmed the blocks yet but I made 6 new blocks that will be 5" finished, one that will be 7.5" finished and one 10" finished. I already had 7 10" blocks and 1 5" block made. I will ...

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

A little more playing........ from Exuberant Color

I have an 8' bulb burnt out in my main floor studio so I took the yellow blocks to the basement to play on a design wall. I had one smaller block that just needed one more strip so I added that and trimmed it. I pulled that black with white print that looks like it would be a good addition to the mix. I'll continue playing.

I sewed the table runner top that I showed in pieces about 2 weeks ago. I think I have about 5 or 6 table runners waiting to be quilted. I know I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 years, 10 months ago. under crazy piecing , kaffe fabric , stash

Continuing on........... from Exuberant Color

Wednesday night is another TV night and since the yellow, black and white scraps were still spread out on my cabinet I just continued working on them. 3 hours, 3 blocks finished from the beginnings the night before. There isn't much contrast with yellow so I had to add in gold and a couple that were almost yellow-orange. I think this project has just shrunk in size. Since I only want to use batiks in this project I don't have enough variety to keep my interest.

I will figure out what I'm going to make with 7 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 years, 10 months ago. under crazy piecing

Tuesday night sewing.................. from Exuberant Color

Yesterday was the make up eye appointment in Chicago for the one I cancelled on Oct. 30 because we had an icy storm. It is always a long day because the driving time is over 3 hours both ways combined. Traffic was good yesterday. Everything was good and I didn't need an injection. The tumor is stable (and shrunk). It has been 7 years now since I had the radiation treatment on that eye. The dilation didn't wear off until about 5 p.m. so I wasn't able to do much in the afternoon.

Last night I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 years, 10 months ago. under crazy piecing , nature

Yellow, black and white............. from Exuberant Color

I finally got all of the yellow and black and white scraps together in 2 containers so I can make some more crazy pieced blocks. I think Sunday when I have 2 friends coming over would be a good time to work on it.

My next pop-up shop will open in a couple days for the people on my email list. The following day it will be open to everyone. I had lots of proofreading and photography to do yesterday. My email list sign up box is on my right side bar. If you view this on a smartphone scroll ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 years, 11 months ago. under crazy piecing

2 quilt tops............ from Exuberant Color

Here is the finished 48 block pink and green 16 patch with scenery fabric inserts. I have staystitched the edge so there will be no popped seams or strectching of the edges. It is approximately 48" x 64".

I decided I should sew the baby quilt top also using all of the really pastel pink and green blocks. It is 36.5" square.

This is probably the best true color photo. Hanging on the chair are the 2 backing fabrics. Now that I added rows to the larger one I will have to piece the backing.

Yesterday morning I decided ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 7 years ago. under crazy piecing , strip piecing

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