nature

First finish for October 2025................. from Exuberant Color

I love this little quilt. I made blocks from my supply of cut Kaffe fabric strips and then hoped they would all work together at the design wall. It's pretty simple, 1.5" and 2.5" strips sewn together to make the blocks. Lots of the strips were cut 15-20 years ago so there are a lot of early Kaffe fabrics in this one.

The backing is a Brandon Mably fabric and the binding a Kaffe fabric. I used Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and it finished at 47" x 67".

It was quilted by Robin Diaz.

The ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 day, 10 hours ago. under kaffe fabric , nature , strip piecing

Getting closer....................... from Exuberant Color

I went back through the Nancy Crow fabrics to try to find some more fabrics for stratas for the 16 blocks. I still need to find one more pair of fabrics.

I was able to get 20 blocks out of the alternate fabric so I have 52 blocks sewn, 6 more ready to cut from stratas and sew and 20 alternate blocks for an 80 block quilt. Now I need to search for those last 2 fabrics for the last 2 blocks.

I repotted several of my Thanksgiving and/or Christmas cactus plants last week and there are some buds ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 2 days ago. under nature , stash , strip piecing

Lazy................. from Exuberant Color

I had a hard time getting motivated to do anything yesterday. Some days are like that.

In the afternoon I went searching for candidates for the setting triangles and corner triangles and came up with this group of 10. There are 8 side triangles and 4 corners. I could use 8 different ones for the sides and the same one for all 4 corners and just use 9 of the10....or chose 2 for the side triangles and use the same 2 on all 4 sides for a total of 3 needed. I just didn't want to make a ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 2 days ago. under black and white , nature

Nothing new............ from Exuberant Color

It was errand day which included grocery shopping yesterday. When I got home I noticed a new flower in the front flower bed. This is another volunteer plant and has just the one bloom.

Behind it is another plant with similar flowers.

This is the third volunteer plant, all grown from seeds from one plant last year. These look more like coneflowers. I tried to identify it back when the first plant bloomed and Gloriosa Daisy was one of the options. They are from the Rudbeckia family. I have more volunteer plants that haven't bloomed yet and I think ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

Free entertainment................. from Exuberant Color

As I was walking through the living room yesterday afternoon I saw several trucks across the street. Finally....the city decided to trim all of the dead branches that hovered above the driveway to this little house (that just sold at the end of August). I missed seeing them getting cut off but got to watch the removal of the top of the tall tree.

He had a rope attached to the half he just cut off and he lowered himself and the branch to the ground. He returned to the top and got the last section cut off.

Then ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month ago. under knitting , nature

Cutting, playing................................ from Exuberant Color

Finally I got some triangles cut from the black plaid to try some layouts with the green 6" finished triangles. Originally this was my idea, all of the triangles marching in the same direction. I can rotate the photo and see the triangles in all 4 different positions.

I haven't searched through the green triangles to see how many of each print is cut so I tried this layout with some that have 2 and 2 in addition to the 4 alike.

I cut some of the black with white dots too to try a zig zag layout. This ...

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

My inside garden....................... from Exuberant Color

I don't have anywhere outside to put my Thanksgiving/Christmas cacti in the summer that the squirrels don't bother them. When I have windows open in nice weather I put some of them on the sill to enjoy the sun and fresh air. This is an east window, facing out the front of my house.

The west window has a few too. The one on the right is pretty sad looking and I re-potted it hoping to bring it back to life.

Here are some of my larger cacti where they reside year round. I have more plants ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month, 2 weeks ago. under knitting , nature

Looking through things.................... from Exuberant Color

I love the designs that look woven. These are all free patterns on the internet. The one at the bottom left is called Simply Woven (by Moda Bakeshop) and you can find it by doing a search for 'Simply Woven quilt pattern'. I made 2 out of 3 of these.

This is a pattern I purchased and I made this one too.

I'll be thinking about one of these as a project sometime this fall.

Here are the 3 I have made so far, from left to right, Simply Woven (batik), Jelly Roll Jumble (Kaffe), and Matrix (Kaffe). The ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month, 2 weeks ago. under miscellaneous , nature

Another quilt top....instead of another finish............ from Exuberant Color

Quilt top #4 for August. My progress in having more finished (17) than started (15) has shriveled up. I'm glad I worked on this one though. The stacks that I had pinned to the design wall for 8 months had me thinking it was going to be too dark and maybe depressing. As it turns out it is plenty colorful, and even though deep toned, not too dark. In person it has a darker tone than the photo, because the camera wants to emphasize contrast and is making a lot of the fabrics lighter than they are. It is ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month, 2 weeks ago. under nature , scrap quilts

Lots of little progress................ from Exuberant Color

The next third of floral squares have been sorted and placed in the same order as the ones on the design wall (shown yesterday). Now I need to decide if I will just shift the rows to the right so same fabrics don't line up from top to bottom in the quilt or will I mix up the fabrics in each row as I place them on the design wall.

As I was walking through the kitchen yesterday morning I noticed the dappled sunlight highlighting some of the tall flowers. Here I go again with a photo that is ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month, 3 weeks ago. under hunter star , knitting , nature

A little stitching time................ from Exuberant Color

I had an appointment in the middle of the morning yesterday and ran an errand while I was out. I found a little time to work on the binding of this last table runner.

I have my first cucumber. The package said 3 - 5" and this one is 6". My grandson and his fiancé brought stuffed shells and sausage and while it was cooking we went out to check the garden. I had totally missed this cucumber growing and I check the plant regularly. There is another one that I can probably pick tomorrow. I'm growing them for the ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month, 3 weeks ago. under batik , binding , nature

Top #2 for August 2025................... from Exuberant Color

This quilt top was just a fast, fun project to use up a lot of the Kaffe collective scraps. There are repeats because some of the scraps were large enough for 2-4 rectangles. It also used two of the Brandon Mably black and whites which I had been collecting but not using. It is about 54" x 75", so it's a nice throw quilt size.

This month I'm tied now at 2 finishes and 2 tops. My head says baste a small quilt and get it finished. I hope I do that.

I can tell it's getting ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 months, 1 week ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

Quilt top progress....................... from Exuberant Color

I pressed the top half of the quilt top and folded it to make it fit above the area where I was going to design the bottom half.

After designing the bottom half I started sewing it together.

There are 3 more seams to sew on it and then I can press it and add it to the top half.

I didn't choose most of these fabrics, they were just the chunks in the scrap bin large enough to cut a 3.5" x 6.5" rectangle with my die cutter. Then I cut a few more from yardage ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 months, 1 week ago. under accuquilt die cutter , kaffe fabric , nature

Starting the binding............... from Exuberant Color

The binding is cut and sewn onto the Martha Negley fabric quilt. I hand stitched about 15" of it.

Here I go matching my quilt and nature photos again.

I went out in full sun to get this photo. The back part of the bush is already in shade by noon.

And because the Zinfin Doll Hydrangea is so pretty, here is a little closer shot.

The plant I showed last week has a few more blooms. There is another plant growing in a crack that might be another of these. I think 2 years ago I decided this is ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 months, 2 weeks ago. under binding , nature

More blocks for 16 patch quilt.............. from Exuberant Color

I sewed 8 new combinations of Marcia Derse fabric yesterday morning. There are 2 of each, so 16 new blocks.

I sewed and cut the next batch of stratas and when cutting into segments I made one miscut. There is exactly enough for 2 blocks with only a small cut leftover.

I was able to salvage all but one combination by sewing the left over piece onto the miscut piece and recutting into 2.5". On the left, the seam sewn, center, the seam pressed open, and right, a trimmed strip ready to use. The 6th strata didn't have ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 months, 3 weeks ago. under marcia derse fabric , nature , strip piecing

The other quilt.......... from Exuberant Color

I have several quilt tops in progress, at all different stages, and I'm not sure any of them will be a finished top for this month.

Yesterday I decided to work on the Marcia Derse 16 patch and have this group ready to slice into segments to make blocks.

I pressed more fabric and cut more strips and got pairs sewn together.

I had PT in the morning instead of afternoon yesterday. It is helping my sciatic problems but it's still undetermined if there is another problem in my lower back. I have gone to 6 of 10 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 months, 3 weeks ago. under marcia derse fabric , nature

Checking out an idea................... from Exuberant Color

This is the idea I had for the Kaffe rectangles and Brandon Mably's Gameboard fabric. I have seen this done with different dimensions for the pieces and I think longer rectangles might look better, but this is what I have already cut, so I need to use it. I only got 110 B&W squares out of the yard of fabric that I had. I had figured I needed 150 for a quilt 54" x 75". I have another of his black and white fabrics called Chips that I could possible mix into the outside edge blocks. These pieces ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 months, 3 weeks ago. under flannel quilts , kaffe fabric , nature

Quilting a small one.......... from Exuberant Color

This flannel quilt has been ready for quilting for a couple weeks so I finally quilted it yesterday. It will get trimmed today or tomorrow and then I'll look for binding.

I pressed the stratas yesterday and sliced off the segments for 8 blocks, 2 of each combination. They aren't pressed so they can't go up on the design wall yet. I have 72 blocks made now. That would give me an 8 x 9 layout but that is too close to square. I would rather have 7 x 11 or 8 x 10. I could still ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 months, 4 weeks ago. under flannel quilts , machine quilting , marcia derse fabric , nature , strip piecing

Choosing the binding................ from Exuberant Color

A decision had to be made for the binding. I chose 3 fabrics that I liked with the big rose backing fabric.

I narrowed it down to my two favorites. Either one would work well so I had to decide which one to use.

This one is my choice and I got it cut but not sewn on yet.

Saturday there was one pile of 2" squares. Now there are 3 piles. More cutting to happen.

The sunlight was coming from the west and created a glow on the top of the Brown-eyed Susan plants, to the right of the ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 months ago. under binding , kaffe fabric , nature

More cutting....................... from Exuberant Color

Almost all of the small pieces of Kaffe fabrics are now cut. There is no project in mind, just prep for when the whim strikes.

This was the first 2 hours of cutting, in the morning yesterday, 2.5" squares and triangles. I decide to not cut rectangles.

In the evening I spent another hour cutting 3.5" squares, 3.5" x 6.5" rectangles and 2" squares. There is another group of fabric I need to cut into 2" squares so maybe that will be today's project. I didn't feel like turning on the iron so I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 months ago. under accuquilt die cutter , kaffe fabric , nature

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