nature

Last minute November finishes and more...................... from Exuberant Color

There is nothing better than an all day sewing day. It was too cold to go anywhere.

This top is finally finished other than a little trimming of the bottom edge. It ended up at 49.5" x 71". There are 2 Martha Negley fabrics in it and the rest are all Kaffe Fassett Collective.

I determined a final layout and got this flannel baby quilt top sewn together too. When I was putting the blocks up on the design wall, I realized the bottom left block was shorter than the rest. Evidently 2 of the light strips were 1 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 days, 15 hours ago. under crazy piecing , flannel quilts , kaffe fabric , marcia derse fabric , nature

Snow is the big news.......... from Exuberant Color

Yesterday there was a little snow on the ground when I got up and it was light snow in the beginning. This photo is from 10 yesterday morning. By noon there was heavier snow. By afternoon, there was a break in the storm and we were under that area.

This photo was at 6:30 last night when we had around 6" of snow. On Chicago news they said my town had 7.2". The snow total for a day in November may be broken in Chicago's records.

I spent the day sewing the columns and then sewing them ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 days, 15 hours ago. under kaffe fabric , nature , strip piecing

Sample block and other things............... from Exuberant Color

I made one sample block for the corners (bottom left corner). This one is made with just 2 fabrics but the 4 I will make (now that I know it works) will be an assortment of fabrics, just like the side border blocks. I will be happy to have this quilt top off the design wall. I don't know why the camera thought it should look pink in this photo. It is very purple.

I finished sewing these blocks and got them trimmed. This is one batch of them and there are 2 alike of most of them.

This ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 4 days ago. under 9 patch , kaffe fabric , nature , one color quilt

Explanation of the corner blocks....................... from Exuberant Color

Thanks to everyone who has tried to help me with the dilemma of the corner blocks of my purple Rosy quilt. Since several were no reply I couldn't comment back to them. This post showed my first trials for corner blocks. This photo shows a side border block. The 2 larger squares touch the outside edge of the center and the rows of 3" squares are on the outside edge of the quilt. I'm showing that the block will finish at 9" x 10.5".

The corner blocks need to measure 10.5" square. This photo shows that ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 5 days ago. under 9 patch , kaffe fabric , nature , one color quilt

Purple................... from Exuberant Color

I pieced a 10.5" nine patch block to try in the top left corner. I don't like it with seams not lining up. Next I folded the 5 row sewn part so I could see both the top and bottom edge and pinned it back on the wall. I now could reach to design a top row and lean down to design a bottom row (minus corner blocks). I sewed those 5 blocks together for both rows and they will wait for my decision on corners.

I had PT in the afternoon and stopped for grocery shopping on ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 1 day ago. under kaffe fabric , nature , one color quilt

Front entrance decor.................. from Exuberant Color

I took both daylight and night photos of the front porch.

My front porch lights are motion activated so there is no way for me to take a photo of the porch without them unless I turn off the switch inside. Then it would be too dangerous for me to walk out there in the dark. If you click on the photo and enlarge it you can see the lights on the greenery are on.

Even though some of the other cactus plants had buds before the red one, red was the winner in this spot by the east window ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 4 days ago. under christmas , nature

Not much snow.................. from Exuberant Color

It was in the low 20s when I got up yesterday so I hurried to get photos before the sun melted the snow.

You will have to look closely to see the snow we got. It is mostly on fallen leaves.

There was a little more snow in the backyard. We rarely get much of the lake effect snow so I wasn't expecting much.

I sewed a few sections of 6 three inch squares for the border blocks. There is lots more to do.

I started two of the next three dishcloths. I will knit them all up to ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 2 days ago. under kaffe fabric , knitting , nature

Working on the binding.................... from Exuberant Color

I have started the hand stitching on the binding but didn't finish it last night.

Earlier in the day I finished the third of the last 3 dishcloths I had on the needles. Now I can start 3 more.

The big beautiful tree across the street lost all of its leaves on the last few windy days. My tree in the backyard turns color later so it still has a lot of leaves. This is the view from the north.

This view from the south shows a lot more bare spots because the wind was from the south.

There ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 5 days ago. under australian fabrics , binding , knitting , nature

Binding complete..................... from Exuberant Color

First thing yesterday I chose and cut the binding for the 16 patch quilt made with Nancy Crow fabric.

With 3 hours of NCIS to watch I got the binding sewn on and finished by machine.

Now it is ready to photograph and measure, today's task.

Petunias are still blooming but there is a hard freeze coming over the weekend. I hope I remember to pull this pot into the garage.

There are a few of the white with black veins petunias blooming too and that pot is too heavy to lug to the garage.

Inside I have my ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 weeks, 1 day ago. under binding , nature

A finish............ from Exuberant Color

This one was finished too late last night to get photographed up on the design wall. I trimmed it and sewed the binding on last night.

I sewed 4 long strips together for the back of this one. They were all cutaway pieces from piecing previous backs. I'll have to photograph the whole back when I do the front today.

I have 3 compact burning bushes along the south wall of my house. This one is usually the prettiest and sometimes it gets too cold for the other 2 to completely turn color.

This is the middle bush and ...

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

Working on the border................... from Exuberant Color

On the left side is one row of 4.5" squares and a little patch of 3" squares, the components of the pieced border. I need to move all of the blocks to the left to have room for both the left and right borders on the design wall. I ended up grocery shopping and doing laundry instead of continuing to work on this.

The 4.5" squares were all sewn into sets of 2 to speed up the design process.

The tree across the street was glowing with the sun from the south beating down on it, but no ...

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

Finish # 3 for October 2025...................... from Exuberant Color

It only took 8 years to get this quilt to the finish line. I made the top in 2017 and considered ditch quilting it but ended up having it longarmed this month. It is all batik fabrics and there are 3 sizes of 16 patch blocks in it: 4", 8" and 16". I paper pieced the star before 2017.

It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and it measures 38.5" x 51". Most of my batiks are a half yard to a yard so I was happy to find one that was a larger cut to use for ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month ago. under batik , food , nature , star quilts

Layout 2.................... from Exuberant Color

I took out the square that was too light in this purple Rosy quilt and cut another of the second lightest fabric. I decided to try them evenly placed down the center. Then I cut 2 more squares of "dream" fabric and placed them evenly around the center. I usually use a random layout but I was having a hard time coming up with anything I liked. I'll let this one simmer for a day or two.

Last night I counted the squares that will make up the 2 borders. I only need 3 more of the 4.5 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month, 1 week ago. under 9 patch , kaffe fabric , nature , one color quilt

Binding choices and a finish................. from Exuberant Color

This quilt dates back to 2017 but it's going to be finished now. I trimmed it yesterday and chose the dark blue at the bottom for its binding.

I also trimmed this one and chose the Folk Art Kaffe print for the binding. I made the center of this quilt top in 2011 but didn't get the final border on it until 2022.

This one became my sewing project for last night. There is mostly the orange with roses on the back with a narrower strip of the other fabric.

My purple Rosy blocks are on the wall ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month, 1 week ago. under batik , binding , kaffe fabric , nature , star quilts

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 month, 2 weeks 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 month, 3 weeks 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 months 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 2 months, 2 weeks 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 2 months, 2 weeks 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 3 months ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

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