nature

Sewing stratas............ from Exuberant Color

This is 3 and a half hours of sewing. I have 4 more sets lined up to sew and then I'll press them and cut the triangles.

I'm down to my last 2 tomatoes from all of the green ones I brought in before the first hard freeze. I gave a container of them to my neighbor and another to my son about a week ago because they were all ripening at once.

I found some really good Romaine lettuce on my grocery run earlier in the week so this has been my lunch 3 days in a ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 day, 11 hours ago. under food , kaffe fabric , nature

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 5 days, 11 hours ago. under batik , crazy piecing , kaffe fabric , machine quilting , nature

Sunday only project final blocks.............. from Exuberant Color

I sewed the final group of triangle strips together last night. Each row needs a half block and I needed 3 whole blocks. I will play with the layout next Sunday. I can't press any of these yet because I want seams to nest when I sew horizontal rows together. It will be a challenge to get all of the blocks to stay on the design wall with their unpressed state.

I had a nagging feeling the the stripes were not going to line up properly if I followed the directions in the Tapas pattern. I remember way back ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 days, 11 hours ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

A good sewing day.......... from Exuberant Color

All it took was a nice sunny day to get my energy back. I pressed 20 fabrics and cut pieces for 3 quilts. Last night while watching 2 hours of TV I sewed and pressed 10 new blocks. I have taken the Sunday only project off the design wall and today I'll put all of the blocks for this quilt up. I think I need 5 more blocks so I might get an idea what colors they should be.

My indoor garden is full of blooms. This is 3 champagne color and one red Thanksgiving cacti. These are by ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 5 days ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

Winter arrives................... from Exuberant Color

Last year we waited to the end of December for the first snowfall but not this year. We had around an inch of snow yesterday which melted during the day. Maybe more snow tonight. This is the Sedums with snow caps.

Even the dainty Coral Bell stalks and blooms had snow on them.

Since I didn't sew at all yesterday I'll just show you some more photos of the Lille collection with Kaffe's colorations. I grouped them by color for these photos.

I had enough of the lime green with sprays of blue flowers to use on ...

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

No sewing yesterday......... from Exuberant Color

A bouquet was delivered from my daughter's family for my birthday yesterday. It has such a unique group of flowers and greenery. I had several phone calls and my son stopped by so I touched fabric but didn't get any cutting or sewing done. I'm still doing some research in the Kaffe books.

While going through all of my Kaffe Fassett books the last couple days I revisited this quilt again. I just love this quilt and I made a small version for a sample at the store where I worked about 15 years ago. I might ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 5 days ago. under food , kaffe fabric , nature

Sunday only project........... from Exuberant Color

Since I don't have any idea how I'm going to put this quilt together, I decided to just start making blocks with 8 strips. This is 6 blocks placed randomly on the design wall. Since it is a Sunday only project I hope I have some clarity by next Sunday.

On Saturday night's weather segment they were telling about some area in the southern part of IL that got 6" of snow. This is our total, kind of like snow pellets.

The prediction is for Tuesday to have maybe an inch of accumulation.

Well, I have made ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 6 days ago. under kaffe fabric , nature , quilts made with triangles

A finish for November........... from Exuberant Color

A few sessions throughout the day and the hand stitching on the binding was finished. I was surprised! I thought it would take longer. The batik I used for binding wasn't one of the tough ones to stitch through. I will probably try for a better photo downstairs soon.

The backing I originally chose was a moss green with burgundy and muted gold. I decided I needed to use the prettier blue one instead.

This one is 55.5" x 71" after finishing the binding.

I pressed the Kaffe stripe quilt top too. I'm so glad I stuck ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 1 day ago. under batiks , kaffe fabric , nature

Corner squares............... from Exuberant Color

I was trying to decide which way the stripes should go on the corner squares and then it was obvious, they should go both directions. I'm not 100% positive that the plaid is a Kaffe fabric but I had it on the same shelf with the stripes and shot cottons.

I only cut 2 corners to look at for awhile and decide if I was happy with the color and value. I decided dark corners would call attention out away from the center of the quilt.

The advantage of doing the border this way is that it can be ...

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

Decisions............ from Exuberant Color

I decided I'm done making these blocks so I finalized the layout. I have decided a border made of chunks the length of the blocks x 4" wide will finish it. The piece on the left is 3.5" wide and the 2 pieces at the top right are 4" wide. I had to cut pieces to visualize how wide the border pieces could be. I will need 24 pieces and I can get 4 out of a strip so I'll choose 6 fabrics and see if that is enough variety. I'll choose one fabric for the ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 5 days ago. under batiks , kaffe fabric , machine quilting , nature

Miscellany................ from Exuberant Color

First a celebration! I passed the driving test for my new driver's license. I have to drive every 2 years to renew until 86 and then it is every year. I went 11 days early in case I didn't pass the first time. We get 3 tries. That was my morning yesterday.

I mailed an important letter.

A gift was delivered but the company forgot to put in a note saying who it is from. I called them to see if they could tell me but the customer service rep (from another country) said I needed to give ...

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

Kaffe stripe stash.......... from Exuberant Color

Someone said that Kaffe wasn't going to produce any more of his yarn dyed woven stripes. I don't know if it is true or not. I started buying them in the 1990s when they first were produced. They were hand woven and a little stiff. Over the years I would buy a few now and then to add new colors to my stash.

Two of them a few years ago were woven with the irregular stripes going crosswise.

In 2014 I put this group aside to possibly make a quilt that was in Kaffe's book "Shots and ...

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

2 from the same pattern........... from Exuberant Color

I finally cut the border for this quilt and and got it sewn on and pressed. It is now 55.5" x 75.5". Procrastination - 5 days, cutting, sewing and pressing - 1 hour. If you want good directions for making this block, Anne (agilejack) has a great post on it. I followed her directions for my 2 quilt tops.

Speaking of 2 quilt tops, here they are side by side. I made the first "The Other 16 Patch - cool" with the block in a vertical position. For "The Other 16 Patch - HOT" I have the blocks in a horizontal position ...

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

Some more of those 23 photos.......... from Exuberant Color

Somehow yesterday I missed that I had 3 close up photos of the On Point 16 Patch quilt. My quilts are all about the variety of fabric used in each one. There are some very early Kaffe fabrics in this one.

Even though this quilt is red to me there really are a lot of other colors in it. Mostly red, orange and yellow but since most of the prints are multicolor, a lot of other colors show up too.

This one really shows off the binding fabric. Click on the photo twice for the largest view.

This little chest ...

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

I took 23 photos yesterday............. from Exuberant Color

6 of the photos were of this finished quilt but I narrowed it down to the best one. I have made over 25 sixteen patch quilts and this is the only one with the blocks on point. That was mainly because I would have had to make more blocks to have them in straight rows so on point made sense, adding the 2 beautiful florals as the setting triangles and corner triangles.

The fabric on the back is named Luscious and is a Philip Jacobs design. The binding is Creased by Brandon Mably. The fabrics in the top are all ...

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

Slowly, so slowly.......... from Exuberant Color

I thought I would have the binding chosen and cut but all I got done was trimming the quilt in preparation for binding. The backing has an orange background and one setting triangle fabric has an orange background and the other one has a red background. I'll be trying some candidates today.

There are 3 blocks for "The Other 16 Patch" ready for their last seam and I chose 5 more pairs of reds/oranges to sew. That leaves one pair of fabrics yet to be chosen for the last block.

The tree straight across the street from my ...

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

27 out of 36 blocks............ from Exuberant Color

I added 10 more blocks last night to the design wall. It will be 2 rows longer so the last row will be on the floor. I need to make 9 more blocks and I have the fabrics chosen for 3 of them.

I worked on a little outside clean up since it was in the 70s yesterday. Continuing on the red theme, one of my 3 compact burning bushes is showing more color.

The perennial pinkish red Dianthus is still blooming.

My red shaggy Coneflower which I showed a couple weeks ago when it first started blooming. It was ...

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

Sewing on 2 quilts............. from Exuberant Color

I sewed 3 more of the log cabin blocks and sewed 2 together, will add the third in the row today. 9 sewn, 3 to go. I have to figure out how many more of the butterfly and travel print fabric squares I need.

I got this far on the strip sets for the other 16 patch quilt top. I need to remove the colorwash pieces from the design wall so I can put all of the blocks on the wall when I finish sewing them today.

I think there is a ghost outside of my studio! No, really we ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month, 3 weeks ago. under kaffe fabric , log cabin , nature , strip piecing

The other 16 patch............... from Exuberant Color

Another seven blocks joined the six I showed yesterday.

I spent part of the day yesterday cleaning up part of the garage and re-potting some cactus plants.

We got some more rain for a total of 1" over the 2 days. We really needed the rain.

This is the lineup of strips to sew today. I need 2 more pairs of fabric for this quilt top.

The tree straight across the street is really pretty right now. I like it while there is still a little green showing.

The Compact Burning Bushes in their second year are just starting to ...

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

Mindless sewing.............. from Exuberant Color

I still haven't made it to the ironing table with my quilt top. We have a couple rainy days coming so I'll probably get serious about it. Meanwhile I needed to sew while watching NCIS so I grabbed some Kaffe collective 2.5" strips and started sewing them together. This will be a fast quilt.

I decided to trim back all of my tomato plants, the dead and unproductive branches, so the remaining tomatoes could get some air circulation and sunshine. That was about an hour job.

While outside I noticed the Viburnum bush is turning color.

Only ...

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

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