nature

The other setting triangles........... from Exuberant Color

While I was in the basement pressing the setting triangle fabric for the 16 patch quilt I glanced over at my design wall which has had these pineapple blocks on it for a couple months. I had been trying several neutral light prints for the setting triangles and then I saw this batik fabric and thought it might be fun. The color is off in this photo since it is a dusty blue with beige spots. I only had a yard of it and I cut all of the side triangles I needed. This did not leave me a large ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 12 hours, 56 minutes ago. under batiks , log cabin , nature

All 59 blocks............ from Exuberant Color

All 59 blocks are on the wall. I had 4 left over because I made more than I needed. I need to still move some blocks to new locations but it was too late last night to continue playing with them.

Here are the four blocks that I pulled out. The 2 in the middle are too purplish to go well with the red, yellow and orange. I like the one on the right so it might end up back in there. The one one the left is my least favorite block so its duplicate may come out too.

This ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 days, 12 hours ago. under kaffe fabric , nature , strip piecing

Some might not work, some will................ from Exuberant Color

I got 8 blocks sewn, these 4 and their duplicates. When you cut up a large print with many values in it you never know if it is going to work until it is auditioned with all of the other blocks. They will get pressed today and then auditioned.

I also got the last 8 strips cut and the strip sets sewn. These also need to be pressed before I can slice the pieces for the 8 blocks.

Here is the progress of both Amaryllis plants. The bud stalks are growing faster now on the one in the front.

The ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 days, 12 hours ago. under kaffe fabric , nature , strip piecing

24 blocks...................... from Exuberant Color

24 blocks are sewn. My main goal was to use some of the strips in the 2.5" Kaffe collective strip box. I have to decide now whether 48 blocks is enough (48" x 64") or if I will cut some more strips to make it 56" x 72" (63 blocks). I have all of the duplicate blocks sewn.

This is my view as I ponder the continuation.

Five of the buds on the waxed Amaryllis have opened. The smallest bud is growing but is probably about 4 or 5 days away from opening.

Just in case you were wondering ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 4 days ago. under kaffe fabric , nature , strip piecing

A few favorites............ from Exuberant Color

I got 16 of the strips sets sewn into 4s. These are my favorites so far.

Yesterday was the day to start my van to keep the battery charged. I was almost out of frozen strawberries so I made my one a month trip to W*lm*rt. I think I'm stocked up on the perishables for at least a week and much longer on most items.

Four out of 6 buds have opened on the red Amaryllis. It is such a nice soft red.

The pointed tip of each petal is white. I don't remember ever having ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 6 days ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

The first weekend of January........ from Exuberant Color

I am glad the year started with a holiday and then a weekend. It gives me time to relax and reorganize my thoughts. I am starting this year with more unquilted tops (34) than I had last year (31) but that isn't much of a gain. I hope to quilt 4 of the tops this month.

Here is my first test block that I die cut to test the accuracy of the die. It will go in the batik orphan block box. It is Crossed Canoes and a block I have always liked.

The box of 2.5" Kaffe ...

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

Happy New Year!!!!.....and December 2020 monthly recap........... from Exuberant Color

In case you missed it I posted my last 2 finishes of 2020 last night at a little before 11 p.m. They are also farther down in this post in the monthly recap.

It's time for another waxed Amaryllis check. The buds are finally opening.

Here is another view of the one that is opened the most.

What more can we say about last year, a year I looked so forward to because 2020 meant 20/20 (eye vision) to me and with the tumor in my eye (diagnosed 2012) I thought it would be so great to ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 2 days ago. under monthly recap , nature

Onion Ring basket weave finished from Exuberant Color

I think this is the first time I ever finished the binding in 2 days on a quilt this size. I haven't decided on which other two I will finish so I decided to just keep stitching since this one had to be finished too. I hope to get a better photo later since I really couldn't get a good shot in my main floor studio. It measures 58.5" x 74" now that it is finished.

It looks like the wax coated Amaryllis is going to be some shade of red.

The battery was dead on my ...

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

A finished quilt top........... from Exuberant Color

This quilt top was waiting for me to make a decision on borders. I almost finished without borders but I'm glad I reconsidered them again. It is 35" x 42.25".

I also sewed and pressed the backing seam and got the backing and batting loaded on the longarm. The top is just laying there, not stitched on yet.

A friend gave me a gift certificate so I could choose my own Amaryllis bulb. They also had a stake so I ordered that too. I had the grapevine basket from an amaryllis many years ago so I was glad ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 1 day ago. under colorwash , machine quilting , nature

Cleaning off the table tops............ from Exuberant Color

This is the cutting table in my main floor studio yesterday morning. I had raised the leaf and put a second cutting mat on it for a project last week.

After a very lazy relaxing day yesterday this is my progress. There is at least one more 2 hour session to finish up. I can even fold the leaf down now and use the original cutting mat.

My Christmas dinner was delivered by my son, prime rib and roasted veggies. Yum!!

I sent some scones home with him.

Jack Frost visited on Christmas morning. It was 9 degrees when I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 3 weeks, 2 days ago. under food , nature , studio

Merry Christmas!............. from Exuberant Color

Last night I baked Very Berry scones for Christmas breakfast. I forgot to take the picture until after I tested them....they are yummy.

I used this mix for the scones.

The wax coated Amaryllis is still trying to open and bloom.

There is still no sign of what color it will be. Maybe it will open some more today.

My pale pink cacti has 2 blooms but I didn't get a photo while it was still light yesterday...maybe today.

We are down to one week to wrap up all pending projects by New Year's Day. I ...

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

Food............. from Exuberant Color

I made two batches of Chex Mix yesterday. I like the original recipe but I change the type of pretzels to whatever is available each year. I also use a whole stick of butter instead of 3/4 of a stick. These are butter flavored pretzels which goes right along with the flavor of Chex Mix.

I decided to bake one batch of Spritz last night. I realized I only have green sugar to sprinkle on them so I decided to make pink cookies. I will make chocolate spritz today.

My red cactus is still blooming. I have 2 pale ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 weeks ago. under food , nature

Sewing, baking........... from Exuberant Color

I started sewing the Kaffe 16 patch quilt top. I will be able to clip off the top and bottom rows to try an insert strip. As soon as I get it sewn I can take some photos downstairs where I have better lighting.

I finally baked my first batch of cookies. I have a few people I always give a variety to for Christmas so I'll be baking every day and maybe twice a day for the rest of this week.

The champagne color cactus I bought this year is still blooming. I think there is one more ...

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

Two finished for December 2020 from Exuberant Color

The Marcia Derse baby quilt is finished. The blues are from lines dating back several years. The white and black are from her line the Opposites (there was a positive and negative of each print). It ended up 35" x 47".

The backing and binding fabric is another from her Opposites line. Binding is all by machine.

After I finished this one I did a load of laundry and went grocery shopping.

And then I tackled the binding on the big plaid zig zag quilt. It took over an hour even doing it all by machine.

I wanted to use ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 month ago. under baby quilts , binding , marcia derse fabric , nature , plaids , zig zag

A variety............. from Exuberant Color

Yesterday I cut 5 more pairs of strips for the Kaffe 16 patch quilt and hope to sew them today.

I also sewed the last seam of the Kaffe TAW stratas and pressed them. I probably won't design and sew that until next month.

I have all of my little Santas out now. I picked up the poinsettia at W*lm*rt Monday when I did my once a month run. They actually had everything I needed this time so I won't need to go back until next year.

My friend Diane in NC sent me a birthday ...

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

About half of the blocks............. from Exuberant Color

I put the 29 Kaffe 16 patch blocks up on my design wall. Every fabric is a shade of blue, turquoise or green. There are a couple bright spots in some of them. I sewed 3 more blocks after I took this photo. Now I will decide if any need to be replaced before I sew the other half of identical blocks.

As I searched through more of the Christmas items I found another patriotic Santa. I'm not sure what he is made of. I originally thought he might be paper mache (couldn't find the e with a ...

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

The sky.............. from Exuberant Color

I spent over 5 hours on a computer project yesterday so I never made it to the sewing machine. When my studio was getting dark I looked up and saw the most beautiful sunset. By the time I found my phone (I forgot it was being charged) it was pretty much gone. It was so intense red and blue and the camera didn't come close to capturing the beauty.

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

TV sewing............. from Exuberant Color

There were 3 new season premiers shows on last night so I needed some no brainer sewing so I could pay attention to the stories. I have a box packed with 2.5" Kaffe fabric strips so I grabbed a pile of them and brought them up to my studio. Each of these stratas will make two 16 patch blocks. This is about a third of what I will need for a quilt.

I saw 5 crows in my back garden so I grabbed my camera. Four were spooked and flew away and the last one is in the shadow ...

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

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

After a day of lots of sewing I didn't do any yesterday. I had many other things to take care of.

My sister-in-law gave me one of the wax coated amaryllis bulbs again this year. It has been out of the box about 4 days and there is a leaf and a bud both starting to peek out.

The orange cactus is starting to bloom. I gave my daughter-in-law the other plant. It was one small plant, a gift from a friend many years ago and it had gotten quite large so I split it into 2 plants a ...

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

7 more blocks............ from Exuberant Color

I got in a few sessions of sewing yesterday and finished 7 more of the batik pineapple blocks.

I took them downstairs to the design wall where the original 10 blocks were. They are about 14" across on the diagonal so this would be 42" wide and 56" long. It would be another recliner chair size quilt or even a baby quilt, an elegant baby quilt.

I need to make one more block. I have one dark block that I might try in it to see if it looks like the black sheep of the quilt.

The bouquet of little ...

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

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