nature

Quilting two........... from Exuberant Color

I knew it wouldn't take long to quilt a 39" square quilt so I started with this one.

Since it took such a short time I loaded the other flannel baby quilt which is 40" square after I unpinned the first one. I was able to use the same colors of thread top and bottom so that was a plus.

I got both of them trimmed and binding will be today, all by machine on both of these.

Yesterday morning I noticed my neighbor's kitty sitting on the tree stump just over the lot line. I know he ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 2 weeks ago. under food , machine quilting , nature

Starting something new............... from Exuberant Color

I need a few baby quilts and I want them made of flannel. I had this box of strips in the basement. I figured it was all 2" strips but after piecing a few blocks I realized there were 2 widths of strips in there.

Since the blocks weren't all the same size I had to trim all of them to the size of the smallest block. Now there are 3 widths of strips since some edge strips are now narrower. When sewn this should be about 34" square. I think a 3" border will work and I could ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under baby quilts , flannel quilts , nature

Working on the second quilt.......... from Exuberant Color

I got the binding cut and sewn on this second huge quilt, Blooming 9 Patch. I have the first side finished by machine, stitching in the ditch next to the binding on the front to catch the flap of binding on the back. It isn't perfect and I'm only showing you a good spot. The binding and backing are the same so I don't think it is a major problem

Here are some of the prettier fabrics in the quilt. I will work on the binding today and hopefully finish it.

We got about 2" of snow ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under binding , nature

2nd quilt top for November............. from Exuberant Color

I Spy 2 top is sewn together now. All I need to do now is get both of the I Spy quilts finished for Christmas. There are 120 unique novelty prints in this quilt top, each square finishing at 6". The top is 68.5" x 80.5". I'm planning on putting flannel on the back of both of the I Spy Quilts.

When I went out to check the rain gauge I noticed the pansy is still hanging in there. It has been there even on the nights it was down to the mid-20s. I knew they liked ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 4 weeks ago. under i spy , nature

Center panel sewn............ from Exuberant Color

Nothing else was on my schedule so I had 3 sewing sessions yesterday and got the center panel of I Spy 2 sewn. Today I'll look for border fabrics. I have several pieces with letters and numbers but also have some bright stripe fabrics.

I'm enjoying this display so much. The 2 cacti that aren't in the photo still just have buds but should bloom soon.

In the morning light these blooms look like lavender but they are really pink. The ones on the left are pale pink and the ones on the right deeper rose.

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months ago. under i spy , nature

One new, continuing on red............ from Exuberant Color

I started laying out the second I Spy quilt on the double design wall in the basement. This one is 6.5" squares with a dark/light alternating with mediums thrown in wherever I like them. I need to still add 3 rows to the length but 10 squares is the width (60").

Now back to the red Kaffe squares quilt top. This is the worst instersection, done when I was in a hurry to finish the second half.

Now that is better. I can live with this. There were 5 places altogether that I picked out and re-sewed. I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months ago. under i spy , kaffe fabric , nature

Birthday bouquet............ from Exuberant Color

I can't remember if I have ever had a bouquet of all yellow roses before. These are beauties. Well, I made it to 83, my goal when I turned 80 and now the next goal is 85.

The bottom section is all sewn but I decided not to sew it to the top section yet. Some of intersectons of the pieced narrow inserted border aren't very good and I want to inspect every one of them. I decided that would be easier working with each half instead of the whole top. That will hold this one up for ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

5 more seams......... from Exuberant Color

Lots of sewing yesterday. I got the bottom half of this top webbed vertically and I have completed 2 horizontal seams. 5 more seams across this piece and then I need to sew the final seam joining the 2 halves.

This is the top view of the cacti that are starting to bloom.

Now I know one is deep rose, one is pale pink, one is white and maybe 2 or 3 of them are champagne color. By the end of the week I should know all of the colors.

I was so happy the white ones had buds. My ...

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

Webbing done one direction......... from Exuberant Color

While there was still black thread on the sewing machine, I did the staystitching on the African elephant quilt top. Then I changed to red thread.

I met with my longarm quilter and sent 2 tops, backing and batting home with her. One is 88" x 107" and the other one is 86" x 106". I have one more that is over 100" long that I need to choose a backing for.

Last night I did the webbing one direction on the top half of this quilt top with Kaffe collective fabrics. I took this photo when I was half ...

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

Trying a new idea.............. from Exuberant Color

I came up with an idea so that this quilt isn't just squares (although I like that idea too). I pulled down the box full of 1.5" Kaffe strips to hang some on the layout to simulate my idea. They won't be strips of all one color, they would be 1.5" x 6.5" strips of a variety of light neutrals pieced along with the rows of squares when webbing the top. The decision I needed to make was whether this inserted border was 1 square in or 2 squares in. I did remove the orange ...

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

Even more reds.............. from Exuberant Color

I looked through my Kaffe fabrics again and pulled 6 more reds and then went through the Philip Jacobs fabrics and found 6 more there. I cut 6.5" squares from these and the ones I showed yesterday.

Now there is one piece each of 77 Kaffe collective fabrics. I have to decide if I'm happy with this layout and if I am, I will sew the top half of the quilt together. It is 75% red (some soft, some bold) and 25% orange/pink/deep rose color but I think most people will call it a red quilt ...

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

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

I cut 6.5" squares from another 21 fabrics. This is one of each fabric and I have over 100 duplicates now. This is just going to be a simple quilt of just squares, celebrating the fabric, no distractions. The flat orange print is probably coming out and I already pulled out the light pinks. I have a few more dark fabrics that I'm going to cut for it.

While eating lunch I noticed a large bird in the tree outside my kitchen window. The sky was too bright behind him to get a good shot. I don't ...

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

Photos from the past few days.................. from Exuberant Color

This was the scene on Halloween a half hour before the trick or treat hours started. The wind was whipping the snow around.

This was 15 minutes later. It was only 31 degrees so the snow stayed overnight and then melted yesterday.

One of the little goblins reached in for her candy and chose a Hershey bar. She said "chocolate for my daddy". Is that cute or what?

I took a photo of the snow on the Viburnum bush around noon in case that was all the snow we were going to get. I always like to record the first ...

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

Border and sashing day.............. from Exuberant Color

The next border is on the African elephant quilt. There is at least one more border, the piano key type border of strip piecing leftover from another quilt. It is 45.5" x 61" right now.

I finally cut the last 2 batting pieces off the big roll and removed the roll from my work table. Now I can baste a larger quilt.

I decided to start sewing the tiger print sashing on the Bear Paw blocks and got 2 rows done. This quilt will need a border after the sashing so I'll have to search through my stash ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months, 3 weeks ago. under nature , quilts made with triangles

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

I didn't look any farther; I liked one of the binding choices in the first round. I got it sewn on and have started the hand stitching. The hanging sleeve is sewn on too.

This is the orientation of the other colorwash as I designed it.

When my daughter was here we tried it horizontally and thought maybe that was a better choice for art over a piece of furniture.

I put the leftover piece of backing fabric there to analyze whether it might be a good binding choice.

I flipped it 180 degrees to see if I like ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months, 4 weeks ago. under binding , colorwash , nature

Quilting on two............ from Exuberant Color

The top of my sewing cabinet was finally cleaned off and I quilted both of these colorwash quilts yesterday. Today I will choose bindings and prepare hanging sleeves.

While I was sitting at my computer a little after 5 p.m. I noticed the tree a little farther north of me glowing in the sunlight. When I saw the color of the partially dead tree next to it I figured it is the golden hour.

Here is another view while the sun was hitting it and just a short time later after the sun had gone down behind the houses ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under colorwash , machine quilting , nature

Cool colors............ from Exuberant Color

I am drawn to the warm colors more often so I thought it was time to make a cool color Kaffe Collective quilt. I may add other fabrics if necessary. I have already made the Seed Packet quilt from one of Kaffe's books and there is another quilt with fussy cut flowers in his "Themes" hard cover book. It will probably take me a month to fussy cut all of the pieces I will need for both quilts. I think the majority of flower fabrics will be blue with green and purple added in.

I visited my 2 great-grandsons ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

It was an outside day............. from Exuberant Color

There haven't been too many perfect days to work outside in the last month. It was either close to 90 or in the 50s. Yesterday was perfect so I did over 3 hours of digging and planting and finally pulling weeds. Also I finished the mowing in the side and back yards.

I dug out 2 big Hostas in the front garden, ones that got too much sun and didn't look great for half of the summer. I pulled off a few sections from one of them and then planted the 2 big plants in pots for the ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under food , nature

Sorting, planting.......... from Exuberant Color

The 6.5" Kaffe fabric squares have been sorted by color. There are several of some of the prints and only one of others. The middle row is blue, green, purple and brown and the whole top row is red, orange and pink. I'm not sure when I cut some of these because I have just been putting them in a little storage box for several years. There are a few Martha Negley fabrics in there too.

When the sun came out in mid afternoon yesterday I went out and dug the hole and planted the scrawny sale Hydrangea ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under kaffe fabric , nature

Making a few flying geese............. from Exuberant Color

In my sorting I found a stack of 52 Australian fabric Flying Geese blocks. There were 8 more goose pieces cut so I sewed 8 more for a total of 60. I looked back on my blog and found that I had started sewing these in April this year when I was cleaning up from my series of quilts with the Australian fabrics.

There are still more half square triangles on this tray so I need to cut some more goose shapes (quarter square triangle). Some of these are dark so that means I need light color geese. I have ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 1 week ago. under australian fabrics , nature

What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?