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March 17, 2026
Sewing on two................ from Exuberant Color


There was a large pile to press yesterday, including these 4 Marcia Derse fabrics for the last 2 blocks.  I will get them cut today.  I also pressed all of the finished blocks that were in the test layout yesterday.








I pressed the 14 stratas from the day before and got them cut into 2 columns.  Later in the afternoon I sewed them into blocks, so they are ready to press now.





I had 2 hours of TV to watch and nothing set up to sew, so I grabbed a box of Marcia Derse fabric scraps and started making crazy ...

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March 15, 2026
A little progress........................... from Exuberant Color


 I didn't do much yesterday, but did decide to make the 'other 16 patch', the one with rectangular pieces.  That meant I could cut the strip sets in half again and then sew the 2 pieces together.






I hope I'm going to like this.










After I cut these stratas into 2 columns and sew those together I'll know if I want to add more blocks and make it larger than my original plan.








These photos show all I got sewn last night.  I need to turn on the iron and press some more of the stratas that ...

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March 14, 2026
Sorting................... from Exuberant Color


This little orange basket was bugging me so I finally sorted through everything in it.  In the front left is larger pieces that I'm not sure why they were in there.  The pile next to the basket in the top row is pieces I will cut into squares soon.  Everything in the basket is batik fabric pieces.


The pile at the top right is all trimmings from making crazy pieced blocks and some strip pieced small sections.  This pile went back into the basket.





Some groups got labeled and put into zip top bags that I can keep adding ...

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March 12, 2026
Something new......................... from Exuberant Color


When I cut strips for the Marcia Derse fabric 16 patch last year, I cut an extra strip from several of the fabrics.




Last night during TV time I sewed 19 pairs together.  







There are 11 more sets paired ready to sew.  I'm not sure if I'm going to make another 16 patch or do the "other 16 patch" which is 16 rectangles in a block.  I have enough here for 60 blocks but would need 63 for the smallest size I would want to make.  There are 60 unique fabrics so I need to search for a ...

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February 24, 2026
Social time........................... from Exuberant Color


My grandson and his wife brought lunch yesterday and then stayed long enough to help me with a couple heavy duty tasks.  Afterwards I did some grocery shopping.

Last night I cut the last stratas into sections and made some more Kaffe 16 patch blocks.  I love busy quilts, and I'm sure a few of you wonder why I'm not using white as every other square to "calm" it down.  I love all of the patterns in the fabric running together.  There are 2 of each of these blocks, so 18 total.


This group of leftover blocks has ...

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February 23, 2026
Catch up day...................... from Exuberant Color


There were lots of little jobs I needed to do to clean up the sewing studio.  First was the staystitching around this quilt.  Now it can be put on a hanger on the rack in the basement, waiting for its backing to be sewn.






While I had a load of laundry in the washer I looked for some leftover pastel 16 patch blocks in the Kaffe orphan box.  If you enlarge this photo you will see the block on the left has selvage showing.  I colored in the part that will show with permanent markers but I'm not sure ...

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February 22, 2026
Something easy................. from Exuberant Color



I sewed the right edge column of blocks together for the medallion quilt and made the half blocks to finish the length of both columns and now I need to just think about what is next for that project.  Meanwhile I looked for an easy project to sew last night.  I had some stratas sewn and prepared to cut 16 patch blocks, maybe made last year or the year before.  This group of 10 blocks would be suitable for a baby quilt.  I'll look in the Kaffe orphan block box and see if there are any more in there ...

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February 3, 2026
Mindless sewing.....again................... from Exuberant Color


Yesterday was a PT day so I have to be watching the clock.

One thing I did get done during the day was to layer several stratas, staggered by 1" and cut 2.5" segments from them.  I had sewn the 2 strips together and did the pressing last week.


Last night's mindless sewing was making the 80 four patches which will be used in 40 double 4 patch blocks.  I need to cut the 4.5" squares now from the 4.5" strips.






Part of the reason I didn't get much done yesterday was because of this ...

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January 23, 2026
Continuing on............... from Exuberant Color


The 4 patches for 24 more blocks are sewn and just waiting for me to cut the 4.5" squares to go with them.






I was pretty sure there was another box in the basement with more pairs of the 2.5" and 4.5" strips.  I knew where it was (yes, really!!) so I retrieved them and counted 36, which will make 72 blocks.  So far I have only sewn the purple/green combinations.  If I sew all of these plus the ones left from the first group I showed a few days ago, I will have 138 eight ...

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January 21, 2026
Batik strips................. from Exuberant Color


I opened a drawer....and there were these matched 4.5" strips and 2.5" strips.  I knew they would work for double 4 patch blocks.  I have been needing a mindless sewing project for TV time.



I pulled all of the purple and green sets and started sewing the 2.5" strips together.  Each pair of fabrics will make 4 blocks, 2 dark and 2 light.

I retrieved the bag with half rectangle triangles for yesterday's project and found there were 20 in the bag, but they all faced the same direction.  I need both lefts and rights ...

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January 5, 2026
Still searching...................... from Exuberant Color


I'm still having fun looking for UFOs so I haven't sewn anything for several days.  The first few days of a new month are usually pretty low key for me.

The Farm Girl Vintage quilt was started in October 2015 and I think the last time I worked on it was in December of 2019.  This post was probably the last time I put the blocks up on the design wall and I made a few more after that, more little chicks and a sewing machine.


When I started making it I thought I would have plenty of ...

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December 10, 2025
Quilts back.......................... from Exuberant Color




I got 2 quilts back from my longarm quilter and got them both trimmed and binding cut for both of them.  The blue Interweave binding was done all by machine.  I think its future owner will probably be someone who has no idea that some people hand finish their bindings.  I still hand finish my special favorite quilts.  This one has 2 fabrics on the back and they both show in this photo.  The widest piece is the light fabric showing at the top right in this photo.  The binding is 5 different blue batik strips out of my supply ...

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December 9, 2025
Miscellaneous.................. from Exuberant Color


Yesterday's food projects were fudge and pink Spritz cookies.  I forgot to take a photo of the cookies.






I chose the backing (the light print) and the binding (red print) to finish the Christmas table runner.  I also found a piece of batting the exact size I needed.  Maybe I'll get it layered and quilted today.








In the box with the squares (that were used for the table runner) was a group of 1.5" strips.  I don't remember cutting them so maybe they were cut to use up the ends of some of the Christmas fabrics ...

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November 30, 2025
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 ...

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November 29, 2025
A few changes................ from Exuberant Color


Still playing with this one......

I moved the 2 tone green strip one column to the right, oh, and I cut it into 1.5" segments.  I'm not sure that dark strip will stay in there.  After an hour or so I left this project and checked back at it a couple times during the day.






There wasn't room on the design wall for the flannel blocks so I laid them on the floor to see how they look together.  This probably isn't the final layout.






I needed to do a load of laundry, so while it ...

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November 28, 2025
All blocks.................... from Exuberant Color


Yesterday morning I got all of the strippy blocks up on the design wall.  I think I might have moved 2 of the blocks after this photo was taken.










I decided to sew the columns I'm happy with so the three at the left are sewn, but not sewn to each other.  I need to do more playing with the insertion strips.  I don't like the grouping of the strippy block columns right now, 3, 2, 3, and 2.  After I sew some columns I can move them around and also move the narrow strips to new locations ...

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November 26, 2025
Auditioning ideas........................ from Exuberant Color


The morning yesterday was spent making a backing for an older quilt top.  I'm using a full width piece and a cut away from another back for it.  Now I just need to cut batting.

I have a bunch of ideas on the design wall to audition what works and what doesn't in this strippy quilt.





This is my favorite new block.  The stripe is Twigs by Martha Negley so now there are 2 Martha fabrics in this project.

In the middle of the afternoon I had a PT session for my weaker leg.  







I bought the Kaffe ...

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November 21, 2025
One more audition.............. from Exuberant Color


More fabrics were auditioned yesterday for the coping strips and this is the only one I'm considering.












I cut some more strips for my other project and sewed them last night.  I pressed the first batch made previously while I was in the basement doing laundry.

We've had some gray days and today they say we will have sunshine and 50 degrees.

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November 20, 2025
Auditioning corners.................. from Exuberant Color


The center of the quilt is still folded up and pinned on the design wall and I tried 3 fabrics as coping strips to use with some of the leftover 9 patch blocks for the corners.  

I don't want the corners to be what catches attention first.  Still no decision made.


I pulled out some strips for some mindless sewing while I glance up at the design wall.

I will eventually figure out how to finish the purple Rosy.  

 

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November 6, 2025
First finish for November 2025.................... from Exuberant Color


The 16 patch made with Nancy Crow fabrics is finished.  This looks like a perfect fall and winter quilt to me.  It is 62" x 78.5".










The backing is also a Nancy Crow fabric.  This was my goal, to only use her fabrics for the whole quilt.  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and it was quilted by Robin Diaz.

I still have a considerable amount of Nancy's fabric but I have been mixing some of it into my color stacks.  I have a pile of quarter yards I cut while I was cutting for this quilt so ...

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  • strip piecing
  • Page 1 of 16 ( 309 posts )