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 4 months ago. under nature , stash , strip piecing

Backing fabrics..................... from Exuberant Color

As I looked through batiks on the multicolor shelf, I was surprised that I had pulled 2 colorations of the same design. Because the color changes so often, they are harder to use in a project where a color needs to be consistent. This is 2 of the 3 new mug rug tops laying on them. I haven't made any decisions which ones will get which backing.

I also had some older little strip pieced pieces that are mug rug size. This is first 2 of 4 of them.

And here are the last 2. That gives me 7 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months ago. under batik , strip piecing

2 projects........................... from Exuberant Color

It was time to trim the little strips that I sewed a few days ago. For some of them the 2.5" ruler and the rotating mat worked well. A few of them were too narrow so I had to move the ruler.

I got all three sewn together but haven't pressed them or squared them up. They will be 3 nice little mug rugs soon.

I got one of each of the last four sets of strips sewn into blocks.

Strips were cut for 3 more stratas and they got sewn last night. I need to press them ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 1 week ago. under batiks , mug rugs , strip piecing

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

Four more stratas were sewn with the Nancy Crow fabrics. Those 2 stripe fabrics are favorites and I have used them in other quilts in the past.

I pressed the stratas I had sewn previously and cut the segments to make 2 blocks of each combination. I decided to sew one of each and see how well they play together. Since a lot of the Nancy Crow fabrics are geometric, it looks like plaids in some of the blocks. There are several stripes too.

We got a half inch of rain before 8 a.m. yesterday, much needed since we ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 1 week ago. under strip piecing

Appointment, errands, and a little sewing...................... from Exuberant Color

Only one photo today. It was a busy day yesterday. I had a dr. appt. in the morning, scheduled more PT for my left leg which was injured last year. Then errands until after lunch time. Late in the afternoon I cut down the rest of the peonies and some small volunteer trees. Finally last night, some sewing time. I made 10 more stratas for the Nancy Crow fabric 16 patch quilt. Also I got batting cut for another quilt. By 11 p.m. yesterday all of the predicted rain had split and went north and south of us. More ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 1 week ago. under strip piecing

First quilt top for October 2025............... from Exuberant Color

It took less than a half hour to finish this little quilt top. It is 34" square. It will be put with next month's pieces to be quilted.

I had to clear off my table top so I sewed the last group of tiny pieces into 4 more strips. This set isn't as colorful as the first 2 sets shown yesterday

Yesterday morning I did some more cutting for the Nancy Crow fabric 16 patch and for the purple Rosy quilt. I started sewing the stratas for the NC 16 patch. This is all 1990s fabric. I have ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 1 week ago. under batiks , quilts made with triangles , strip piecing

Sidetracked, or is it derailed............................. from Exuberant Color

There is a table in my main floor studio that I have been slowly cleaning off (we're talking piles here) and when I say slowly, it is like 2 items a day. One of the items yesterday was a little 4" x 4" bag of small batik pieces.

The 7" ruler gives you an idea how small the pieces were. They were all end pieces when I was cutting some project a few years ago and I couldn't throw them in the trash.

I decided to piece them into strips, 4 of which would make a little mug ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 4 months, 1 week ago. under batiks , black and white , strip piecing , triangles

MIndless sewing results.................. from Exuberant Color

After I cut 2 more 4.5" sections off the strata, I cut the remaining strata into 1.5" strips. Then adding 2 sections to the end of one of the table runner tops I had enough left to make a mug rug top about 7" x 8.5". I had originally intended to make the table runners like the mug rug, but I came to my senses, remembered this was mindless, soothing sewing, and cut larger sections. This table runner top is 12" x 30".

I had enough sections of strata to make 3 table runners the size I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under batik , mug rugs , strip piecing , tablerunner

More mindless sewing........... from Exuberant Color

My reaction to the hot weather? Do more mindless sewing. I am so tired of heat and humidity.

Last night I stacked the mindless sewing stratas, staggered every half inch so seams wouldn't be on top of other seams. This is what is left after cutting off 2 sets of 4.5".

I decided on table runners and this is the first one I sewed. It is 12" x 24". Since there is more to cut, I could make a longer table runner.

This is the second one I sewed. Same size as above with options to make it ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under batik , strip piecing , tablerunner

Just a little mindless sewing............... from Exuberant Color

I did my tomato plant trimming yesterday morning before it got too hot. There should be better air circulation now through the plants.

After lunch I decided to use some 1.5" batik strips in a bag that were left from a previous project. Here is that project on this post in 2009. (I quilted the quilt in 2016.) There were 170 strips originally in the bag but over the years I have used some strips out of the bag for other projects. The strips are all half width (20" approx.) and I used 60 so far for this group ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months ago. under batiks , strip piecing

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

I got the 2 halves of this Marcia Derse fabric 16 patch quilt top pressed and sewed the final seam. After pressing that seam I struggled to get it up on the double design wall. I reached as high as I could but the last few inches still ended up on the floor. I had to hang it sideways and rotated the photo. The part on the floor is on the right edge. It is 80" x 96", large enough for an oversize twin quilt. With the deep mattresses on the new beds we need to make bed quilts larger ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 1 week ago. under kaffe fabric , marcia derse fabric , strip piecing , triangles

Second finish for August 2025............. from Exuberant Color

It's a little hard to see the border since it wants to blend into the white flannel on the design wall. This quilt has only 7 Martha Negley fabrics in the quilt top. It is 67" x 83.5". The binding is the same light fabric as the quarter square triangles in every block and the border. It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and was quilted by Robin Diaz.

The back is also a Martha Negley fabric, the same print in lavender as was in pink in the front of the quilt. I didn't have enough ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 1 week ago. under marcia derse fabric , strip piecing

A side project....................... from Exuberant Color

I decided to wash my bathroom curtains yesterday and when trying to slide them off the tension rod, they tore all the way down the side, sun rot. I checked back on my blog and those curtains were made 10 1/2 years ago. They were so faded they didn't look anything like when they were new.

Here is a close up of the new fabric. I bought it several years ago on sale. It is an Alex Anderson design for P&B fabrics. It is so much heavier weight than most new fabrics are. It only took about ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 1 week ago. under home repair , marcia derse fabric , strip piecing

Lots done, just one photo................... from Exuberant Color

Just to recap, I have 2 blocks alike of each of 50 Marcia Derse fabric combinations. Yesterday I took 1/2 of the blocks, one of each combination and the 10 squares cut from the Marcia Derse panel, downstairs to the double design wall. I forgot to take a photo and brought the blocks upstairs to sew. I have half of the quilt sewn now, 10 blocks wide (80") and 6 blocks tall (48"). I can put the other half of the blocks in the very same arrangement and sew the 2 halves together. I could also take column 10 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 1 week ago. under marcia derse fabric , strip piecing

Testing the panel blocks....................... from Exuberant Color

I cut squares from the Marcia Derse panel fabric and tried them with the MD 16 patch blocks. Some areas are light and some darker so every square looks different. I have 100 sixteen patch blocks made and need 120 so I could use 20 squares cut from the panel. It really isn't a panel even though they call it that. The stores are just cutting at the repeat of the design.

I continued hand stitching the binding while a plumber was here for 3 hours yesterday.

The plumber tried to clear the plugged bathroom sink drain but he ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 1 week ago. under binding , home repair , strip piecing

First finish of August 2025.................... from Exuberant Color

I finished the top of this quilt in April 2023 so it has been waiting a while to be finished. All of the fabrics on the front are Australian Aboriginal prints. It is 50" x 71".

On the back is one full length of the Australian black and white print and added to that is a New Zealand fabric.

I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and it was quilted by Robin Diaz.

I had forgotten I added a border to this quilt and saw it when I spread out the quilt for trimming. That reminded me that I had planned ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 1 week ago. under binding , strip piecing

More blocks for 16 patch quilt.............. from Exuberant Color

I sewed 8 new combinations of Marcia Derse fabric yesterday morning. There are 2 of each, so 16 new blocks.

I sewed and cut the next batch of stratas and when cutting into segments I made one miscut. There is exactly enough for 2 blocks with only a small cut leftover.

I was able to salvage all but one combination by sewing the left over piece onto the miscut piece and recutting into 2.5". On the left, the seam sewn, center, the seam pressed open, and right, a trimmed strip ready to use. The 6th strata didn't have ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 2 weeks ago. under marcia derse fabric , nature , strip piecing

It was binding day...................... from Exuberant Color

I had the binding sewn onto the flannel baby quilt before lunch time yesterday. I need to take some blocks off the design wall before I can take its full portrait.

These are the blocks that need to be removed from the design wall. I added the 4 new ones so I could take a photo of all 36 blocks (one of each combination of fabrics, two alike of each are sewn). This wasn't necessarily the final layout but I have a photo of it now if I do want to start with this when I get the rest ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 3 weeks ago. under binding , flannel quilts , kaffe fabric , marcia derse fabric , strip piecing

Quilting a small one.......... from Exuberant Color

This flannel quilt has been ready for quilting for a couple weeks so I finally quilted it yesterday. It will get trimmed today or tomorrow and then I'll look for binding.

I pressed the stratas yesterday and sliced off the segments for 8 blocks, 2 of each combination. They aren't pressed so they can't go up on the design wall yet. I have 72 blocks made now. That would give me an 8 x 9 layout but that is too close to square. I would rather have 7 x 11 or 8 x 10. I could still ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 3 weeks ago. under flannel quilts , machine quilting , marcia derse fabric , nature , strip piecing

LIttle progress............... from Exuberant Color

I spent a couple more hours cutting 2" squares of Kaffe collective fabrics yesterday morning and now have 5 stacks instead of 3 shown a couple days ago. I had PT in the afternoon and afterwards sewed 4 more stratas of Marcia Derse fabrics for the 16 patch quilt. I trimmed off sad looking branches on my tomato plants and pulled out some more of the Creeping Bellflower.

I know there is nothing exciting about showing the most recent dishcloth finish but this helps me keep a record of the colors I have used.

7 days of 90s now, and ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 6 months, 3 weeks ago. under knitting , marcia derse fabric , strip piecing

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