strip piecing

Working on two............... from Exuberant Color

I had errands to run in the morning before the heat became oppressive yesterday. When I got to work this backing was the first project. I have cut the pieces so maybe I'll get them sewn together today.

Next I cut 19 squares from the alternate block fabric. I will have to design this quilt sideways on my double design wall in the basement. It will have 99 blocks to make a top 72" x 88".

I braved the heat late in the afternoon and filled the birdfeeders and picked tomatoes. Most of the tomatoes are up high on ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 21 hours, 38 minutes ago. under kaffe fabric , stash , strip piecing

Turning on the iron.............. from Exuberant Color

I knew it would take a while to press 81 blocks plus iron a few other things piled on the ironing table, so I started a load of laundry and spent a couple hours in the basement. I have the blocks sorted into 2 piles since there are 2 alike of each combination except the one at the bottom. I will be designing half of the quilt with one pile when I get around to it.

I got this quilt back from my longarm quilter so I trimmed it and then cut the binding strips, the same fabric as the ...

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

Playing with blocks....................... from Exuberant Color

A few days ago I showed some fabric that might work as alternate blocks sprinkled through the new quilt I'm working on. I tried these 3 yesterday.

This is the one I thought would be most likely to work. The idea is to have a print that blends with the blocks, not one that stands out as "here I am". The purpose of the blocks is to enlarge the quilt without having to piece more blocks.

This one is still a possibility but I think it might be too obvious.

I thought ths one was too busy but I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 1 week, 5 days ago. under stash , strip piecing

20 more blocks..................... from Exuberant Color

I didn't get to the sewing machine until quite late so I was out of steam and didn't even get them up on the design wall.

This is the lightest block in the bunch and I hope it plays nice with the rest.

I had an appointment at the pain clinic in the middle of the morning yesterday so I didn't get anything done before lunchtime. In the afternoon I had a couple phone calls and then filled the bird feeders and watered the tomato and cucumber plants. The weather was beautiful and I had all of ...

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

Blocks started................. from Exuberant Color

Yesterday I made the decision to make the traditional 16 patch blocks with my stratas. I pressed all of the stratas and cut enough pieces to make 20 blocks, 2 each of the ones in this photo. I'm happy with the way it is looking so far. Today I'll cut 20 more and lay out some of these blocks on the fabrics I showed yesterday for possible alternate blocks.

Today is supposed to be the best day of the week for low humidity. I hope the prediction is right because I would like windows open.

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks ago. under strip piecing

Last two.................. from Exuberant Color

There was just one strip to cut yesterday to complete the stratas.

This is all 40-1/2 stratas, ready for me to decide which 16 patch to make.

I decided to look through my larger print brown fabrics to see if there was anything I would want to use for a few alternate blocks sprinkled through. This photo shows 22" top to bottom.

This photos shows 1/2 yard of the fabric.

This photo shows 22" top to bottom. I think this might be the best candidate.

This is showing 1/2 yard of the fabric. I think this one ...

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

Almost done.................. from Exuberant Color

Ten more stratas are sewn for a total of 39-1/2. There was a cut out of one of the fabrics so I could only make a half length strata from that combination.

This is one more pair but I decided it's a toss up which one is the light and which is the dark. There are too many spots of the black background compared to the amount of lighter color leaves. I'll look through some more fabrics today. Right now I have 80 different fabrics in the sewn stratas.

I folded over the stack of the first ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 2 days ago. under strip piecing

In my happy place............. from Exuberant Color

I love having nice long seams to sew at night while I watch TV. This is the second set of 10 stratas that I finished early in the day yesterday. They were started the night before.

This is the third set of 10 stratas which I sewed last night. I have one more set of 10 to sew today. Then I have to decide if it will be a traditional 16 patch block or the "other 16 patch" which is 16 rectangles per block.

I need to clean off a table and baste one of my small quilts so I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 3 days ago. under strip piecing

Starting a new one................ from Exuberant Color

I took the stack of 2.5" strips that were cut at the same time as I cut for the brown/gold Snail's Trail and paired darks and lights. I added some blues and greens into the mix for a woodsy nature pallete. I'm not sure if they will be a 16 patch quilt or 'the other 16 patch' with rectangular shapes.

This is what the groups looked like (dark/light) before I started pairing them.

After I sewed 20 of the 40 pairs I did one more cut and sewed 9 of them together.

I made a ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 2 weeks, 4 days ago. under strip piecing

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

I had the iron on to press some other fabrics so I pressed the binding fabric and got the 7 strips cut.

While I had the fabrics out for the Snail's Trail I also cut a 2.5" strip off the larger pieces. I needed a few more so I pressed some more fabric and cut them and now have 80 strips, 80 different fabrics. Maybe they will become a 16 patch when I need some mindless sewing.

While I was at it I cut a few more strips off some of the fabrics and there are 71 in ...

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

12 blocks and sewing columns.................... from Exuberant Color

The last 6 blocks have been pressed and trimmed and have joined the first six on the design wall. I have several thoughts about these blocks. First I thought they would be nice sewn together like this as the center of a medallion quilt. But then, the more I looked at it, I wondered how they would look with sashing between them and a wide border all around. I removed them as stacked columns so I could use the design wall for my other project.

I went down to the basement, looked one last time at the layout of this ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months, 1 week ago. under crazy piecing , marcia derse fabric , strip piecing

A little sewing.................... from Exuberant Color

I added some pieces to the partially assembled crazy pieced blocks, pressed and trimmed them. This will be a long table runner with the blocks measuring 8": 5 x 8" = 40", and that is before adding sashing or borders.

I tried this Marcia Derse fabric as a possible choice for sashing and border. With both light and dark strips on the outside edges of the blocks it becomes trickier to choose the fabric.

I also sewed the six half blocks for the 'other 16 patch' quilt, 2 of each that are shown. I need to press them and then I ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months, 2 weeks ago. under crazy piecing , marcia derse fabric , strip piecing , triangles

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 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months, 2 weeks ago. under crazy piecing , marcia derse fabric , strip piecing

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 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months, 3 weeks ago. under marcia derse fabric , strip piecing

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 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months, 3 weeks ago. under batiks , marcia derse fabric , organization , strip piecing

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 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 5 months, 3 weeks ago. under marcia derse fabric , nature , strip piecing

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 ...

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

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 ...

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

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 ...

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

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 ...

added by Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson 7 months ago. under 4 patch , batik , double 4 patch , nature , strip piecing

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