It's Easy Being Green, 24" x 24" or 61cm x 61cm

By Kathie R Kerler

I selected green for my monochromatic quilt, because although I have done a number of floral-themed quilts, green is not the star of the show. This quilt would make me focus on it exclusively.

I had taken pictures of fallen maple leaves one autumn and used those as my templates. Yes, they are brown in places as you can see from my example photo, but I obviously chose to ignore that. Instead, I looked through my green fabrics and chose a variety of prints for visual texture and a solid sheer, all with a range of light and dark values.

After cutting out the leaves, I auditioned various compositions, overlaying the leaves on one another. The next decision was choosing the background fabric. I tried a couple different ones and settled on an ombré that also featured a value range.

Next choice was technique. How was I going to appliqué the leaves? They were fused down, and I usually machine appliqué with either a zigzag or buttonhole stitch. Instead, I chose to appliqué and quilt at the same time by laying a sheer chiffon scarf over the top and stitching around each leaf. I tried a couple of scarves in a range of greens and selected the one you see in the finished image at the top.

The edge finish is a facing.

The title comes from Sesame Street’s Kermit the Frog who laments in song, “It’s Not Easy Being Green”. In the case of my quilt, it is easy being green, because the execution techniques made the quilt so easy to put together.

Below are two detail shots.