Lazy Sunday on the Huron

It’s hard to find words to describe a day like today, so I’ll let the photos do the talking.

We set out to do a kayak trip from Barton dam down to Gallup park on the Huron river. It was a gorgeous day. We spotted so many animals– even a hawk with babies trailing behind, and a heron in flight. They were too quick to catch with my camera, but there were plenty of other subjects on which to focus.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!

Finish Line!

As some of you know, things have been a little quiet on my blog lately because I’ve been working on finishing my Ph.D. I’m so happy to report that yesterday I successfully defended my dissertation, so now it’s official– you can call me Dr. Greenleaf Goods!

Writing a dissertation is such a long and trying process. In many ways, quilting helped me get through it! The elements of quilting actually have a lot in common with doing a big research project. From the first idea about a new project, to selecting the materials to be used, to pulling everything together and finishing things up, there are many steps in the process, and often others can’t see your vision until it is complete. My dissertation took years and years to finish (as most do), and having tangible, finished quilts along the way to show for my work helped! Also, in reflecting on this process, I realized that when I began conceptualizing my research studies and collecting data, I didn’t know how to quilt! Since I learned, I’ve been totally hooked, and have probably finished upwards of 50 quilts in the past couple of years. Just to get an idea of the volume of quilting I’ve done while completing my dissertation, I put together the mosaic above. This only represents a fraction of the quilts and projects I’ve finished– I still have quite a backlog of other quilts and projects I’d like to document on my blog. One thing I like about keeping track of projects this way is the perspective it gives me– I don’t even think I could remember all of these projects if I didn’t have a record of them!

So– stay tuned, because I have quite a few more projects to share in the upcoming weeks!

Giveaway Winner

I was completely overwhelmed by the response to my Sew Mama Sew giveaway!! 532 people left a comment to enter the giveaway, and while I haven’t had time to respond to all of the comments, I read them all and I loved hearing about your favorite designers and fabrics! I have a few new recommendations to check out (though, I have to admit– my stash is quite sizable, and I should *probably* stop buying fabric until I use a little more up!).

Anyway, on to the good stuff! The winner of the giveaway is comment #50, who was Julie! Julie said, “I love Denyse Schmidt, too! These charms would make a great baby quilt.” Julie, I’ve sent you an email to get your address, and I’ll get these sent to you soon!

Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day!

*** This Giveaway is Now Closed**

Today is giveaway day at Sew Mama Sew! Twice a year Sew Mama Sew hosts a coordinated giveaway, where anyone who is hosting a giveaway on their blog can link up, creating a huge selection of blogs to visit to enter to win all sorts of good stuff! If you’re visiting from Sew Mama Sew, thanks for stopping by!

I thought I’d share some of my *favorite* goodies today. Nothing gets me more excited to sew than a gorgeous pile of fabric, and my absolute favorites are from Denyse Schmidt. She was the first quilt and fabric designer I recognized by name when I took up sewing a couple of years ago, and I love pretty much every fabric she has designed! Today I’m giving away a 2 charm squares of each print pictured here, including fabric from her lines of Flea Market Fancy (the original!), Katie Jump Rope, and Hope Valley. I made sure there were a range of colors so any sort of project or color scheme would be possible with these prints!

One possibility would be to make a quilt like my Flea Market Fancy Colorful Squares. Pairing prints with coordinating or complementary solids can stretch them quite a bit, and can highlight your favorite prints!

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment! And if you have a favorite fabric designer or line of fabrics you’d recommend, I’d love to know what it is! This giveaway is open to everyone, and I will ship internationally.

Bloggers Quilt Festival: Blue Squares Improv Baby Quilt

I’m so excited that it’s time for the bloggers quilt festival again, which is generously hosted by Amy of Amy’s Creative Side! I got to meet Amy briefly last year at the Sewing Summit, and she was awesome and is clearly full of good ideas– the bloggers quilt festival is a way for all of us not attending the annual International Quilt Market to share in the fun. I was sad not to be able to join my friends (Brenda, Anna, Debby, and Lynn, all of whom are in my local modern quilt guild) at market this year, but I thought this was the perfect opportunity to share a new quilt I recently finished!

For lack of a better name, I’m calling this one the blue squares improv baby quilt. This quilt was such a joy to make because I love improvisational piecing– there is something so fun and playful about it, and I love it because you can’t make a mistake or do something wrong! I also love the modern look it creates. For this quilt top, I wanted to feature 4 improv blocks, but I wanted more visual interest, so I added improvisationally pieced blue squares in the upper corner. One friend commented that it looked almost pixelated, as if I had zoomed in on the smaller pieces. I loved that idea, and I think it’s a pretty accurate description!

For the back I kept things simple, and went for connected and framed squares. I love how quickly a baby quilt can come together, and I really enjoy quilting small quilts. I machine quilted it in a meandering, organic pattern (or, “allover” quilting as my friend Emily has said).

Thanks so much, Amy, for letting me share this in the quilt festival! And, if you all have a chance, you should head over to Amy’s blog to check out some of the other quilts– there are always a lot to see, and a lot to be inspired by!

Summer Citrus Framed Patchwork Quilt

Wow, it feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve had time to sit down and write a post! I have a good excuse, though. Over the last month I’ve been putting the final touches on my dissertation, which has taken pretty much all of my time, but means that I’m almost done with graduate school!

I’m really excited to have time to get back to my sewing machine now, and I recently finished my summer citrus patchwork quilt. I made this quilt using my fat quarter friendly framed patchwork quilt top tutorial. This quilt was so fun to make, and working with such bright colors was exactly what I needed!

The back is a large scale simple patchwork, using a couple of solids and a couple of my favorite prints. There’s something about simple patchwork that I love so much! I can never get enough.

**Since our house is getting filled up with quilts, I decided that this one would head to my etsy shop, where it might find a new home to brighten up! You can find the listing here.

A Framed Patchwork Quilt Top Tutorial

A few weeks back I mentioned that I was working on a project with my blogger bundle from Pink Castle Fabric. Sadly it looks like Brenda has sold out of this particular bundle, but she’s got plenty others in her shop!

I was drawn to the fabrics for my bundle because of the color. I find color drives a lot of the fabric choices I make! I also like to pay attention to value, and I like when there’s a good blend or light and dark fabrics. With that in mind, I wanted a project that would make these fabrics shine together, so I came up with the framed patchwork quilt.

In order to make this easy, I thought I’d provide instruction on how to quickly cut up 12 fat quarters for this project. The piecing is pretty straightforward, so I won’t go over that here– but if you have any questions just leave a comment and I can help.

I would stack up 4 fat quarters at a time and would cut them as follows:
1. Trim off selvedge edge
2. Trim along 22 inch edge (for a straight cut)
3. Cut 3 strips that are 22″ by 4.5″, and one strip that is 22″ by 3.5″ (the 3.5″ strips are for the outer border)
4. Cut the 4.5 inch strips into 4.5″ squares (make 4 cuts so that you end up with 12 squares)

In addition, you’ll need 3.5 inch wide strips of a solid for your inner border. For this quilt I used an essex linen/cotton blend. Sew together your squares to make a 12 x 12 patchwork block. Next, add the 3.5 inch wide border strips. Finally, piece together the longer border strips, and add those to the outside of the quilt. You’ll end up with a lovely throw sized quilt top– roughly 60 inches square. And very little left over scraps from your fat quarters– I used mine in the back of the quilt, which I’ll share as soon as I have time to take a good picture!