sugar tulips - a quilt finish

Meet my latest quilt top, Sugar! Such a fun project, and it looks exactly like I hoped it would. 

The Sugar quilt was inspired by my great love of spring tulips from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I wish they could last all year, but my new quilt will help to preserve them!

Sugar started with the blogger bundle that I put together for Fat Quarter Shop. Twelve fabulous, bright, happy prints and three vintage-inspired solids.

And I loved working with the Sugar pattern from Amber Johnson's book Vintage Vibe. It's a collection of 14 patterns for quilts, a runner and a pillow. I'd like to make the cover quilt, too. 

Each tulip measures 9" so this quilt can go together very quickly. Mine took longer, but that's only because I jumped around to so many different projects! The blocks are very easy to sew and the pattern is clearly written. And I'm lucky that I had a helper with claws to arrange the blocks.

(Yeah, don't believe that part about Mia being a "helper" - but luckily, no tulips were harmed in the making of the Sugar quilt.)

Sugar finishes at 64" x 80" and it doesn't have a border! The tulips just float against their white-on-white dotty background.

I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to everybody who has purchased my fat quarter bundle. I am humbled to know that so many of you added this collection of fabric to your stashes. When I put the collection together, I really hoped that you would be inspired to create your own happy projects. If you make a project with this bundle, please send me a note and maybe a picture or a link to your blog. I'd love to see what you made with it. There are a just a very few bundles left at Fat Quarter Shop, and you can order yours here.

a sugary quilt

Help me! I can't stop myself from starting new quilt projects! But I love my fat quarter bundle that I put together for Fat Quarter Shop so much that I just HAD to start another quilt.

Ok, so what to use for a pattern? Well, I bought the new Vintage Vibe book by Amber Johnson a few months ago. It's full of great patterns that are "a little bit vintage, a little bit modern". Perfect for me. The quilts all look familiar, but updated. There are fun little tips scattered throughout the book, and all of the fabric is identified by name and manufacturer. That's important to me. I've followed Amber's blog for quite awhile, and she's always on Instagram with fun stuff.

I knew right away that I wanted to make the Sugar quilt. It's a big 'ol bunch of tulip blooms. They're big 9" blocks, and only 8 fat quarters are needed. (The Greg Jones blogger bundle has 11 prints, three solids and 1 white-on-white print, which I've used for my background. That means I can make this quilt and still have leftovers for the mini quilt, which is also in the book!)

Only 32 of these flower blocks are needed for a 64" x 80" quilt so this should be really fast to put together, and a perfect size for my sofa. And fast is important right now because you know that I'm already planning the NEXT quilt.

Happy weekend, everybody!

sashed butterflies

Thirty butterflies are now captive within their sashing! Haha. I always forget just how long it takes to attach sashing. Not difficult, just time consuming. For my sashing posts I've used Moda Bella solid in 30's Yellow, and I think it sets them off perfectly. Those white-on-white Sunrise Studio dots kinda remind me of the snow that continues to fall here in NYC. So I have butterflies in the snow. (Hummm, maybe that's what I should call this quilt!)

A few butterflies are all perfectly matched and contain only one wing fabric. They blend in really nicely with the contrasting butterflies, and they only become visible with close inspection. 

And now it's time for me to pick out a border fabric. I'll admit that I'm a bit stumped. My quilty friend Susan would probably remind me that the quilt will take on whatever color I use in my border. And I know that she's right. So that means that I won't use red, because I want the red butterflies to just be little pops of brightness. I think that too much yellow can overpower a quilt. And pink will make it, well, pink. What I might choose is one of the pale blue prints - the gumballs or the lifesaver flowers. What do you think?

I'm using fabrics from the Greg Jones Blogger's Choice fat quarter bundle (hehe shamless plug again!) that you can get at Fat Quarter Shop. I'm starting to see my fabric bundle popping up on Instagram and it makes me SO happy to see that people are adding it to their collections. Remember, you can treat yourself for Valentine's Day! I do! And I'm using the Painted Ladies pattern by Fig Tree and Co.

No more sewing for me tonite. Friday night is sushi night around here! Have a great weekend everybody!

butterflies with blogger's choice bundle

Thank you all SO much for the Greg Jones Blogger's Choice Bundle love! I've enjoyed reading all your comments. And for those of you who purchased the bundle, thank you, thank you (you can get yours here). The GIVEAWAY will remain open until the end of this week, so you still have time to enter. Here's a link to the GIVEAWAY post.  

Ok, so now what to sew? Actually, I had one specific quilt in mind when I chose these fabrics. It's the Painted Ladies quilt pattern by Fig Tree & Co. I'm using the full-sized pattern with 7" butterflies, but there is also a mini version available.

I bought this pattern when it was released a few years ago, and it's been waiting for the perfect fabric. And then in November I had a run-in with a whole big bunch of butterflies.

I met my butterfly friends at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. They were in their own butterfly pavilion. And they clung to visitors, landing on people's arms, legs and heads. (The butterfly show was apparently so popular that tickets were issued on a timed basis. While awaiting our turn, we visited the Hope Diamond, which has been reset into a new necklace.) I said goodbye to the butterflies (really) and I knew that I needed to finally make the Painted Ladies quilt. I kept that in mind while selecting the fabrics for the fat quarter bundle.

It's nice to have a really easy quilt block to work on. No need to worry about cutting off any points here! I added the grey gingham butterfly bodies from my stash, but otherwise, I'm using every print and solid fat quarter from the blogger's choice bundle. I bought yardage of the white dot for my background.

I love this blue Wildflower Meadow print by Melly & Me with little hummingbirds and Queen Anne's Lace flowers. Kinda perfect for a butterfly quilt!

It's funny that I'm sewing butterflies, because as I write this, NYC is just beginning to feel THE blizzard. Will we really get 30" of snow? I hope so! Bring on the snow!

blogger bundle GIVEAWAY!

UPDATE - GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Yes, yes, yes! It's my first GIVEAWAY ever! I'm so proud to introduce you to the Greg Jones Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle for Fat Quarter Shop!

I was excited when Fat Quarter Shop asked me if I'd like to curate a collection of fabric. Actually, that's a huge understatement. I was completely over-the-moon excited! It's the closest that I've gotten to my "gee wouldn't it be fabulous to be a quilt fabric designer" dream. So here it is, my first group of fabrics just for you! 

My goal was to put together a collection that would give you the full Grey Dogwood Studio fabric experience. I try to incorporate dots, plaids, florals, and an occasional novelty print into every quilt project. And in the past year I've been experimenting with white-on-white and colored backgrounds. They really do add a whole new layer of interest to quilts. So of course, we needed some of those fabrics for you.

Here we have three of my favorite Moda Bella Solids in Fuchsia, 30's Yellow and Amelia Green, atop a classic white-on-white dot by Sunrise Studio / Lakehouse. Pure vintage color, just like the quilt that I WISH I would find at the flea market or antique shop.

I added in 11 brand new fabrics from Just Dreamy 2 by Zoe Pearn for Riley Blake, Pam Kitty Morning for Lakehouse Dry Goods and Wildflower Meadow by Melly & Me for Riley Blake.

Ok, so here's my little insider secret that won't be a secret anymore. I chose these fabrics by scouring/stalking the designer's websites, because the fabrics hadn't even been printed yet. And I had to just hope that they'd all work together. When the first blogger bundle arrived from Fat Quarter Shop last week I just couldn't believe how beautiful they are and how well they all play together. I've already started to cut mine up and very soon I'll show you a butterfly quilt that I'm working on.

I hope that you like it as much as I do. I hope that you hop over to Fat Quarter Shop to pick up your Greg Jones Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle. (And don't forget that it's ok to buy yourself a Valentine's Day gift!)

And those lovely people over at Fat Quarter Shop have given me an extra blogger bundle to give away! All you need to do is leave me a comment here (not an email) and let me know what you would make with this bundle. No need to do anything tricky, although, of course, I'd love it if you choose to follow me via Bloglovin' or subscription (links on top right column) or even over on Instagram (I'm greydogwoodstudio). Easy, right? And make sure that your email address is included when you comment so that I can notify the winner. I'll leave the giveaway open until Saturday, January 31 midnight EST. (UPDATE - GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.)

sneak peek! blogger's choice bundle for fat quarter shop!

I am SOOOO excited to share this sneak peek of my upcoming Blogger's Choice fat quarter bundle for Fat Quarter Shop!

I almost couldn't believe it when Fat Quarter Shop contacted me and asked if I would like to put together a selection of my favorite new fabrics for you. And once I got over the happy shock, I immediately started pulling fabric swatches.

I knew that I needed to have all of my favorite types of prints. I started with a floral focus print, and then added medium-sized blender prints. I then tossed in my absolute essentials - dots and plaid! A white-on-white dot livens up classic white. I finished up with three classic solids that I just cannot live without - hot pink, leafy green and buttery yellow. 

The bundle contains fabrics from some of my favorite upcoming collections:

• Just Dreamy 2 by Zoe Pearn for Riley Blake
• Pam Kitty Garden by Pam Kitty Morning for Lakehouse  Dry Goods
• Wildflower Meadow by Melly & Me for Riley Blake
• Sunrise Studio by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods
• Moda Bella Solids 

These prints are so new that they aren't even in the shop yet! The Greg Jones Blogger's Choice fat quarter bundle will be available in January 2015. I'll share more about these fabrics when they become available, and I CANNOT WAIT to start sewing with them. I'll share some fun, fat-quarter-friendly quilts and maybe even some other projects. 

I do hope that you like the bundle. Maybe you could even give Santa a hint that you'd like this as a post-Christmas gift! Would you like to be notified by Fat Quarter Shop as soon as the bundle is available? Or just want to see more details about the exact print? The bundle is already on their website here.