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It’s Not Easy: The Story Behind My Green Monochromatic Quilt

Two different groups handed me the same assignment: make a quilt in one color.

QuiltCon has the Pick-A-Color Scrappy Challenge. SAQA has Color in Context: Green. Then a song I grew up with moved into my head and stayed there. You know the one. Kermit, singing that it’s not easy being green.

This is the story of the quilt that came out of that song. It’s called It’s Not Easy, and it’s a 40 by 58 inch green monochromatic quilt in raw edge appliqué. Design started in May. The last stitch went in on October 18. Somewhere in between there was a seam ripper, and we’ll get to that.

The finished It's Not Easy quilt, a woman in a wide-brimmed hat and long coat made from dozens of green fabrics, held up outdoors in front of fall trees.
It's Not Easy, 40 by 58 inches, raw edge appliqué.

What It's Not Easy means to me

Here’s my artist statement, word for word:

It's Not Easy

Women have long been feared, judged, and vilified for daring to be different, questioning authority, and refusing to surrender their power.

In a time when women’s rights and autonomy are once again under attack, this work celebrates those who refuse to become smaller, quieter, or more agreeable.

It’s not easy being different. It’s not easy being a woman. But there is extraordinary power in standing tall, speaking up, and refusing to apologize.

Perhaps that’s what they’re afraid of.

That song kept pulling the thread. “It’s not easy being green” started as a frog’s line, and it turned into a list I kept adding to:

  • It’s not easy caring about the planet and trying to make good choices.
  • It’s not easy being different.
  • It’s not easy being a woman.
  • It’s not easy being the nerd in the room.
  • It’s not easy walking a true middle way with AI in my own creative process.

Yes, you could look at her and call her fan art of a particular movie. To me she means more than that. She holds every line on that list.

The It's Not Easy quilt hanging on a wall, lit from below with green light.
Hanging at home, lit green, because of course.

Starting with AI, finishing by hand

The design started with AI images as a starting point. I brought several versions into Illustrator and reworked them by hand until the composition was mine. Then I gave her color: greens, and only greens.

I was careful the whole way never to use anyone’s character or movie names in anything I did. Being respectful of other people’s work matters to me, and it’s a big part of how I think about using these tools at all. (I’ve written before about why I stopped apologizing for my tools.)

AI gave me a starting point. Every choice after that was mine: the drawing, the colors, every fabric, every cut, every stitch.

If you’re curious how I work this way, ethics included, it’s the whole subject of my book, Digital Muse: Bringing AI into your Creative Process.

A grayscale drawing of a woman in a wide-brimmed hat holding a broom, surrounded by bare trees.
The grayscale version.
The same design in shades of green, open on a computer screen in Adobe Illustrator.
Then she went green.

Planning a one-color quilt starts with value

A quilt in one color lives or dies on value, meaning how light or dark each fabric reads. I’ve written about how a quilt in one value disappears, and a green monochromatic quilt is the fastest way to prove it.

Before I cut a single piece, I sorted every green I had from lightest to darkest. Then every section of the drawing got a number, so once I was deep in the build I already knew which green went where. (Choosing fabric colors is my love language. Planning them is how I keep my sanity.)

That’s the same planning every one of my quilt patterns walks you through before you cut anything. If you want the color tool I reach for, grab my 3-in-1 Color Tool.

Green fabrics fanned out on a cutting table next to a printed value chart running from light to dark green.
Every green, sorted light to dark.
A printed green design of a woman's face and hat with numbers marked on each section.
Every section gets a number.

Building her in raw edge appliqué

Every piece is raw edge appliqué, cut by hand with no tracing, and fused in place with Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 from The Warm Company. (If you’ve never printed directly onto it, here’s how to print directly onto Lite Steam-A-Seam 2.)

My Oliso mini iron got into all the little spots a full-size iron can’t reach, which on a quilt with this many tiny pieces is most of them.

I also tried a few new experiments on this one. I’m still playing with them, so you’ll hear more when I’m ready.

I built her on my Cutterpillar Premium lightboard. Partway through, I set it next to my old lightboard, which was a nice one, and that was it. The old one needed to go. An Ultra is in my future. (I’m a Cutterpillar affiliate. Code THERESABENSON gets you 15% off at Cutterpillar.)

Two lightboards side by side, one glowing noticeably brighter and whiter than the other.
Old lightboard, new lightboard. Spot the difference.
A broom and the hem of a long coat built from dozens of small green fabric pieces, partway through construction.
The broom, one piece at a time.
Close-up of a raw edge appliqué face in green and purple fabrics under a wide black hat.
Her face is my favorite part. Don't tell the broom.

At one point I found a piece of her stuck to the bottom of my shoe. Quilters, check your shoes before you leave the house.

A small green fabric scrap stuck to the sole of a sneaker.
Found her. Part of her, anyway.

Pressing a quilt bigger than any ironing board

No ironing board is big enough for a 40 by 58 inch quilt top, so I built my own pressing surface on the floor with Oliso wool mats. Their silicone connectors join the mats together into whatever shape the job needs, long and narrow or fat and wide. Super freaking genius.

The green quilt top laid out on gray wool pressing mats on the floor.
My floor, my rules, my pressing surface.

The seam ripper moment

Then I quilted her, and at one point I wasn’t paying attention.

The batting and backing folded up underneath and got stitched right in. Ahh, seam rippers. Glad they exist, hate that I need one.

I ripped it out and kept going. It happens to every one of us, and if you’ve been quilting for a while, you probably have a photo like this somewhere too.

The back of a quilt where the batting folded over on itself and got caught in the quilting stitches, with safety pins nearby.
Exhibit A.

A hardware store tool for straight borders

For the border, I used a laser square from Harbor Freight. The idea came from Maddie, The Badass Quilter (@the_badass_quilter on Instagram), and it made this so much easier. The laser throws one straight line down the whole border, so I could line my ruler up with it and trust it.

Your next favorite quilting tool might be sitting in the hardware store. (More of my favorites live in Tools and Gadgets.)

A red laser square sitting on a quilt border, projecting a straight red line along the edge.
Harbor Freight, for the win.
Close-up of the finished, quilted broom in dark and light green fabrics.
The broom, quilted and finished.

Caring about the planet is part of green too

“It’s not easy being green” also means trying to make good choices for the planet, and for me that includes being honest about what AI costs.

I put together a free Citizen Toolkit for Data Center Accountability for anyone who wants to ask good questions about the data centers going up near them. It includes search terms you can use to find the rules where you live.

If you’d like the longer version, I wrote about who’s accountable for AI’s environmental footprint.

Will there be a pattern?

I’ve had several requests. She isn’t a pattern, and she won’t be one. She’s staying with me.

The finished green art quilt standing in a field of tall grass in front of a bare tree.
Staying with me.
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