For the last couple of years I have taken part in the Pantone quilt challenge: A Tangerine Tango mini quilt from 2012 and an Emerald Green block keeper from 2013. This year the colour is radiant orchid. Reading the comments on this colour, it isn't universally popular, but I like purple, and often find that when I ask people what colours they would like in a quilt, they say purple, yet it's such a hard colour to find when fabric shopping. Hopefully a year of Radiant Orchid will result in some more fabric collections which include purple.
Last year I made a cushion cover for a swap in purple, pink and turquoise and at the time I knew it was a colour scheme I wanted to revisit (and keep), so I raided my stash.
I decided to use the challenge as a way of solving two quilting requirements: last September we went to the quilt show at Harrogate with some friends and Liz was on the look out for a new project. She saw this quilt on display (I've found the blog - scroll to July 2013 - since starting this quilt with a little help - thank you Nan). There was no information on the pattern, so I agreed to draft it for her. Having never worked with octagons before I needed to check my maths was right by making a few blocks. The second requirement was one of Michael's colleagues had a baby girl in January and every baby needs a quilt!
Before Miss Mia arrived I had a finished quilt top! I had planned a piano keys border like the original at Harrogate, but just didn't have enough fabric, so picked up a nice busy print from a LQS.
On Sunday, Michael held the baby and I basted the quilt, with help from two four-legged friends... Then I had to decide how to quilt it. I was going to do a free motion stipple in the background to make the applique and the octagons pop. But my machine obviously knows I have a new love in my life and refused point blank. I'll fight that problem another day. So for this quilt I did fairly minimal straight line quilting around each octagon (inside and out) and around the border. I had thought about some hand quilting too but that may be just a bit too much at the moment.
So I'm calling this finished. I love the patchwork and applique and the colours. I'm slightly disappointed with the quilting, but imagination and machine let me down... ho hum! I am pleased that with a three-week old baby in the house I have finished this in time to enter the Pantone challenge.
The finished quilt is 38" x 38" and the fabrics all came from my stash: Kona Snow, Pearl Bracelets, Tilda, Acacia from Tula Pink, Beatrice Chain from Michael Miller, Art Gallery Oval Elements, Painters Canvas, Art Gallery Textures, Rosalie Quinlan from Lecien, Robert Kaufmann blenders, Art Gallery Poetica, Moda Flirt and some other random fabrics from my stash. The backing is Moda marbles in purple and the binding is an unknown purple stripe.
Hopefully Little Miss will sleep a bit longer so I can check out some of the other entries - a quick glance at the linky thumbnails and I can already tell there are some stunners!
Last year I made a cushion cover for a swap in purple, pink and turquoise and at the time I knew it was a colour scheme I wanted to revisit (and keep), so I raided my stash.
I decided to use the challenge as a way of solving two quilting requirements: last September we went to the quilt show at Harrogate with some friends and Liz was on the look out for a new project. She saw this quilt on display (I've found the blog - scroll to July 2013 - since starting this quilt with a little help - thank you Nan). There was no information on the pattern, so I agreed to draft it for her. Having never worked with octagons before I needed to check my maths was right by making a few blocks. The second requirement was one of Michael's colleagues had a baby girl in January and every baby needs a quilt!
Before Miss Mia arrived I had a finished quilt top! I had planned a piano keys border like the original at Harrogate, but just didn't have enough fabric, so picked up a nice busy print from a LQS.
On Sunday, Michael held the baby and I basted the quilt, with help from two four-legged friends... Then I had to decide how to quilt it. I was going to do a free motion stipple in the background to make the applique and the octagons pop. But my machine obviously knows I have a new love in my life and refused point blank. I'll fight that problem another day. So for this quilt I did fairly minimal straight line quilting around each octagon (inside and out) and around the border. I had thought about some hand quilting too but that may be just a bit too much at the moment.
So I'm calling this finished. I love the patchwork and applique and the colours. I'm slightly disappointed with the quilting, but imagination and machine let me down... ho hum! I am pleased that with a three-week old baby in the house I have finished this in time to enter the Pantone challenge.
The finished quilt is 38" x 38" and the fabrics all came from my stash: Kona Snow, Pearl Bracelets, Tilda, Acacia from Tula Pink, Beatrice Chain from Michael Miller, Art Gallery Oval Elements, Painters Canvas, Art Gallery Textures, Rosalie Quinlan from Lecien, Robert Kaufmann blenders, Art Gallery Poetica, Moda Flirt and some other random fabrics from my stash. The backing is Moda marbles in purple and the binding is an unknown purple stripe.
Hopefully Little Miss will sleep a bit longer so I can check out some of the other entries - a quick glance at the linky thumbnails and I can already tell there are some stunners!
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