Radiant Orchid Quilt Challenge {Finished}

I've been working on this quilt over the last week or two for the 2014 Pantone Quilt challenge hosted by Adrianne and Anne. The colour for this year is Radiant Orchid - and like my literal interpretation of Emerald last year, I've made a literally radiant quilt.

This quilt started out as a pile of purple fabrics of varying values, with no definite plan. I sorted them by value, cut strips of various widths (mostly about 2 or 3") and sewed them together before cutting wedge shapes. I originally intended to have a full circle of wedges, but decided to go for this layout at the last minute. I'm glad I did, as I think it makes for a more interesting design with the wedges radiating from the corner.

This is essentially my first whole cloth quilt - the wedges are appliqued onto the Kona charcoal background, and I've had a lot of fun using free motion quilting to create the rest of the design, using Aurifil threads (2530 and 1158). I normally use thread that blends into the background as much as possible, but for this quilt I thought it would be fun to use a contrasting thread and extend the wedges out with quilting. It was so much trickier quilting like this, knowing every little thing would stand out. I decided to go with minimal straight lines between the wedges, as I wanted to add some movement through those sections, but didn't want to detract from the wedge shapes and pink quilting by making it too complex.

The medallion/star design caused a fair amount of stress - I think I spent more time figuring out what to do than I spent actually quilting it. I'm pleased with how it turned out, but I'm not certain it was the right decision. Originally I'd intended to do a giant spiral, but once I started I realised how difficult it was going to be to quilt such a large circle without it looking terrible (have I ever mentioned how much of a perfectionist I am?!?) So this was a compromise of sorts - I like it, but I do wonder if it 'fits' with the rest of the quilt. I did mark several of the circles, and the straight lines running through the centre, but apart from that it is all free hand quilting. I really do love how the different densities in the quilting have given the star a three dimensional aspect.

Quilt Details:
Fabric: Kona Charcoal background, with various radiant orchid fabrics.
Size: about 40" square
Batting: Double layer of bamboo batting
Quilting: By me on my domestic Bernina, using Aurifil 50wt 1158 and 2530.

I will be linking up with Adrianne and Anne on Friday when the linky part opens (and also with Crazy Mom Quilts and Free Motion Friday). I'm really looking foward to checking out the other Radiant Orchid entries - are you joining in?

xx Jess