Monday 20 January 2014

2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge: Inspiring Purple Quilts

As part of the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge, I wanted to show some inspiring modern quilts that feature purple.  As Anne said in her colour series post, it has been hard to find great purple fabrics for the last little while, which might go some way to explaining why purple is not a colour that has featured heavily in modern quilts (until now, maybe?). That said, I think purple can look very modern - it's just how you use it!

These quilts don't necessarily use Radiant Orchid, or even purples that are particularly close to Radiant Orchid.  However, in the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge, we're not being super strict - we would just like you to be in the zone of Radiant Orchid.  I hope these quilts provide you with some inspiration - they certainly inspire me!

First up, is this quilt called Doppelgänger (Redux) by Thomas Knauer.  I love how vibrant it is with all that purple!  The arrangement of floating blocks is fun, and this is a great example of a quilt that uses lots and lots of different colours while still having purple as most definitely the feature colour!


This next quilt is a kaleidoscope quilt by the talented Erica from Kitchen Table Quilting.  Purple is actually not the dominant colour in this quilt, in the sense that there are more fabrics of other colours in here.  However, for me, the quilt reads purple.  Erica used slightly more blue-y purples than the red-violet of Radiant Orchid, and the complementary colour for a blue-purple is a golden yellow-orange.  You can see she's brought that in, together with hot pinks and cool greys for contrast.


In contrast to the first two quilts which combine lots of different colours with purple, this next one is a strictly monochromatic affair.  This monochromatic modern quilt by Angela Flicker of The Artists' House is intricate and very beautiful.  It must have taken a long time to put all that piecing and sashing together.


If you read Anne's For the Love of Colour post, you'll have seen that the complementary colour for red-violet (i.e. Radiant Orchid) is chartreuse or lime green. Cathy from Blueberry Patch made incredibly good use of this exact colour scheme in her Gemstones for a Friend quilt.  The crisp white means that these two highly contrasting colours sing, but don't shriek.


Purple and grey is an extremely classic combination, and I think you'll see why with the next three quilts.  This Purple Diamonds quilt made by Becky at My Fabric Obsession shows how you can mix a really wide range of different purples, especially when you have grey as a background.


This purple kaleidoscope quilt, made by Tina of Seaside Stitches, is perfectly elegant with slightly more blue purples against a crisp light grey background.


And this Flying Purple People Eater quilt by Jessica from Quilty Habit shows the power of purple.  If you look at all the fabrics used in the star, many of them contain colours other than purple.  However, put together, the overall effect is definitely purple!


Finally, this courthouse steps quilt is a work in progress, currently being made by Becca of Bryan House Quilts.  Becca has used a very clever trick in making this quilt.  While the lighter areas appear to be white, they are actually very pale pink and peach fabrics.  This has reduced the contrast between the lighter and darker areas of the quilt (which generally gives a slightly softer look), but unless you look really closely, the light fabrics still look white.  That girl's got smarts!


I want to thank the quilt bloggers who made all of these quilts - first for doing such inspirational work, and second for agreeing to let me share it with you here!  I hope you've found it inspiring.

As the organisers, Anne and I are not going to enter the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge.  However, we're both planning to make something featuring Radiant Orchid (or thereabouts).  I've been plotting, and it's quite possible I'll end up with two Radiant Orchid makes - oops!  What do you think - will you be entering?

2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge: Radiant Orchid

Follow on Bloglovin

14 comments:

Anne said...

Man, this is such a stunning collection! I love the all together. :D
I haven't figured out what I'm doing yet, but this has given me loads of ideas. :)

Debbie said...

Nice post and I adore all of these quilts! wow.

Jessica said...

Found some more purple quilts to pin and be inspired by! Thank you for the feature!! :)

Adrienne said...

These are all so beautiful, thank you for sharing. Purple is it for the year I think!

Michelle@factotum-of-arts.com said...

Great collection, and for sure will be entering something :-)

Wendy @ Wendysquiltsandmore said...

I'm quickly building my collection of purple fabrics for this challenge. I chose one pattern but then changed my mind to another. The cutting starts tomorrow!

Kris said...

I love this group of purply quilts. When is the deadline for the Patone challenge? I have to put my thinking cap on and keep collecting purples.

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Stunning collection and inspiration x

Susan said...

There are many fabulous examples there of why purple should be used more often in quilts! Lovely!

jeifner said...

I do want to Orchid quilt along.

Gina said...

Thank you for showing these quilts.I use alot of purple in my quilts as it's my favourite colour xx

DaisyLiz said...

I especially like what you pointed out about that courthouse steps quilt - I'd like to get more experience working with color that way. So clever!

Rebecca said...

Thanks Adrienne!

I do love purple and look forward to it being used in more modern quilts and fabrics.

If it's true about there not being a bunch of purple modern fabrics, is it sad that I have a stash of roughly 30 different purples? *gulp!*

It is hard to find the full range of purple colors though, especially from purple to blue.

Thanks for hosting!

Anonymous said...

What a great round up! Thank you! Purple is far and away my favorite color, so this will be a good year for me...