Wednesday 19 November 2014

Purple challenge

Aotearoa Quilters has been running a series of colour-themed 12" by 12" quilt challenges.  They've run a red version, and a blue version, and the most recent is a purple version.  I've finally gotten my act together and produced an entry!

Aotearoa Quilters Purple Challenge

This quilt was really made to allow me to continue my play with striped blocks, created by stitching 1" strips of fabric together, cutting them up, and sewing them back together again. I used a mix of prints and shot cottons in a variety of fairly intense purple shades for this quilt - I was feeling quite literal when I made my fabric selections!


I couldn't resist snapping a photo of the back of my piece before it was quilted.  I think I'll definitely have to do a "wrong sided" quilt someday.

Aotearoa Quilters Purple Challenge 

Here is is finished, and you can see that even the back is purple!  Don't worry, the quilt will be getting a label, I just hadn't stitched one on when I took photos.

You can see I quilted this little mini quite simply, with a grid of straight lines spaced 1/2" apart.  I think it works well for adding texture but not distracting too much from the piecing.  Unusually for me, I thought this quilt cried out for slightly shiny thread, so I used a 30 weight rayon thread that I would usually use for machine appliqué.  It was absolutely fine for quilting, but I did use a Superior Threads 90/14 Titanium top-stitching needle because this quilt is quite thick in places with all the little pieces.

Aotearoa Quilters Purple Challenge

A simple solid slightly brighter purple binding adds a definite frame to the quilt without detracting from its essential purple-ness!  All the entries in the 12" by 12" challenge are hung together, and it looks really effective - I can't wait to see how other people have interpreted the purple theme.  The quilts will be shown at Quilt Symposium in Palmerston North in January 2015.

Have you made a quilt especially for a challenge before?  I rather enjoyed this challenge, and the size means it's not too much of a commitment!

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7 comments:

Dominique said...

Adrianne, I am not usually a lover of purple, but this mini is irresistible! Love the stripes in low contrast. It's very intriguing.

Cassandra said...

I really love this quilt, and it's concept. I was intrigued by it when you posted the back shot on IG, and love getting to see it all finished. You're right, this is one quilt that definitely needed some sparkly thread.

magistra said...

Your quilt is awesome. I totally love it. Magistra13 at yahoo dot com
I hope you can share a picture of all of them hanging together later. I would love to see it!
Beth

Deb said...

This is very cool Adrianne. And purple is my fav colour so you had a head start with me anyway!!

Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl said...

Lovely! I like the simplicity of the quilting, and it will be neat to see your quilt hanging with the others.

Andree G. Faubert said...

Very nice! Can't go wrong with purple!

Camilla said...

Fascinating! Mesmerising seeing all those different fabric stripey intersections. So effective!