Will the Real Viva Magenta Please Stand Up? Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023
When I saw the Pantone Color of the Year this year, I knew I would make something with it this year. I mean - I already had three fabrics that qualified as Viva Magenta in my stash. Sarah Ruiz of https://saroy.net/ and Elizabeth Ray of
were hosting a challenge, but I didn't have much of an idea. I decided not to put any pressure on myself - I just didn't feel like it could be forced; if nothing came, that was alright.
Then one day, I was looking at some mid-century modern art, and I got a flash of an idea: A two color quilt with negative space! I did some sketching and yes, I had an idea that I loved. But which color of Viva Magenta should I use? I decided that since I already had 3 in my stash, I would get some of the rest and then decide.
As I looked at all them laid out, I thought "Why not use them all?" It would add interest to the piece. In the sketch I had the magenta and white space, but that wasn't too exciting. So I auditioned black (okay but not quite, a beautiful blue (meh) and finally grabbed my neon stash. When I saw the Acid Lime with the magenta's, that's when I got excited!
So I drew up some templates (wish I'd had my large clammies by Latifah Saafir at the time, could have used them) and put the quilt together at a retreat. I deliberately didn't pay attention to which hue of Viva Magenta I was using - just cut a bunch of pieces and grabbed them randomly and sewed them together. That was in back April. another thing I didn't really fret about was perfection. The half-circles and circles are NOT perfect. don't know why, but i decided that imperfect was good in this piece. For some reason which I cannot really explain, I like this slight wonkiness. I could have tried to correct it and maybe succeeded, but I kind of feel like it adds a kind of hand-painted feeling to the piece...I guess.
I went to Spain for two weeks and when I got back the clock was ticking. I had to quilt the thing, but I didn't want the quilting to be too intrusive - it is a minimalist design. I also wanted to quilt the quilt in a different way than just following the lines of the circles, so I went and looked at some fabric lines with circles. The negative space quilting was inspired by a Guicy Guice fabric called Petri pattern. The magenta space was kind of inspired by Allison Glass fabric that kind of has a compass (maybe that's the name of the fabric...) look to it that was popular about 8 or 9 years ago. I used neon threads (lately neon has been a kind of obsession for me) to quilt the piece, and I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing. It was so much fun to make.
So here is my entry for the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023: Will the REAL Viva Magenta Please Stand Up?
What a gorgeous quilt. The lime does go well with the magenta.
Hey there! Could you please let me know the size of this quilt and whether you are USA or international? We need to know this for the challenge judging and prizes. Thanks!
I really love that Acid Lime with the magenta. Love the shapes and the happy essence of this quilt. Great work!