Finished Quilt: Meridian

Meet Meridian..

The idea for this quilt came while I was knitting a scarf. The scarf had sections of stripes and each section carried one color and added in a new color. For example, in the scarf pattern,  the color changes looked like this: AB, BC, CD, DA. 

It was such a cool effect and I started thinking about ways to apply it to a quilt design. The blocks are made of simple rectangles and the color choices and color placement become the most important part of the design.  I chose all solids for the quilt top because they naturally have a crisp, graphic quality to them.

It took several days for me to decide on these colors and that was after doing mock-ups on the computer, pulling out every color card I own, and looking through many, many examples of radiant orchid online.

Kona colors from left: Regal, Dark Violet, Violet, Petunia, Orchid, Sky, Bluebell, Slate

This reminds me of a color gradient exercise in art class where I painted blue on the left side of a paper and yellow on the right. Then gradually added a little of each color to the opposite side until you find a true 50-50 mix of blue and yellow (green) in the middle of the paper. The same idea is shown here in an art instillation by Peter Wegner.

The backing is Sun Print by Alison Glass in Fuchsia. It was kind of perfect. I loved the colors and the scale of the print. It's fun to have a free flowing backing with a bunch of tossed, botanic motifs to an otherwise graphic and stark quilt.

I quilted it with a wavy stitch on my machine with grey Aurifil thread. It adds a softness to the otherwise hard, precise lines of the piecing. It amuses me that if you squint your eyes, it's like a radiant orchid mirage. 

QUILT DETAILS

Name: Meridian

Original Pattern

Measures: 42"x54"

Fabric: Kona in Regal, Dark Violet, Violet, Petunia, Orchid, Sky, Bluebell, Slate and Sun Print by Alison Glass in fuchsia

Thread: Aurifil #2606

Read more about this quilt here

I'm linking up with the Pantone Quilt Challenge, Radiant Orchid hosted by Anne of Play-Crafts and Adrianne of By The Windy Side.

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