Radiant Orchid Challenge

The time has arrived; the link opened today for the Pantone Quilt Challenge. The 2014 Color of the Year has been really growing on me, especially with all the fantastic prints coming out in this hue.

For my entry, I chose to create a Lone Star using Janice's tutorial on her Better Off Thread blog.  

Photo from Better Off Thread

Rather than create the star from three complete and two partial diamonds, I decided to angle it a bit differently, scotch it over, and have enough pieces remaining from my Kaffe jellyroll to make two quilts. Why? Because this quilt was destined to serve as a swap gift for my secret pal at Quilt Bliss, and, somewhat lacking in selflessness, I wanted one too.

I marked quilting lines using my Bohin marking pencil, which is honestly one of my favorite notions. I use it any time I want to mark darker fabrics.

I started at the edge of the star and marked lines 1 1/2" out. I continued until the lines met or made it to the outer edge of the quilt. By my calculations, this would suffice to keep the batting from bunching. If I felt the need for additional quilting, I could always mark and quilt down the middle of each completed line to make them 3/4" apart instead. Doing lines further apart first makes pleating and bunching less likely anyway. I used a bright green 40 weight thread and my walking foot. It turned out to be a nice wall-hanging size at 34" square.

Thanks for stopping by, and welcome to all new visitors.