"Plumes of Orchid" - A Radiant Orchid Mini Quilt

I'm so excited to share my mini quilt entry into the Pantone Orchid Challenge with Play Crafts and On The Windy Side: Plumes of Orchid! Purple is my favorite(st) of all colors ever, so I've been over the moon about this year's Color of the Year. My Modern Quilt Guild is even making swap items with Radiant Orchid (and/or purple) for the April meeting! They shall do my bidding... mwahahaha.

This quilt fell into place easily.  Between needing/wanting to make a Radiant Orchid quilt, and planning a mini swap with Renee, one of my best bloggy friends, I decided to "catch two butterflies with one net." I especially admire Renee's free motion quilting skills and her Doctor Who quilts! Check out the quilt she sent me this past week - o.m.g. I just keep switching it over so I can see both sides! And today, I'm sharing this one because she just got it in the mail!

Design: Renee indicated her love for the Anna Maria Horner feather pattern and for the feather quilt I'd made for the Madrona Road Challenge, Birds of a Feather (plus, her blog is Quilts of a Feather... so it was a no brainer!). I pieced two of them on the scrappy back (though I forgot to make the mirror image piece, and I noticed the error too late in the process. I think it looks ok!). I found a really great tutorial from the Intrepid Thread for the front feathers (or leaves, if you will). Julie emphasizes that the feathers shouldn't be "perfect" and I definitely didn't stress about that, lol!

The back - Anna Maria Horner feathers

Color: For Renee's gray sewing room, I used a dark gray (Kona Coal) background and pops of teal (one of her favorite colors). The orchid was a no-brainer. I did buy a few new prints since I had a lot of light purples but few genuine "orchids." The Collage border is definitely my favorite part - I feel like it pulls the whole quilt together. :) It even has pops of teal! It couldn't be more perfect for Renee!

Quilting: This is the first time I tried circle quilting with echoes. I was inspired by my friend Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts to try it (thanks Lorna!). I used my FMQ foot with much success! It's definitely a design I'll try again soon, but on a quilt much bigger than this, I'm not so sure it would come out the way I envision (too much drag - definitely doable on a long arm, though). I also pebbled on the border - a much-loved FMQ design in this apartment :).

Oh, I soooo had quilt separation anxiety this time (okay, that's usually the case). I think it's especially because of the purple, and how much I happen to have fallen in love with the combination of purple/orchid, gray, and teal. Overall, though, I'm glad it's going to a good friend. I hope she loves it! I wish I could take a picture with her, WITH our quilts!

Quilt Stats:
Designed, Pieced, and Quilted by: me (with tutorials from Julie Dueck and Anna Maria Horner), on my Janome MC 6300

Size: 28 x 28

Quilted with: Aurifil (for the first time!)

Also linking up to: FAL Quarter 1, Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story, Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilting Infatuation, I Quilt @ Pretty Bobbins, TGIFF,