Knitted Star quilt - 2023 Kona Color of the Year: Crush
I was so excited to have the opportunity to make something with the 2023 Color of the Year...Crush! If you aren't familiar, Robert Kaufman releases a limited edition Kona Color every year, and it's always fun to see what colors and tones they add to their already impressive library of 365 solids! You might remember me making a quilt with their 2020 Color of the Year (COTY), Enchanted. That was also SUCH a fun project...one that I'm still super proud of to this day. You can read about that quilt here.
.
But back to the 2023 COTY....when I initially saw the color swatch, I thought WOW! It is SO rich and vibrant; they really did a great job naming this color too. Crush. It's fitting, right? My mind thinks of Valentines day, candy hearts and flowers. But I also love the imagery that they used around this color swatch. The citrus-y grapefruit them is so fitting and now when I see the color I think of a refreshing drink by the pool on a hot summer day. There are so many directions you could go with it!
.
So when Robert Kaufman asked if I wanted to create a project with the solid, it was an immediate YES. My mind instantly swirled with so many ideas! I played around with a few different Lo & Behold patterns...but I kept gravitating towards a two-color quilt so that you could really focus on that bright coral-y tone as much as possible.
.
I really loved light purple paired with Crush...specifically Orchid Ice, a very light purple felt like such a grounding and complementary pairing. At this point I was torn between doing something like a medium blue to balance the tone and saturation of Crush a little bit....or a purple which would REALLY make the quilt pop and have a brighter overall effect. Ultimately I went with Kona Delft as the Background because I felt like it let Crush "sing" a little more than the Orchid Ice did. But I couldn't let purple go, so I put it on the backing. :)
.
.
For the binding, I wanted something that tied in the background but also that framed in the quilt a little bit. Kona Windsor fit in perfectly and gave some good contrast between the back and the front, which I love. It's probably my go-to Kona shade of navy! It's perfect.
.
We have kits for this exact quilt top, binding and backing in our shop! Click the underlines to take you there!
.
I sent this quilt to Sara of Stitch Lab Quilting for a tight-turnaround beauty treatment from her long arm! We went with a pantograph called Diamond Loops by Longarm League in a light purple thread to match the backing.
.
Overall, this was a unique project for me! I feel like I stretched my limits a bit, and I'm so glad I did. If you want to see other quilts made with the 2023 COTY, be sure to check out Robert Kaufman's lookbook for Crush, found here!
Thanks for reading!
.
LINKS:
