How to Use Kona's 2023 Colour of the Year - Crush - In Your Quilts

Kona Colour of the year banner - crush.

There's been a lot of buzz around Kona's Colour of the Year and, I must admit, I'm loving their choice. Crush is inspired by the deep reds and purples found in freshly cut blood oranges. Yum!

This particular hue maintains a beautiful balance between bold/saturated and bright/warm. It's not as dark as sanguine or as sweet as watermelon - it's a playful medium tone that'll easily pair with high to medium contrasting fabrics as shown in Satomi Quilts' Fall Blooming sample, or with low contrasting fabrics like Lo and Behold Stitchery's Knitted Star and Modern Handcraft's Hexie Pillow samples.

I tried my hand at incorporating crush into my own patchwork designs. Scroll on to learn more about my approach and to browse some show-stopping mock-ups.

How I Incorporated Kona Crush Into My Star Quilts

Patchwork is partly an experimentation in colour play - the first challenge is to find a palette that'll highlight the story you're trying to tell with your piecing. So while crush may have us crushing, we've got to take a moment and evaluate how to make it work for our individual projects. 

After loads of experimentation, I found myself drawn to the mockups where crush was not the most dominant, so I steered away from using it as a background colour. Instead, I leaned into shades of blues, and used neutrals  - like buttermilk, peach, and caramel - to balance the designs into stand-out star quilts.

Have a browse through the examples below (a selection of my Constellations Series) featuring three effective and interesting palettes. Oh, and feel free to take notes on your favourites, or bookmark this page for future reference!

Note: The colour swatches below appear in the same order as the fabric requirements in each of the patterns. Borrow them if you'd like!

The Square of Pegasus Quilt (#tsoppattern)

The Square of Pegasus (TSOP) star pattern features a lot of negative space, so it was important to find an interesting background colour that wouldn't overwhelm the minimal design. The gold played nicely with the denim blue and crush to make a sophisticated primary colour palette.

TSOP Baby Quilt 

To make this version: Print (2) copies of the large templates included in the pattern. Complete the templates using the colour palette below. Add borders to finish the quilt top. 
The Square of Pegasus baby quilt mockup featuring Kona's colour of the year crush on a gold background.

TSOP Large Throw/Bed Quilt

To make this version: Print (24) copies of the small templates included in the pattern. Complete the templates and sew pieces into the required number of units, as described. Lay the units in columns as shown in the mockup below to create a tiled layout. Add or remove negative space in your design to achieve the desired density of stars. For example, add an additional strip of fabric A (background) between each star in a column for a minimal look, or trim the amount of negative space on either side of a column to have the stars closer together. 

The Square of Pegasus throw quilt mockup featuring Kona's colour of the year crush on a gold background.

Lyra's Hymn Quilt (#lyrashymnquilt)

The colour palette featured in the Lyra's Hymn mockup below is an unexpected gem! The icy blue background perfectly showcases the saturated colours I added to the mix. Crush takes centre stage as the main portion of the star and is complimented by denim blue, cerise, and a pop of gold. The buttermilk neutral provides some high-contrast and brings these unexpected colours into a harmonious design.

Lyra's Hymn Baby Quilt

To make this version: Print (2) copies of the large templates included in the pattern. Complete the templates using the colour palette below. Add borders to finish the quilt top. 
lyra's hymn star quilt pattern featuring konas colour of the year, crush.  

Lyra's Hymn Large Throw/Bed Quilt

To make this version: Print (30) copies of the small templates included in the pattern. Complete the templates and sew them into the required units, as described. Add or remove negative space in your design to achieve the desired density of stars.
Lyra's Hymn throw sized quilt featuring kona's colour of the year, crush, on an icy blue background.

Nesting Phoenix Quilt (#nestingphoenixquilt)

These Nesting Phoenix mockups below capture what I had imagined when I first designed the star. The moroccan look of the design lends itself so beautifully to a tiled quilt layout.

Dark blue backgrounds are one of my favourite choices - they're gender neutral and provide a stark contrast without being too dark or dull.

In this example, I'm demonstrating a quick and easy way to take a foundation paper pieced block and make it into a larger complex-looking project. The trick is to alternate the colour layout of your stars.

The baby quilt mockups use the exact same palette, but I've changed where each of the colours are placed. Follow Kona's crush from one design to the next - do you see how a simple change can affect the overall look? This strategy excites the eye and engages viewers more than a repeating block ever could.

Nesting Phoenix Baby Quilt

To make this version: Print (2) copies of the large templates included in the pattern. Complete the templates using one of the colour palette below. Add borders to finish the quilt top. 
Four versions of the nesting phoenix baby quilts featuring kona's colour of the year, crush, on a dark blue background.

Nesting Phoenix Large Throw/Bed Quilt

To make this version: Print (32) copies of the small templates included in the pattern. Experiment with (4) different star colour layouts. Make (4) of each star, but do not sew the quadrants together yet. Lay the quadrants out as shown in the mockup to create a tiled design. Add or remove negative space in your design to achieve the desired density of stars. 
Nesting phoenix throw quilt featuring kona's colour of the year, crush, on a dark blue background.
https://shipsandviolins.com/collections/quilt-patterns-1
Header photo credit: robertkaufman.com
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Cristina De Miranda

Cristina De Miranda has been crafting and creating since her early years watching Art Attack. A tactile world of colour, pattern, and design appeared before her when a colleague introduced her to quilting in 2018. Cristina quickly dusted off her sewing machine and dived into a plethora of designer fabrics. Today, she is totally and irreversibly immersed in a whimsical world called Ships & Violins.