My Viva Magenta

Keeping with tradition, I set out to see if I could find a reasonably close fabric match to this year's Pantone Color of the Year, Viva Magenta. With Sarah @saroy and Elizabeth @elizabethkray co-hosting the 2023 Pantone Quilt Challenge, I definetely had plenty of incentive. But let's just say this year is proving to be one of the most difficult ones yet!

Here were my candidates (L-R): 

Essex Crimson 

Peppered Cotton Garnet 

Alison Glass' Kaleidoscope Strawberry 

Kona Wine 

Kona Crush

Kona Pomegranate

Pure Solids Dragonfruit

Cotton Couture Fuchsia

Painter's Palette Raspberry

Note that the first three - Essex, Peppered Cotton, and Kaleidoscope - were ordered purely as different substrate options to quilter's cotton, which I sometimes enjoy including in a project like this. Ordered purely due to the color they appeared on screen when ordering and/or their name, none are even close matches to Viva Magenta. But the Kaleidoscope especially could prove to be an interesting contrast to include. We'll see.

So that left the six solids shown below with the official Pantone color card, in the same order as the photo above. Thanks again to my daughter Rachel @snippetsofsweetness for ordering the swatch cards for us. We really enjoy having the actual swatch to compare to.

From the fabric I had in my stash as I was beginning my 'research,' Kona Wine was the closest, even though it was definitely darker.

In my opinion, Kona Crush - the Kona Color of the Year - wasn't even close.

The rest of the fabrics, I ordered. I consulted Sarah's blog post and Steph's @stephskardal mobile app “A Quilty Solid” (before the latest update) before choosing some possible fabric options. In my mind, three of the fabrics I chose were obviously way too pink to be considered a close match: (L-R) Kona Pomegranate, Cotton Couture Fuchsia, and Painter's Palette Raspberry.

That left Pure Solids Dragonfruit, which Rachel and I think is the best match from this group of fabrics. And yes, I took them all to Rachel for her to confirm what I thought I was seeing.

We actually thought that the trio below - Kona Wine, Pure Solids Dragonfruit, and Kaleidoscope Strawberry - might be nice to use together. But I'll see once I come up with a plan.

I'm curious to see what other folks doing the challenge choose as their Viva Magenta. Unless someone shares that they have found a very close match, I don't epect to order any more fabric options at this point. It's not an exact science, of course, but it's been fun to explore just the same.