Orange Peel Table Runner

I never thought I would enjoy hand appliquéing orange peels! After appliquéing 144 orange peels for the Orange Peel Quilt Along with Julie of Button Button, amazingly enough, I didn’t want to stop. However, not being completely crazy, this time I wanted a smaller project. I searched the internet and found the Orange Peel Table Runner pattern by Sharon Holland and presented by the Canadian Quilter magazine.

Orange Peel Table Runner

The pattern called for piecing the orange peels but I really wanted to keep hand appliquéing, so that’s how I made it.

Orange peel blocks with quilted flowers

I wanted to make a runner for my friend Heidi. We have been pen pals since I was in grade 7. We met on the Polar Bear Express, the train that goes from Cochrane to Moosonee and back. She was with her family visiting Northern Ontario from Pennsylvania and I was with my girlfriend Lyne and the rest of my class. Heidi asked Lyne and me what language we were speaking because we were using the Northern Ontario version of bilingual – a few sentences in French followed by a few in English. The switch is usually happens when we’re struggling for a word, or if we’re talking about something we would experience in one particular language.


Heidi and I have been writing once or twice a year for over 40 years! With the advent of email and Facebook, we’ve re-connected a little more often. When I heard that she had redone her dining room, it was the perfect opportunity to make her a quilt.

Orange peel appliquéd on half-square triangle block

The orange peel block in this project was a lot like the previous project except for two important differences.

• Instead of placing the appliqués on only one background fabric, this one is done with two colours.
• Each block is made of two half-square triangles. Some are made of fabrics of the same colour while others have the beige or white that form the middle of the runner.

I was nervous about leaving the hand-sewn appliqués without extra machine stitching. I want the orange peels to stand up to regular washing! I ended up FMQ on the inside of each orange peel and then adding a small flower in the middle of the yellow circles. For contrast, I didn’t quilt inside the beige blocks.

The back of the runner

I was lucky to find a beautiful batik for the back. With the quilting details, it makes the runner reversible!

What I learned:

• I forgot when I started making the appliqué blocks that Julie had gotten us to make the blocks larger than required so that we could trim them to the correct size. I really wish I had remembered this! As you can see from the picture, the orange peels are not even, especially at the edges of the runner.
• A bonus for making this runner was trying out some quilting strategies for my larger project from the Quilt-along. Quilting ¼ inch inside the edges of the orange peels was not a great idea. It was very difficult to get nice edges. I’m not sure what the answer is, except to possibly use an all-over pattern that will go through the orange peels. 
• I really like making scrappy projects where I can cut pieces from a variety of fabrics as I go. I realize that these are the projects that I don’t mind piecing (as opposed to having to cut up fabric all at once, from very few fabrics, which is what I’m doing now…but more about this in a later post).

Update on the Orange Peel Quilt-Along Project 

When I started this post, I didn’t realise that I hadn’t posted an update on the Orange Peel Quilt-Along Project since last December. Here’s are my blocks.  I think that I’ve assembled the quilt, but it’s been so long that I’m not sure! I know that they are stored in a safe place, with the rest of the project fabric (in case I want to use it for binding), and I even know where they are – but I’m not going to dig them out until I’m ready to quilt it.

Orange Peel Quilt-Along Project

Here is Julie’s post of all of the participant’s quilts. You can also check out all of Julie’s Orange Peel Quilt-Along Posts.

Check out these linky parties: Fabric Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Linky Tuesday with Freemotion by the River, WIP Wednesday (will it really be her last?), My Quilt Infatuation, Free Motion Mavericks, Fabric Friday Frenzy, and Off the Wall Friday. Also, check out the Lessons Learned Linky - just up my alley!

Projects Update

December is here! Somehow it always sneaks up on me. Today it feels like fall is finished and winter is on its way. That’s tough because I haven't started my winter door hanging yet…. Although it feels like there is never enough time to quilt, I did get ahead on a few projects, and even managed to finish one!

Orange Peel update

Orange Peel Quilt-along Update

In my last Orange Peel related post, I had finished 29 of my original 36 peels. I had purchased more Tula Pink fabrics and needed more background fabric. Since I wasn't sure which “white” fabric I was using, I ordered a meter of two whites and one neutral. For the record, I’m using the Kona White. Of course, I've now used up my meter and ordered more at Mad About Patchwork…. Got it yesterday. It’ll be in the wash tonight!

Three weeks late, I added an update to the bottom of my original post. By then, I had started cutting and preparing more peels, from both the original and the new Tula Pink fabrics.

Peel chart

Here are the latest numbers:

• 68 finished peel blocks
• 21 basted peels
• 14 peels ready to baste (I got energetic after I took the picture

Now that I have 144 peels to complete (instead of 36), I’ve prepared a charts to keep me on track and motivated. I get to add a check mark whenever I finish a peel block.

What I've learned:

• Might be a good idea to plan ahead…..does that sound familiar? It’s not a lesson I’ve assimilated yet!
• My second batch of peels weren’t as precise as the first batch (i.e. the points aren’t as pointy!) I’m now being more careful about the points. They are much better this time around.

Re-quilting a Batik Runner

A few years ago I fell in love with a pattern for a runner. It was from 'tis the Season by Mount Redoubt Designs. In my head, I had a vision of a beautiful runner in batiks. I completed the runner (without the appliqués) but wasn't really impressed with the result. I used beautiful batiks but it just didn't do anything for me. At the time, I was also very new at machine quilting so the runner had very little quilting.

Centre quilting to highlight the flowers

Since I've been re-quilting various projects, when I last came upon the runner in my linen closet, I took it out. I finally got around to FMQ it. What a difference it makes! I thought I had taken a picture of it when I originally finished it, but I guess I was so disappointed that I didn't.

I started by stitching each seam in the ditch. That was actually a real improvement. I had created this runner around the middle fabric – which has daisy shapes painted on in different colours. I was able to quilt around the daisy shapes and make them stand out. I left the pink blocks around them un-quilted to highlight the daisy blocks.

A rounded feather for a corner triangle

I FMQ the light fabric at the ends of the runner with a feathered heart. I wasn't quite brave enough to quilt it free-hand so I drew it on and then sort of followed the pattern. The pattern comes from Follow-the-Line Quilting Designs Volume 4 - Full-Size Patterns for Blocks and Borders by Mary M. Covey. It’s the Rounded Feather for a corner triangle.

For the light blue squares near the end, I FMQ flower designs within 4 squares and then quilted a smaller flower in the two remaining squares. The large flower pattern is from Eva A. Larkin's Free-Motion Quilting Made Easy. The design is a diagonal double loop. I used a simple design since anything fancy would not have shown against the batik background.

Finished re-quilted table runner

In the four on-point red squares next to the light blue squares, I just followed some of the lines that are within the fabric. Finally for the dark blue batik squares surrounding the centre piece, I FMQ a continuous-line lotus flower in each block.

I'm really happy with the result. FMQ has turned a drab table runner into one with pizzazz!

What I learned:

• The second feathered heart came out much better than the first. I should have practiced it before quilting it on the runner.
• When I FMQ free-hand, I always practice beforehand. However, when I use stencils or follow hand-drawn patterns, I tend to just “wing it” instead of practicing these new patterns. Invariably, my quilting always gets better with practice.
• I really need to prepare some sandwiched fabric pieces to practice these patterns. I’ve used up all of my good practice sandwiches. I’ve learned that it’s important to use dull fabrics, otherwise I can’t see the FMQ on the busy fabrics. Let’s face it, the real problem is that I don’t want to use any of my fabric to practice on!

This post is linked to Fabric Tuesday - Quilt Story, Anything Goes Mondays and Needle and Thread Thursday. 

Note: I was advised that one of my links in the post was backlinking to a counterfeit site. I have removed all the links in this post. Thanks for your understanding. 

Appliquéd in China

I'm back from an amazing 24 days in China - what a trip! It was wonderful, exotic and exhausting.

Orange Peel Quilt-along

I had brought two projects with me to work on. The first one, that I wrote about in my last post, didn't get touched. Maybe it was the heat that made working with wool totally uninteresting. I did however bring an appliqué project that was perfect for the trip, even if I only got to it a few times. Just before leaving, I joined Julie's Orange Peel Quilt-Along at Button Button.

From Tula Pink's Fox Field collection

Since I had a million things to organize before leaving, I chose coordinating fabrics from Tula Pink's Fox Field. I originally bought a package of fat quarters at our guild's quilt show at the Mad about Patchwork booth. I fell in love with the large pink polka dots with random bunnies.

The background fabric is one of the white's from Kona Cottons. Before I left on my trip, I ordered more fabric from the Fox Field collection - in case I decided to make a larger quilt. I'm not sure which white I used as the background, so I guess I'll have to order a variety and keep the others for future projects.

Julie's instructions are clear and contain some good hints. Since the appliqué pieces would be travelling, I followed her instructions by cutting the orange peels from freezer paper templates and adding the 1\4 inch seam allowance. I ironed the seam allowance before leaving and then as soon as I got to Beijing, I basted each of the orange peels. This ensured that each peel was ready to appliqué, even if they got battered a little in my luggage.

The peels are quite large, so it was really nice to appliqué.  After appliquéing a few, I figured out that for me, it worked best when I was sewing counter-clockwise.

I posted a picture of my fabrics before I left for China but wasn't able to access anything other than email while on my trip. I took a picture of my work-in-progress while cruising on the Yangtze River. I posted my progress on the second check-in, once I returned.

I originally prepared 36 orange peels to make a wall quilt, but I definitely want to make a larger quilt, now that I have the "orange peel bug". Of the 36 peels, I only have 7 more to appliqué. After that, I'll have to order more white Kona fabric and start cutting more orange peels from the left over fat quarters and from the two new fabrics I got from the collection.

Taken on the Yangtze River Cruise

What I learned:

• I thought I would be able to appliqué while on the plane or the bus, but that didn't work out. It was just too cramped.
• Basting and appliquéing in the evenings, when not too tired, worked out well, especially when relaxing during the cruise.
• The project traveled really well and required only the fabric, scissors, needles, a couple of pins and the thread.
• I love the size of the orange peels. They are large enough that it makes the appliquéing quite easy. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be brave enough to tackle smaller projects!
• I really missed sewing and quilting during my trip. Twenty four days is a long time to go without. I was glad to have this project with me since lugging a sewing machine across China just wasn't feasible!
• It's great to be home :-) Travelling makes me very grateful for all that I have.

Update - November 13, 2014

Adding to the fabrics

I have started cutting and preparing more appliques to make a larger quilt. I have added two more fabrics from Tula Pink's fabric line. They are so cool!!!