orange peel qal

I'm still chugging along on the Orange Peel QAL.

I managed to get all my peels appliquéd and I even avoided a hole in my finger by finally getting used to wearing a thimble.  I have to wear it on the ring finger of my left hand (I'm left handed) as I find myself pushing the needle through with the side of my nail.  Without a thimble, the needle eye sinks into the space between nail and flesh.  Gross and painful.

The next task was to trim the blocks down and sew them together.  We deliberately made the blocks oversized at 6" so they could be trimmed down.  I read the instructions, then took this project with me to the next meeting of the East Midlands Modern Quilt Group where I promptly forgot the instructions and cut them all down to 5.5" which I think is a shade too small. 

Some of them took some major trimming down and were often sewn on at a funny angle, so I'm glad we did it that way.  I thought sewing them together would be a nightmare, and it was.  I had to unpick and sew loads, though I was only aiming for workable and not perfection!

The finished quilt is pretty big, for a mini.  If the blocks are 5" finished, there are 6 rows and 6 columns so that means it must be 30" square?  Give that girl a prize for her maths there...  Next stage is to quilt it.  I might attempt some FMQ in the backgrounds, not sure what I'll do for the actual peels.  Any suggestions?



Related posts

first update
appliquéing peels

Orange Peel along

It's time for an update for the Orange Peel QAL.

At the last update I'd completed my first set of 6 peels.  I'm doing them in sets of 6 so I can reuse the freezer paper templates.  Since then I've completed another 2 sets - yellow, purple and orange.

My next 6 peels are prepared, one more to be basted and then I can start sewing them down to the background.  I don't really enjoy the hand sewing and I'm not sure why I didn't machine sew these if I'm honest.  I'm definitely not a hand patchworker!  

Ah well, I'm more than half way there now so I'm going to keep going!


Related posts

first update

Orange Peel QAL - first update

I'm not sure if I've ever told you that I plan to join in the Orange Peel QAL held over at Button Button?  If you want to join in, there's loads of time, we've just got started.

I'm making a mini of some description, so I only need 36 blocks.  We have another 6 weeks to go, so that means I need to be making 6 blocks a week.  I got started with the green blocks.  It uses freezer paper applique and is hand stitched.  The blocks are oversized and will be cut down afterwards to avoid having to make sure the orange peels are precisely placed.

I'm digging through my scrap bins for this one, so these are just a random variety of greens, all appliqued onto a low volume background, in this case, Bike paths.  I can't believe I just said low volume. 

Yellows next...

And to think I'm allergic to oranges, hope I'll be OK!