Orange Peels

Everywhere I look these days I see Orange Peel quilts. They're sometimes also referred to as Melon Peels, Lemon Peels, Pumpkin Seeds. Some are made with curved piecing, some applique. The pattern has been around a long time but when I made mine they weren't really very popular at all. If you did see any they were almost always two-color quilts. It's nice to see so many quilters making them now and incorporating them into different designs.

Back when I was writing Remembering Adelia and a few years before I began my Dear Jane quilt, I noticed that Jane Stickle had used a lot of peels in her famous quilt. Since Adelia also lived and sewed during the Civil War, I decided to include orange peels in the book and weave this quilt into Adelia's story. It was fun poking through my reproduction scraps, making the peels and then hand appliqueing them over that summer. I made them a few at a time in between working on the other quilts and when I had made enough blocks I put them together into my quilt. 

A blue and white table runner I made with a peel design. 

Yesterday, I taught an Orange Peel workshop to a bunch of sweet ladies from the Battle Creek, Michigan, area. I had quite a lot of fun and I think they did too. I had the most fun walking around and looking at all the different fabrics everyone was using for their peels.

Natalie, making some "Orange" peels

Sally, looking like the lady who lived in the shoe -  she had so many gorgeous peels she didn't know what to do.

Nancy used a variety of pretty shirtings for her backgrounds.

It's always an awful lot of fun to make a quilt in a group with like-minded quilters. If you belong to a guild and would like me to come and talk a little bit about my quilts and teach this one (or any other) in a workshop to your group, contact me for details. I'm always up for making Orange Peels!

Miles and Milestones

Hope you all had a happy Easter or Passover holiday. The weather was so nice here I was almost convinced spring was just around the corner.  Today, however, I had to put on my winter coat when I went out. Oh well. Patience is a virtue, they say. Spring will get here when it gets here.

I am happy to have reached a milestone in my Dear Jane quilt. Yesterday I completed 100 blocks! I'm amazed and can hardly believe I have gotten this far and not given up. So I am definitely singing "Hooray" today.  Maybe I WILL finish this quilt after all. No going back now.

One more to add to the growing pile

There's such a sense of satisfaction when a block is completed. Usually because it has taken me the better part of a day.

Many of you have asked me about my blocks. I know I am repeating myself here but I also know some of you struggle as well and hope you can glean a little encouragement to keep going on yours:  I began making them in 2010. But, after getting a good running start that year, I had to take 6 months off. The following years also were full of months without any progress at all. So it has been an off and on project for me. I usually work in spurts, instead of focusing on this quilt alone, which allows me to do other things too. 

I try to note my monthly progress on a database in my DJ Yahoo group and have committed to making at least one block a month. Some months are usually good for more blocks and there is still progress. I could certainly finish sooner if I made one row a month like some of you but that's not practical for me and wouldn't work. I know I could never keep it up. 

One block per month doesn't sound like much but it almost always translates into more than one so I so try to keep it up and recommit every month. And every month I ask myself:  Do I still want to finish this quilt? YES. Then I tell myself  - go make a block to prove it, LOL. I have no timetable for finishing. When it gets done, it will be done. Hopefully, before I die. My goal is to not leave a box of unfinished blocks to my family as my legacy. 

I use mostly 1800s reproduction fabrics. Sometimes I just use a print that I like a lot. Some of my blocks are hand pieced, some are machine pieced, some have shirtings for the background, some backgrounds are made with ecology cloth (higher quality muslin), and a few of my favorite fabrics have been repeated (oh no!). Some of my blocks I regret making and wish I had either used a different print or taken more time to do a better job. Oh well. I cannot afford the time to remake them now. They are what they are and they represent a part of my journey. 

Every block is an achievement worthy of celebration. 

Only 125 blocks and triangles left to go . . . Yikes, I'm not even halfway there. That sounds so discouraging when I read it. More than a few more years of work left, I guess. 

And miles to go before I sleep  . . .  

 . . . under a Dear Jane quilt, at least.

Make Another Little Quilt with Me in April

Sew along with me and my Small Quilt Talk friends (Yahoo group, see sidebar for link to join) this month. We're making the Underground Railroad quilt from my first book American Doll Quilts (yes, it's an oldie, but a goodie nonetheless). I know quite a few of you have this book but have never made this quilt. Here's your chance. If you have the book, follow along with the pattern beginning on page 40.

If you don't have the book, you can buy it here or here.  Martingale & Co. also has a nice e-book version available for purchase here. Just download it to your computer or tablet and you're all set.

So many cute, little, traditional quilts in this book. It's a classic. 

Go grab some scraps and have fun with this one. Choose butternut and blue for your color scheme as I did or another one more to your liking. It's one of my all-time small favorites as well as one of the first quilts I ever made. Hope it becomes one of your favorites too. 

Quilt Fest Chicago - Red & White

The International Quilt Festival was here in Chicago this past weekend and I got a chance to attend last Friday. I was so excited to see the Ruby Jubilee exhibit. My favorite part -  the miniature red & white quilts, of course. (My apologies, though - I am never able to take good photos at this place. The lights are just way too bright. My camera is pretty inadequate and I don't really take the time to fool with the settings the way I should. I'm always too excited to see the quilts, never mind the camera. So, none of these pictures really do any of the quilts justice.) 

For my Janiac friends - "Dear Karla" made by Karla Zadnik and Janet Armstrong. There were four (!) Dear Jane quilts on display at the show but I was only allowed to take photos of this one. 

The Ruby Jubilee exhibit, celebrating 40 years of Quilt Festival and honoring the red and white tradition, made its debut last year at Quilt Festival in Houston. I was happy to see that it came to Chicago this year.

Here's an excerpt about the exhibit that was in the Houston Chronicle last fall -

"Quilts in the jubilee exhibit were inspired by Infinite Variety, a seminal 2011 red-and-white-quilt show in New York, said Karey Bresenhan, president of Quilts Inc., which hosts the event. Quilters have used ruby to show love, blood and victory for centuries. White, denoting innocence, was often used as relief to the bold red. The New York show, which honored longtime quilt collector Joanna S. Rose's 80th birthday, featured her 651 red-and-white quilts and inspired quilters across the country. 'This is our 40th anniversary, and rubies celebrate 40 years of marriage, so we called it Ruby Jubilee,' Bresenhan said, adding that the exhibit includes 125 red-and-white quilts from 1974, the festival's first year."  

Amazing . . . . but wait until you see these little marvels - 

These small red and white quilts were EXQUISITE!

My heart was going pitter, patter, as you can imagine.

 I will look through my photos and see if I have any of the rest of the show that are decent enough to show you later this week.

Celebrate Worldwide Quilting Day

Happy Quilting Day! We're quilters and we get our own day, how about that? Whatever you do to celebrate today, have fun.

I'm inviting you to sew along with me today. You know I love making small projects and sometimes it's just the thing to get your creativity going. I've been working on some star blocks this week for a different project and decided to use 2 of the blocks for a couple of mug rugs. Aren't they cute? A mug quilt is something I'll always use and it's always nice to have a few extra lying around just in case. What fun to serve someone a cup of tea with a cute mug rug and see them smile and say "Oh, how sweet!"  Here's how to make this one yourself.

I have to say I got a LIFT from making these.

Ready? First, you'll need some good scraps. Choose some of your favorites and put them aside for cutting. You know how partial I am to blue but if you're not, use another color for your theme. Or, just make it all scrappy. If you prefer light prints, then make it with a light color instead of the black background. I hope some of you do this and show me. I'll be waiting for pictures.

Scrappy Star Mug Rug

Cutting: 

For the background of the star (I used black prints), cut 

           4 squares that measure 1 1/2"  x  1 1/2"

           4 rectangles that measure 1 1/2"  x  2 1/2"

For the star points (colorful assorted prints), cut

           8 squares that measure 1 1/2"   x   1 1/2"

For the star center (purple), cut

           1 square, 2 1/2"   x   2 1/2"

For the side borders (blue), cut

           2 strips, 1 3/4"   x  4 1/2"

For the backing, cut 

            1 piece of fabric, 6 1/2"  x  8 1/2"

For the binding (brown), cut

             1 fabric strip, 1 1/4" wide

Piece of thin cotton batting, 6 1/2"  x  8 1/2"

Make the Block 

1.  Draw a diagonal line across the back of each 1 1/2"  x  1 1/2" scrap square you've picked for the star points.

2.  Place one 1 1/2"   x  1 1/2" scrap square on top of one end of a BLACK print 1 1/2"  x  2 1/2" rectangle, right sides facing. Sew on the line and trim to a 1/4" seam allowance. Press the triangle toward the corner.

Place another 1 1/2"  x  1 1/2" scrap square on the other end of the rectangle, right sides together, and again stitch on the drawn line. Be sure that the diagonal line is oriented in the opposite direction from the first piece. Trim to a 1/4" seam allowance and then press the triangle toward the corner. Make four of these flying geese units.

3.  Sew a black 1 1/2"  x  1 1/2" square to each end of two of the flying geese units and press the seams toward the squares. Sew the remaining two flying geese units to each side of the 2 1/2"  x  2 1/2" center square, and press the seams toward the square. (Here's a sample I just stitched up using a red center square.) Sew all of the units together as shown below.

4. Trim your star block to 4 1/2"  x  4 1/2". Sew a blue fabric strip to each side of the block. Press.  

5.  Layer the quilt top, batting and backing, and baste or pin the layers together.

6.  Quilt as desired. I quilted an X through the block and a square in the center. Then, I divided each border into 4 segments with a washable white marking pen and quilted an X in each segment for a diamond motif. 

7.  Add 1 1/4" binding using your favorite binding method. 

These were so much fun I had to make two. Have fun! When you're all done, sit back, put your feet up and have a cup of tea or coffee and say "Ahhh, I love being a quilter." 

Happy First Day of Spring

 

Happy First Day of Spring!

It's been pretty gray here in Chicago this week.

 

 

 

The sun is out right now but I hear some of you are blanketed in snow or will be soon. I think we're supposed to get a little this weekend too. I love the snow, but only in winter, not in spring.  We had a good amount this winter and that made me happy but now I'm ready for the change of seasons (and flowers!). Bring on spring already . . . .

*   *   *

Tomorrow, March 21, is National Quilting Day. I've been working on making some small blocks for a new quilt and tomorrow I'm having a little Sew Along. (It's a surprise.) Just a little one because I know you're all very busy. Everyone should make time to do a little quilting tomorrow. Many of you will be out shopping for fabric, taking a class or celebrating your heads off. And that's all fine and dandy but be sure you don't get too busy to make something. If you need an idea for making something small and cute, come back Saturday morning for my tutorial to make a little mug mat and sew along with me.

 

 

Gather up some of your favorite 1 1/2" and 2 1/2" scraps and strips . . . . C'mon, it'll be fun.