Saturday, November 15, 2014

Breeze: A Finished King Size Orange Peel Quilt

*This quilt is on my Finish A Long Quarter 4 list - here are my original goals. I'm linking up to The Littlest Thistle!*

I only use that title because it's the largest quilt I've ever made, and I'm darn proud of it.


M mom requested an orange peel quilt for her bed (with an overhang) after she saw Scatter. I made it because I really, really love her! Plus, I wanted to give her something great for her birthday. I gave her a quilt last year, too. Go figure. They're a popular commodity around here!


 The color scheme is based off of this print from Katarina Roccella's print, Floret Stains Mulberry, from her Art Gallery line Indelible. My mom had commented on Point Me that she loved that print, so I took out the peach color and based all of my orange peel color choices on it. I made sure to sprinkle bits and pieces of that fabric throughout the quilt!


I pieced this quilt in the style of Scatter - using the stitch and flip orange peel technique and my favorite somewhat-planned improvisational low volume background piecing (as you can see, I'm super technical). As many of you know, I taught these techniques recently in a class at Pennington Quilt Works. My second class, which is modified and shorter, will be at Mid-Atlantic Mod, and the class of 15 is already sold out! I'm so excited!!


The only full orange peel on the quilt is this large one in the middle. All the other pieces are flying off it "in the breeze."


This was the first time I experimented with large peels and small peels. They were fun and I would love to mix sizes again. I definitely need a little break from orange peels, though. :)



I quilted it with wavy lines from end to end, using my walking foot.  It was a lot of quilt to push through my machine! I refrained from lifting weights at the gym that week because my arms were so sore. Hahaha. It was the size of the quilt - it actually flowed through my machine quite easily. I've found that quilting with a good quality flannel backing is just about the same as a quilting cotton backing.

Can you spot the three sizes of peels? There's one baby peel in there!

I pieced the backing of Anna Maria Horner's Pretty Potent flannel. Free Spirit flannel is so well-made and I always enjoy using it for quilt backing. Plus there's a gorgeous design!


This quilt is a behemoth, a monster, whatever you want to call it... it's big. It's 90" x 100" and it contains much of what I had left of my low volume stash! Guess I'll have to stash up... :).

I've written about this quilt otherwise here and here.

It was very well-received by both mom and dad. Yes, my dad is a goofball.




And the faraway shot, because hanging off the deck is the only way to photograph the beast:



29 comments:

  1. You did a FABULOUS job---you have every right to be proud of this accomplishment---am totally in love with this quilt!!!

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  2. wonderful story and wonderful everything. thanks for sharing

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  3. Fabulous quilt with a beautiful story!!

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  4. Hurray! It turned out so nice! Your mom (and dad) are super lucky, that is a super nice birthday gift! Good thing your mom had a deck for you guys to hang it off of. I will totally hold you to "good quality flannel back is just the same as quilting cotton backing"!

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  5. this is beautiful, Jess! I love it!

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  6. What a gorgeous quilt - I love the colours and I love the fabrics. Your mum and dad are very lucky to get such fabulous quilts on a routine basis.
    Pauline

    perry94022 at hotmial dot com

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  7. I'm signed up for your class at Mid Atlantic Mod and I can't wait! I love this quilt.

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  8. That is a HUGE quilt and it looks fantastic!

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  9. It looks fantastic, and just so wonderfully comfortable! I love your variety of low-volume black & whites! That's something I'm trying to build up; I have a muted/low-volume quilt planned that I'm excited about.

    Your mom is younger than I am (but only by a year). I'm sure she and your Dad are going to love that quilt. What a good daughter you are. :)

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  10. Lucky Mom! I LOVE this so much :) The quilting is so wonderful too. I never thought to do wavy without it going straight across or up and down. Another...why didn't I think of that moment lol!

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  11. Turned out gorgeous!!!!! What a lucky mom you've got - two quilts! :D I have a quilt about that size I need to quilt up pronto, but I've be procrastinating. Time to just suck it up and get going. Yours will still be better though. :D

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  12. Wow! That is one big quilt! I'm so glad your mum loves it.
    Congratulations on a sell-out class. Enjoy!

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  13. This is a lovely quilt, what a great present for your mum! I love orange peels, and this is such an interesting twist on it!

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  14. What a creative, gorgeous quilt! Love it!

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  15. This turned out beautiful. Your quilting is so fun, Thanks for sharing!!!

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  16. So awesome! What a great gift for your mom

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  17. I love this quilt - it's perfect! And you're right - sometimes quilting can be a very physical sport!

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  18. such an amazing quilt Jess - a perfect gift :-)

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  19. OMG how did I miss this post?! This quilt tuned out so beautifully, your mommy is so spoiled! I really admire your gumption quilting that beast on a home sewing machine, and with flannel backing to boot. Congrats hon, you deserve like 10 cocktails (and a fabric store!) for finishing this one!

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  20. What a huge and gorgeous quilt!! Makes me weak in the knees just thinking about quilting it all. So sad to hear about your stash running low *sniff sniff* You must add to it ASAP ;) I bet your mom is in seventh heaven over this quilt, how very special.

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  21. Wow Jessica - I admire you for tackling a quilt that big! It turned out great! Love the low volume fabrics with the orange peels!

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  22. It's gorgeous and I love the colors!

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  23. Wonderful! I love the typography prints mixed in there. :)

    I'm still working up to a full-size quilt -- my nerve is still failing me for quilting it on my home sewing machine! I'm going to get there eventually.

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  24. Your mom is very lucky. It's beautiful!

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  25. Absolutely gorgeous! I quilt my projects in my Bernina, and know how tough it can be when they are large. I have a king size 'flannel' (!) quilt top waiting to become a sandwich and be quilted. It will be soooo heavy!

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  26. Brava! What a fun quilt - Great colors. I also love a quality flannel for a backing. Same with a soft-handed micro-wale corduroy or quality minky. Fabulous gift here for your mom!!

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  27. I like that color combo. Well done! It does look huge :)

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  28. Huge! You are so brave but it looks awesome!

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