Four beautiful Orange Peel variations today!
For each of these samples I have pre-marked the Orange Peel pattern using a craft ruler I found in a hobby & art supply store in Aachen, Germany. It has circles in various sizes. I believe these rulers are supposed to be used for paper crafts, but it is one of the best tools I have ever found for my samples. The circles are in inches, where most rulers here in Europe only come in centimeters. I will have to go back to the craft store and see if they also have the oval rulers. I also own the ruler that has square openings, but I haven’t used that at all.
(Source picture: link. Non-affiliated)
In my very first samples in this series of samplers I used an 1 inch grid and I didn’t feel I needed a pre-drawn circle. On these newer samples I have started using a 2 inch grid. Well, the bigger the square, the more beautiful your work will be if you have perfect circles, right? Pre-drawing it is, then! Again, our work will be freehand, so it is not going to be absolutely perfect, but we are aiming to get as close as we can, right?
The above sample shows a regular orange peel where I have filled in the centers with two echoes and a loop for each quarter. This pattern looks classy to me, so that is what I am calling it ‘CLASSY’.
The next blue sample reminds me of a butterfly cocoon, so I am naming this ‘PUPA’. I stitched the Orange Peels first and went back in for the flourishes. First I quilted a curl-hook coming out from the centre and then echoing to the point of each peel. I used the edges of the peels to travel back the the centre or to the next set of peels.
This next sample with the green thread is filled with lots of small feathers. Before I started stitching I drew the circles, just like with the other two samples, but I also added a spine (the diagonal line) for the feather in each peel. I traveled along this spine to get the the next peel or set of peels. This pattern reminds me of a cathedral window quilt block, so this pattern will be called ‘CATHEDRAL’.
This last gold thread sample uses the orange peel pattern too. I did draw the peels using the circle ruler, but I didn’t stitch on those lines. I just filled each peel with the ribbon candy design. I am impressed how even the stitches looks. I am calling this sample ‘MORE SWEETS’
Here are the four patterns on the larger sample.
It was a fun afternoon stitching these out!
If you have better names for these patterns, please don’t hesitate to comment! I am open to suggestions.
Hugs
Esther
ipatchandquilt 
These are awesome!! Did you draw the 2″ grid, too? or just the circles?
Hello Lynne,
I drew on the 2 inch grid first and then I drew in the circles with the orange ruler I showed in my last blog post.
Bye bye
Esther
These are wonderful! I like the first two best, especially the first one. It looks like glass Christmas tree baubles to me…
Hi Kate,
Yes it does look like a Christmas decoration! 🙂 Love the simplicity of the pattern and the great effect it has.
Hugs
Esther
Beautiful work!
Thank you very much, June.
Esther
THe colors impressed me as very victorian and whimsical at the same time. The first purple one is my favorite, because it is so three-dimensional. It reminds me of shapes seen in a monochromatic caleidoscope.
Goedemorgen Annie!
I love playing with the thread colors on this black fabric. I know that moest quilters would hesitate to use such contrasting threads on a quilt, but for these samples it works out fine. And you know me… not afraid of a bit of color!
Lots of hugs
Esther
So elegant, all of them! What fun!
I just found your blog. What a wonderful FMQ sample series! So glad I found you and now have many hours of play ahead of me!