Mississippi Orange Peel, Part 1

Karen K Stone's Indian Orange Peel

Karen K Stone visited Hattiesburg in November 2016 and presented a program for our Pine Belt Quilters guild and then taught a class on the traditional Orange Peel block, showing her beautiful quilt she calls Indian Orange Peel. Karen's pattern included printed paper foundations, which I then copied onto an interfacing (which can be left in) called Do Sew. This eliminates that tedious step of tearing all that paper foundation out after the blocks are sewn.

Picking and grouping the fabrics for these blocks was a fascinating and fun project, and once I got started, it was like an obsession. The possibilities for spikes and backgrounds were endless.

It took a bit to get the hang of sewing the blocks, but with each block the process got easier and faster. I decided on a five by five block arrangement, adding the curved arcs on the outside of all blocks. I did not want the larger border Karen used in her quilt. The project lived on my design wall for quite some time as I chose how I wanted to arrange the blocks, deciding on a diagonal line of basically red blocks from upper left to lower right. So far, so good. I loved looking at it!

Then life intervened and the project was put aside as I pondered how to quilt it.  I like to quilt my own work and planned to really enjoy the process. I selected a black/white print for the backing.

Finally I layered it and began to quilt on my stationary machines--both the Pfaff and the Janome. Ooops! I hit a wall. All those little pieces coming together at intersections and corners of blocks created thick and cumbersome areas that wanted to push and slide under the presser foot. So I tried free-motion quilting. Still having problems with the thickness. But I have begun and will persevere. I love the pieced top too much to abandon the project. I hope to have some progress to show soon.

Barn Quilts and Paperwhites

What we refer to as "Christmas Holidays" passed rather uneventfully here in Hattiesburg. Weather was warm and humid, reminding me of living in Corpus Christi, Texas. But we finally had a few days of teens temps and icy roads. My geranium and croton plants had to be covered, but we're back in the 60-70s.
Linda and I planned to eat Christmas Dinner at Cracker Barrel since they are always open on holidays for travelers. Not! So we warmed up homemade soup and worked on her barn quilt patterns. She has become fascinated with this idea and plans to rotate her signs seasonally. She doesn't have a barn, so the quilts are for the front of her house. The Noel/Christmas tree hung during December.
The Friendship Star is up now, with the Star of the Orient ready to follow.
She bought an 8' square of 1/4" plywood and had it cut into several pieces. The Noel/Christmas tree is 2' wide by 4' high; the two star blocks are 3' square.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, I've been having lots of fun working on my Indian Orange Peel design by Karen K Stone. Here are some of the parts laid out on the table, not sewn yet--just working with color placement. These little arcs are addictive! They create a huge mess of fabric on the floor.

I had six bulbs of paperwhites last fall that made a beautiful show of flowers. Doubting that it was worthwhile, I dug up the bulbs (which had multiplied into lots of smaller ones) and stored them in the refrigerator until around Thanksgiving. I brought them out and planted them in fresh soil and began watering. My garden center guru mentioned that gin would cause the foliage to only grow about 1/2-1/3 as high while still producing regular-sized flowers. I researched to be sure I heard him correctly, and after some growth took place I began to water them with 1 part gin to 7 parts water. Here is the pot just beginning to put up leaves in mid-December. Next picture is today, January 10.

Mid-December when I started the gin/water

Mid-January

I'll report back later.