I’m always talking about classic quilt blocks and designs for piecing a quilt that we see repeatedly because of its widespread popularity. But there are some quilting designs that have the same “classic” status. Obviously, the meander would have to be seen as a classic. There are so many quilt tops that a meander is the best choice to quilt it with. But another design that must be seen as classic is the Orange Peel.

This is both a classic piecing block as well as a quilting design. Typically seen in square blocks, the resulting circle adds another element to an otherwise straight design. It can be created a number of ways but the end result is four connected ribs set next to other sets of four. The challenge of course is keeping everything even and uniform. Depending on the quilt top, too much variance is obvious and can ruin the effect of the design. Luckily we have a design board that can help with that.

Available to our longarm machine renters only, sorry we don’t sell the design boards, the orange peel design board is popular not only for its classic design, but its ease of use as well. No need for rulers, but all your curves be of uniform size. Check out how our longarm machine renter made this design work for them on their quilts.

Orange Peels on a Sampler

This beautiful little sampler is from Melissa Mortenson at PolkaDotChair.com. She’s a local quilter who designs fabric for Riley Blake. This is the quilt that she is doing for a quilt along that will be starting soon! It is called Let’s Stay Home and you can find info about the quilt along here. It uses the fabrics from her new Fox Farm fabric line. Isn’t it super cute? The panel is where you find those three words from the center row. The Orange Peel adds a nice amount of texture while not distracting from her piecing.

Orange Peel with Grunge

This is a great design for the orange peel. Pat made this quilt with straight lines, but with a circular feel. The roundness of the orange peel looks great with this pieced design. I really like the colors that she used for this quilt as well. It looks like she used Moda’s Grunge fabric line. The colors are all from their Hits the Spot line and the white is the plain Grunge. Did you know we have many of the Grunge fabrics as wide backs available in our shop? You can check them all out here!

Orange Peel and Dreamcatchers

This last quilt is from Lisa. This is only her second quilt with us and she did an amazing job. She made it for her daughter in law. She likes dream catchers which is what inspired this quilt. One of the fabrics is all dream catchers and another one is feathers. One of the fabrics also has some metallic bling. It is so pretty.

She chose the orange peel because she felt that its circular nature added to the dream catcher theme. I think it turned out amazingly. Edge to edge designs are a wonderful way to quilt. It is great for quilts that are going to see a lot of use. The orange peel adds beautiful texture, and has a very classic appeal.