As QuiltCon Together approaches (02/18/2021) I thought I would share this quilt that made it into the virtual show but had not made it onto my blog so far. 

Say hello to Orange Creamsicle. Orange Creamsicle started with a single block that I had hoped would be a great compliment to the rest of the Sunday Best blocks.

To be honest the block just didn’t really work with the rest of quilt. Yes, that became the start to Orange Creamsicle.

I introduced some limits to this quilt after the first block, as I really wanted to try making a quilt top without modern equipment. I wanted to see what it was like for women of the past who made quilts.  Those limits included:

• Limited color palette (pinks, oranges, yellows, red, purple – a warm color palette)
• All fabric was cut with scissors (typically scissors less that 4″ so they could travel on the plane)
• All blocks with hand pieced. Stitched up by hand.
• The drunkard path blocks were roughly 6″ finished. They again were squared up using scissors.

If any block did not measure 6″ finished I used filler strips. A design decision was made to introduce aqua into these strips to give the eye somewhere to rest. 

I really enjoyed this project. Much of it was done on work trips or on vacation. I remember stitching blocks in Germany while visiting my husband’s family and in Olympic National Park as we drove from sight to sight.  The best thing is I learned a lot about hand piecing that I had not known before.

• Back stitch, 2-3 stitches at the beginning and end of your lines instead of using notes.
• Stay stitch across each seam for stabilization and then also every 1-1 1/2 inches.
• Mark a 1/4 ” line so your stitch lines are relatively straight.
• Stitch multiple stitches at a time with your needle. You will get straighter and more consistent stitching.
• I used a 10 needle and 50wt aurifil thread which worked well for just piecing.
• Next time I will match my thread to the fabric palette and use a warm color (like orange). I used white as that is what I had on hand. You will see your stitches as they are larger than what you get with a sewing machine.

While visiting my family in New Zealand I laid out the blocks for determining final layout. Once I thought the balance of colors were right the rows of the tip were hand stitched together.  The limits of mostly handwork made this perfect for a traveling quilt project.

I decided to give this quilt a little something else and pieced the back from scraps. The scraps were in the same color palette as the front but were all prints. They were mostly pieced in a column like fashion, again using improvisation. I was really pleased with how many of my favorite prints were in my scrap bin that made it into the back and shocked to see how much of my scraps were still in the storage jars, after I had finished.

Early on I had made a decision to use match stick quilting with a variety of warm colors. I also wanted to add a few hand quilted lines with a 28 wt thread. It was my first time hand quilting since taking a class with Season at QuiltCon (S.d.evans). I started in the middle and laid down the first few lines….and then this quilt stopped progressing.

Thankfully, I had a fire lit to try and finish some of my WiPs in the middle of 2020 (while in quarantine. Orange Creamsicle made the list.   I have no idea why it took so long to get back to it, as it did not take long to finish. The quilting added an amazing amount of texture. There is also a guarantee, with this many quilting lines, these blocks will never fall apart.

Binding was an easy decision, it was which ever orange solid color that I had a 1/2 yard of. I also used the aqua for the bottom right corner as I love that line at the bottom there and it would almost have disappeared if orange was used.

I am really pleased with how this turned out. I did do a little happy dance as this one came off the machine.

Details

Name : Orange Creamsicle 
Design: Original Design
Fabric: Kona Cotton (Variety of warm colors + ? )
Binding: Kona Cotton
Backing: Various Print Fabric scraps
Dimensions: 36 x 48 in.
Quilted: With 50wt Aurifil , using domestic machine walking foot, straight lines matchstitck + 28wt Aurifil hand quilted.