New to Me January 2013: Orange Peel Quilting

I was going to finally start my Craftsy Knitting Class for New to Me in 2013 @ Celtic Thistle Stitches, but I decided to go with orange peel quilting instead. I have only quilted using straight lines up to this point, so orange peel quilting is definitely new to me! Luckily, it is going far better than expected!

I am using the Orange Peel tutorial from the 31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting at Petit Design Co. to quilt my Scrappy TAL quilt top. Norma did a great job on the tutorial and she has many other fun walking foot quilting options to try on her blog.

Before quilting on my actual top, I drew out the quilting lines on graph paper.  I used a different color marker for each line. Drawing made it easier for me to understand the quilting motions and to better visualize how the different lines intersected to form the orange peel design. I made a small half-circle template to draw out my curves on the quilt top and then I started sewing.

My curves get a little jittery when I start thinking "CURVE!" and some of the intersections are slightly off, but because of the overall design and the business of the quilt nothing really sticks out. It is far more forgiving than straight line quilting! I am sure a washing and drying cycle will help as well. It is going a bit slow (ten minutes a wavy line), so this might be the kick in the pants I need to learn FMQ! I have 5 of 6 rows left to quilt (!).



I am using in Multicolored Polyester Thread No. 15 in Sunray from ThreadArt. I bought it before I knew that there were different types of thread! I figured a scrap quilt was a pretty good place to use it up. Hopefully the "Ideal for quilting too!" description holds true!  I like how well it blends into the fabric. For anyone interested, I have since found the cotton equivalent: Variegated Cotton Thread 600M - Color 1103 in Sunburst.

If you have tried something new in January, there are still a couple more days to submit your link to New to Me in 2013!