THE ORANGE BLOSSOM QUILT 🍊🍊🍊

This is my second Orange Blossom Quilt.  I made the first one a couple of years ago and it was used as a napping quilt by one of the little boys that I watched.  I made that one on my 45 year old ELNA SU sewing machine, which has no throat space and the feed dogs don't lift, making it impossible to quilt, but quilt it I did. This time around I made this quilt for my sister-in-law, LOU LOU❣️ 

This quilt is fun and easy to make, especially since it comes with a stencil by Plum Easy Stencils and you use freezer paper to make it.  It's actually more like an art project and less like a quilt. I wanted to make a throw size quilt but the kit was short on material (tsk, tsk) and so my throw turned into a lap quilt.

This quilt took much longer to make than normal because I suffered from the dreaded ... QUILTUS INTERUPTUS.  Yep, first I got involved with the Quilter's Planner Challenges that started January 1'st and had to stop and make a quilt and do 31 photo challenges.  And guess what?  I WON!  I've posted snapshots below of 25 of the 31 challenge posts. I blogged about the Sampler Quilt in my last blog.

The Quilter's Planner Sampler Quilt Challenge

Then my son's dachshund puppy, Tesla Firefly, ate something that she shouldn't have (because dachshunds do that) and had to have emergency surgery to remove it along with 75% of her intestines.  So, for a week we went over to watch her during her recovery.  The good news is, that against the odds, she is doing amazing!

Tesla Firefly

Then I got a cold which makes me mad because I had survived two 12 hour trips in a car with my son and his wife who were sick and did not catch their flu, (which I think is a huge testament to the cabin filter/air system in a Mercedes) only to come home to two little boys with colds and not catch that.  Then my hubbie out of the blue came down with a cold two weeks later and, again, I did not catch it.  I was absolutely sure that I had safely come through the season without a sniffle! Right? BUT then, THEN I was in line at the grocery store, happily minding my own business and reading the National Enquirer's headlines, when the totally wretched man behind me sneezed all over me AND my groceries.  Sure enough, I came down with a cold.  This, THIS is why I advocate staying home and this, THIS is why I would happily be a hermit for the rest of my days in my little forest on the lake if only M&M's grew on trees and I never had to leave home to buy them.  

Then on the third day of my cold, and everyone knows the third day is the WORST ... I had JURY DUTY. I will spare you the miserable details. Yes, you're welcome.

Finally, FINALLY I got back to quilting, with only one row left to go! And my QUILTUS INTERRUPTUS was over!

The Orange Blossom Quilt is fun to make.  First you use the stencil and cut out templates from a roll of freezer paper.  You can buy expensive quilting paper for this or just drop into Walmart and buy the freezer paper that's right next to the tin foil and save oodles.    

In the above picture you can see the cut out templates.  I took those and ironed them onto my fabric and then trimmed around them.  Then I took a glue stick and glued the upper edges of both of the curved templates and folded them over.  Next, I glued one edge of the petal template.

Then I placed the smaller template of the two over the glued edge of the petal.  I carefully tore away the fabric from the freezer paper until it laid flat and then placed a pin at the bottom to hold it in place.  Then I sewed along the edge of the freezer paper, tore it off and pressed it open.  Then I glued the opposite edge of the petal template.

Next, I glued the larger of the two templates onto the petal and sewed it in the same manner as I did the smaller one.  Then I pulled off the paper from the petal.  Then you take your stencil and square up your fabric and draw around it to create your perfectly squared block.  Like I said, it's more like an art project than a quilt and it's fun and easy to do!


Then it was off to the longarm!  My favorite part of quilting!  I did very little quilting on this quilt.  It has a cotton/wool fluffy batting and I wanted it to be fluffy throughout.  I used rulers and went around the curves and squares.  

I used Glide in White for the top and Glide in Sky for the bobbin.  My tension was set at 3.5 and my stitch length was set at 10.  I used a 90/14 Topstitch needle.  

The binding all wrapped up on the binding baby.

Then I made the binding and bound the quilt while streaming "James May - Our Man In Japan" on Amazon.  I love his dry humor and it was very interesting to learn more about Japan's culture.  Then it was time to wake up my "Master Quilt Holder" from his nap and let him hold the quilt in the backyard for me to take a picture of it.

I journaled all about this quilt in my Quilter's Planner.  If you quilt, I highly recommend looking into this planner.  Just go to quilters planner.com

I also made a lined and quilted bag to gift the quilt in.  As, I didn't have enough fabric to even make the throw size of the quilt, I used some fabric that I had in my stash that was left over from the pillows and table runner that I had made using this same Orange Blossom pattern. I also used these as entries in the Quilter's Planner's Photo Challenges under Small Projects.

After my bout with Quiltis Interruptus I finally finished the quilt and sent it on it's merry way to Lou Lou!

Remember to pick up a needle and thread and sew some love into your world❣️