Orange Blossoms Quilt
At long last, the Orange Blossoms Quilt pattern is here!
Inspired by the changing of the seasons and the dancing fall of petals and leaves, the Orange Blossoms Quilt takes classic curved blocks and reimagines them for the modern quilter.
Suitable for intermediate quilters (or confident beginners!), the pattern includes bonus instructions for an 18” x 18” cushion as well as being jam packed with helpful tips and diagrams and includes ideas for different colour schemes as well as colouring pages to help you decide your fabric layout.
This pattern has been a long time in the works - I first sketched the idea back in summer 2019! I started making my Spring One in autumn 2019, finished it in spring 2020, and started the Winter One around the same time. Between lockdown, working from home, writing patterns for magazine and working on other patterns it got pushed to the side again and again until early 2021 when I decided to tackle my WIP pile and get it finished. The rest as they say is history!
Choosing my fabrics
When I first sketched the idea for Orange Blossoms, I was drawn to a spring-like colour palette far outside my usual comfort zone full of pinks, lilacs, coral and mustard. Not quite the rainbow I normally go for! Instead of shying away from such a different palette though I decided to embrace it and even add patterns to the mix instead of playing it safe with solids. A browse of my LQS and pulling lots of bolts off the shelves to play with different combinations yielded a great mix of prints, but not the right lilac for the background. I was determined it be a soft and dreamy purple rather than something a bit stronger and they didn’t have the right shade. I hunted around a bit and eventually stumbled across Kona Princess at the Knitting and Stitch Show London in October 2019 which turned out to be absolutely perfect.
The fabrics I used are:
Colours: Bijoux Arrow in Dusty Sky by Makower // Tiny Triangles in Dark Coral by Lewis & Irene // Storm Mustard by Makower // Notebook Red by Libs Elliott // Social Chirp in Peony by Ruby Star Society
Background: Kona Princess
Binding: Berry Zip! by Ruby Star Society
When it came to making my second quilt I knew I wanted to go with a more wintery and cool colour palette, and solids were the perfect choice. After searching for just the right colours for a while, I stumbled on the Art Gallery Fabrics Pure collection and found the exact colours I was imagining! The white background proved just a little bit more challenging however and I now refer to it with a shudder as the Right White Saga.
As a big quilt with lots of piecing, the pattern calls for more background fabric than usual and I couldn’t find enough Snow by AGF when I first ordered the colours in February 2020. Instead I decided to pick up some Moda Bella white from my LQS but only managed to get a few metres on the end of the bolt. Not knowing what was coming re lockdown and the upcoming shortages of white fabrics in the UK, I didn’t think much of it and thought I’d just pick up the rest next time I was in the shop and started cutting and piecing what I could. Fast forward a couple of months and finally white was back in stock so I placed an order excited to get going on the quilt again but oh no. When it arrived it turned out that I didn’t note down the exact colour name when I first bought it and due to the shortages my LQS had a different white in than before. In the end it took ordering yardage of seven different whites to find the right one (I was convinced each time it was the right white so ordered what I needed rather than just an FQ…lesson learnt!) which turned out to be Moda Bella PFD Bleach White instead of the Moda Bella White Bleach that my LQS had restocked. Long story short, I’m now an expert in white fabrics and have learnt to take down the exact shade name of any solid I buy!
The fabrics I used are:
Colours: Purple Pansy // Lavender Water // Aero Blue // Fresh Water // Royal Cobalt (all Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids)
Background: Moda Bella PFD Bleach White
Binding: Aquatic from Spectrastric II by Giucy Giuce
Fabric requirements
Make it your own with some colour inspiration
One of my favourite things about designing patterns is just how different they can look with different colours! I know how much you all love switching up colours in patterns too, so I had to have a little play and came up with some colourways to inspire you! Still looking for more inspiration? I’ve got you covered - the pattern includes more ideas for different colour schemes and colouring pages to help you choose your fabric layout and colours for your perfect Orange Blossoms Quilt. My tester team did a great job of playing with colour too so don’t forget to head over to the tester parade to see what they got up to.
Piecing
While this quilt looks a little complicated, it’s actually built on two fairly simple classic curved blocks: the Drunkard’s Path and Orange Peel. They’re set in rows for easy assembly and once the basic blocks are made the top comes together surprisingly quickly! Although the pattern is rated Intermediate, many of my testers were new to sewing curves and had a great time making this pattern so don’t let the curves put you off.
With step by step instructions on curved piecing and lots of diagrams to help you with each stage of assembly, even if you’ve never done any curves before you’ll be making progress in no time. Chain piecing really helps speed things up for this quilt, especially in the early steps - if you’ve not chain pieced before check out my previous blog for some handy tips to get you on your way.
Quilting
It took me quite a while to decide how to quilt the Spring One as I was worried about doing justice to the pattern. Eventually I decided to try out a geometric orange peel design from Walk by Jacquie Gering on the Spring cushion using a complementary lilac thread (2510 Aurifil 40wt), but although I like the effect on the cushion I felt it would be too much for the quilt. Instead I opted to keep it simple and quilt a large diagonal grid and add more detail if needed and as it turned out that was just right. I finished it off with my favourite striped binding (Zip in Berry by Ruby Star Society) and some big stitch quilting, and it’s been a favourite on our bed ever since.
When it came to quilting the Winter One, I knew from making the Spring One that I wanted to keep it simple and originally planned a denser diagonal grid using a contrast thread (2710 Aurifil 28wt) but after quilting the main grid decided that a second layer would be too dense and distract from the organic shapes of the pattern. I love adding little hidden bits of flair to quilts - usually a fun pieced back - and I decided to tweak my planned blue binding slightly by adding a small band of Mimeograph from Spectrastric II by Giucy Giuce before finishing it off with some big stitch binding.
And there you have it - the Orange Blossoms Quilt!
You can get your own copy of the pattern now by clicking the button below. Remember, I absolutely love to see your makes, so don’t forget to share your projects with #OrangeBlossomsQuilt and #caitlisledesigns hashtags!