This week’s sketch might be a little impractical in terms of making an actual quilt, but it’s a fun exploration of orange peels.

The orange peel unit is basically a square with a leaf shape running diagonally across. The curves are the same as if you overlapped two quarter-circles or drunkard’s path units that faced the opposite direction. I guess the name comes from the shape of the peel when you cut an orange into segments? I’ve never really thought about it before!

It’s is such a fun shape, but I haven’t designed with it much – the most recent sketch I could find that incorporates some type of orange peel is Sunday sketch #351, which I posted in March 2023. I’ve never sewn an orange peel unit either, so I think it just tends not to be a shape that I think about much.

You can probably see that there are small spaces between some of the peels. I’ve used a basic block of 4 peels that meet in the middle, like a star or a 4-petaled flower, but I’ve added thin sashing between the blocks. That just gives the peels a little breathing room. The resulting design also reminds me a little of cross-stitches. Cute!

In these versions, the 8 flower/star shapes (in the dark pink above, and the pale pink and blue, below) are each formed from a single petal from 4 adjacent blocks – hence the gap in their middles.

I started this design with the blocks on point, which makes the peels line up vertically and horizontally, but I decided I preferred a standard layout, which makes them line up diagonally.

Paring back to one colour for the peels might help to show how easy it is to create lines and new designs.

The downside to detailed designs like these is that unless you’re making teeny tiny peels, your overall quilt could end up being quite big. That last version is at least 14 peels across/down – even without sashing or a border, that would make a quilt of 5″ peels measure 70″ across. Increase the size of the peels, add a border and some sashing, or include more blocks, and you’re talking a big quilt.

So this probably won’t be a quilt I’d make anytime soon. But I like playing around with ideas like this, because it can spark new ideas that are more feasible in terms of actually making (at least for me). At the very least, it might prompt me to try sewing an orange peel unit!