Orange Peel

As promised, here's the latest project I have thrown into the mix.  ORANGE PEEL!  5 years ago I went to the International Quilt Festival in Houston and fell in love with French fabric sold by one of the vendors.  For a couple of years, every time I saw this woman at a quilt show, I bought a few 'FQs' (and I use that term rather loosely---these fabrics fall far short of measuring 18x22....some are 15x20, some smaller due to these hideously oversize selvages that seem to be on many of the pieces I picked up).

I've got a lot of fabric 'collections' just waiting for the right project to come along, so when I saw this one last week, I thought 'Gee, wouldn't that French fabric be great in an orange peel quilt', and I promptly ordered 6 yards of Moda Bella Oyster solid and a template.  Cutting for a couple hours here and there for the past couple days, I managed to get 288 peels out of my FQs, so last night I cut out 288 5" squares to applique them to. But before I can do that, I need to cut 288 peels out of some featherweight fusible interfacing (seriously, I am not crazy and do not plan to needle turn this project, nor do I want raw edge machine applique), and then I can get started appliqueing each peel to a solid block.

This is going to be a fun one for the design wall...should the circles be a single color, or should the 'jacks' be a single color, or do I mix them all up??  We shall see how this plays out later this summer once all the applique is done.

And prior to cutting into those French beauties, I had a lightbulb moment when I put a fresh blade in my rotary cutter.  Dry erase pen!

What are you working on now? Are you a master of machine applique?  If so, I could certainly use some tips.