Ever pick up a project from years ago and wonder why you didn’t finish it? Then you start working on it again and realize EXACTLY why you put that project to the side? Enter this quilt. I started piecing it several years ago, when I was only around two or three years into quilting. I made umpteenmillion orange peel shapes (footballs) of both fabric and fusible stabilizer and bought at least six packs of Moda white five-inch squares. The fabrics I chose were quilt grade, name brand. So this project was not cheap.

Speaking of being, let’s say, frugal – I won’t go into just how cheap my dad was, but I inherited a small percentage of his cheapness and I couldn’t let all that money go to waste. I picked up the project and admittedly, said some words that might not should have been uttered. There was no going back. The orange peels had already been fused on the squares and most of them had been secured with a tight zig zag. I made lemonade out of the orange peels, as it were.

If you are ever interested in making one of several orange peel patterns available, let me give you a few key tips: make sure each orange peel is *exactly* the same. This matters, trust me. Also, mark on the square where the shape will be placed with a pencil or marker. Proper positioning of that little football shape might be the most important thing in making it turn out ok.

As for this quilt, I initially didn’t like it at all. My husband and daughter-in-law loved it. But when I look at it, all I see are mistakes. The space between shapes is too wide or too narrow. But I really did do the best I could with what had already been done – of that I am confident.

I also tried a new technique (seeing as how I probably couldn’t mess it up any more, right?). I cut little scraps of piecing and backing fabric into squares and then sewed them into a piano-key binding. I rather like the way that part turned out, and to tell you the truth, the quilt is kind of growing on me now.