Orange peel quilt hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 3 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Orange peel quilt: preview of the stitched design

An orange peel quilt trimmed at its corners to sit round in a hoop, drawn by its peels alone: thirty-two pointed peels lie on the diagonals of a grid of squares, three by three, making a four-petal flower in the middle square and in the square on each side of it, with three peels in each trimmed corner. Every peel is filled with satin stitch laid across it, in orange and gold from flower to flower, and a French knot sits in the middle of each of the nine flowers and on each of the twelve joints.

Size and details

Intermediate. Satin stitch over about a quarter of the cloth in a 6 inch hoop; from a 6 inch hoop up some of the satin stitches are long.

3 colors of floss and 2 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.9 × 1.9 in	4.8 × 4.8 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.8 × 2.8 in	7.1 × 7.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.7 × 3.7 in	9.4 × 9.4 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.6 × 4.6 in	11.7 × 11.7 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.5 × 6.5 in	16.5 × 16.5 cm	9/16 in (14 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 9/16 in (14 mm) across. Satin stitches longer than about 12 mm (just under 1/2 in) tend to work loose: divide the shape into sections, or work it in long and short stitch.
In a 3 inch hoop the French knots are drawn smaller than about 2 mm (a little over 1/16 in). Use one strand of floss for them there, or choose a larger hoop.

The pattern is drawn inside a circle about half an inch (1.3 cm) smaller all around than the hoop.

What you need

DMC 922 Light CopperPeels of the middle flower and the four corner flowers
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawPeels of the four flowers between
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenMiddles of the flowers and joints

The floss is six-strand cotton; the stitch guide says how many strands to use. You also need a hoop, an embroidery needle (a size 7 to 9 suits two or three strands) and plain cotton or linen fabric. To frame the piece in its hoop, cut a square 3 inches (8 cm) wider than the hoop: a 9 inch (23 cm) square for a 6 inch hoop.

Stitch guide

Satin stitch 2 strandsPeels of the middle flower and the four corner flowers, peels of the four flowers between
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsMiddles of the flowers, joints

Getting it onto your fabric

The PDF holds the pattern twice at actual size: once as drawn, and once mirrored for an iron-on transfer pen. Print it at 100% with scaling off and check the one-inch square (25.4 mm) with a ruler before you trace. How to transfer a pattern explains tracing, carbon paper and the other ways. The files are under Downloads.