Orange Peel

About this block

This is a single curved petal shape, formed where two intersecting arcs meet, used as the basic building unit for orange peel-pattern quilts. Traditionally made with English Paper Piecing before sewing machines were widely available, and later more commonly appliquéd onto a background square. One popular legend ties the shape's name to the Marquis de Lafayette, the French general celebrated as a hero of both the American and French Revolutions: as the story goes, at a dinner in his honor, Lafayette peeled an orange by cutting it into four segments first, an unusual method someone in attendance turned into this quilt design. Some quilt historians place the design's roots even earlier, tracing it to the American Revolutionary era generally, though this remains folklore rather than documented fact.