Taking a Creative Leap with the GO! Pickle Dish

What do you see when you look at the GO! Pickle Dish Block on Board (BOB) Die? All the shapes that you need to make this fun, but classic, block. Right?

Sure. But what if you break it down and look at just one shape? Think about what you can do with it outside of this block.

Well, our AccuQuilt team recently did just that by putting our heads together to explore ways to use the orange peel or melon shape on the die!

Orange Peel Quilting Ideas

With the thought of making a 20” x 20” finished pillow, we started playing with some fun Kaffe Fassett fabric against a solid background.

Don’t be concerned about the notches along the sides, there’s a plan for those that I’ll share later in this post!

We started with a pretty standard four-petal flower look. It's nice, but we could do more! If some are good, more is better, so we started adding more “petals” for a fuller look, and loved the effect!

Now, if we only had a smaller shape to use with it – wait, we have the GO! Orange Peel die!

Adding this to the mix gave us a smaller shape to add for some more fun looks.

By now, the creativity was really rolling and we took a look at a totally different, circular layout that reminded us of the Rob Peter to Pay Paul block!

Okay, that was a pretty fun start! So, we added in our smaller orange peel shapes to expand the design.

Next, we started expanding the circular design.

Taking away the two “lone” pieces in the corners left us with this amazing asymmetrical design formed with two interlocking circles.

Think about making this for a wedding gift by including wedding information, dates, names, and more with embroidery.

There are just so many options using one shape and a “shadow” shape!

Interfacing Applique

Here’s a look at a fun applique technique that not only makes it easy to work with these shapes, but it eliminates the notches from your finished project!

For this technique, you’ll need a lightweight, single-sided iron-on interfacing and an applique pressing sheet.

The first step is to fan fold the fusible over the melon shape on the die and cut.

Next, place one piece of fusible on top of each fabric melon with bumpy, or fusible, side facing the right side of the fabric.

The pre-cut notches will help you line these up perfectly, so you can sew a ¼” seam all around the shape. Yes, all the way around! You don’t need to leave a section open for turning in this step!

Trim down the seam allowance at the melon tips and clip the curved seam allowance to help your finished shape lay flat.

Now, here comes the magic!

Cut a 2-3” slit in the center of the interfacing only - being careful not to cut the fabric.

This will allow you to turn your piece right side out and gently nudge the points and seams until smooth.

Place the piece on the applique pressing sheet with the bumpy side down, facing the sheet.

Keep smoothing out the edges until you’re satisfied, then press (refer to your interfacing instructions for iron temperature).

Note that this will fuse your piece to the applique pressing sheet, but you can easily lift it and reposition it as you like!

Tada! Your first melon shapes are complete. We used seven for our final pillow layout.

Position the pieces onto your pillow background and press them into place.

Pro Tip: Be sure you are happy with the placement before you press, because once pressed down, they are staying put!

To finish it off, stitch down using your favorite method either by hand or using your machine.

Here are examples of two different stitches – a small zig-zag and a blind hemstitch. We decided we liked the blind hem stitch the best for this project.

This pillow top took less than two hours from start to finish – how’s that for a quick and easy project?

What Will You Create?

We hope you’ll share your projects for using the GO! Pickle Dish Die!

We would love to hear your ideas in the comments section and...

If you create your own project using the inspiration and tips in this post, please share a photo on social media using the hashtag #AccuQuilt and don't forget to tag @AccuQuilt so we can see your fun creation!