More about Mary

 I have almost fallen back in love with this quilt.  Not that I had ever fallen out of love, I had just moved onto the next one.  Do I sound very fickle?  When I decided to turn the 7 blocks into 9 and make a small quilt, I had forgotten how really beautiful they are.

I am almost thinking I might make 12 now and make a slightly larger quilt.  There are 25 blocks in the pattern, and a huge appliqued border.  Some of the blocks are a bit of challenge with lots of cut outs and intertwining/overlapping stems.

You can see the original Mary Mannakee quilt here , and if you go to Pinterest (like I did) you get heaps of photos.

I used a collection of dark "poison" green fabrics, a few different reds and golds, plus that beautiful blue in my blocks.  So glad I decided to use the blue as well, as i seem to have a lot of red and green quilts happening.  This will break it up a bit.

One thing I must add about using a printed background.  This fabric is sort of off white, with a tiny red arrow like print on it.  When you applique red onto the background, it sometimes looks like you have bits poking out, or jagged edges that should be smooth.  On closer inspection you can see that it is the background print.  I was doing a bit of "tidying up" on them last night, and found I could not poke the bits back in.  On that point as well, if I do get a pointy bit on a smooth shape, I use a wooden toothpick, and poke it back into place. Works 90% of the time.

I went to the Australian Quilt Market in Melbourne last weekend.  Spent lots of money.  Next post I will show you some of the new things I have coming.