The Mary Rose Quilt

I have been called an "old soul," probably because I like old things and like making new things look old--like quilts. I get a bit obsessive when working on quilts. At some point in the last year I fell in love with Robert Kaufman's "Mary Rose" fabric line, specifically Mary Rose 7. I ordered a few fat quarters and they sat on my dresser for months, then moved to the top of the quilt rack, then to the picture ledge, and then I folded them and put them away, lamenting that I could not think of just the right quilting pattern that would display these fabrics in their full glory.

Out of frustration I chose a "block quilt" constructed of unpieced 7" blocks, and utilizing the lovely Mary Rose fabric with a variety of neutrals, I sought to create something simple that would have an antique feel as though it were a quilt pulled from an old attic trunk. 

For the past three weeks I've been hand quilting on my days off, measuring time in three motifs to the hour... and how many hours can I quilt per day before my "underneath" finger starts bleeding? 

It is finished now... almost. I'm stitching the binding closed by hand and then I'll rinse to remove the blue marks, then launder, then hopefully pull an "antique" quilt from the dryer. 

I should write what I did during the work of this quilt. Vivaldi's sacred works, specifically "Dixit Dominus," accompanied my piecing... for hours and hours and hours as 8 albums played continuously via my iPod in the sewing room. Quilting in the living room was to the dialogue of the Fox series "House, MD" while cats curled around me taking advantage of my stillness and the warmth of fabric and batting. 

Hopefully by next week... a photo of the finished quilt!