Nine Patch Tulips (Aunt Maggie’s Tulips)

45″ x 45″

Completed August 2011

I don’t actually have an Aunt Maggie.  However, I do have an Aunt Marilyn who happens to be a quilter.  Many years ago I was visiting her and went with her to a quilting friend’s house.  This friend had a gorgeous quilt in her entryway that I fell in love with.  The quilt was made up of 42 scrappy nine-patch blocks placed on point with tulip flowers and leaves appliquéd on each corner of the block.  I took a photo of it and eventually happened on a pattern for what looked liked the same quilt.  The pattern I purchased was Aunt Maggie’s Tulips by Brandywine Designs.  As much as I love the original 42-block quit, I ran out of steam 20 blocks into the project.   I ended up making a wall quilt with 16 of the blocks I had completed.  The original quilt had no border, but I had plenty of squares still cut for the nine-patches I didn’t intend to keep making, so I used them up in a border and placed the remaining tulip blocks in each corner.  I’m delighted to say that I didn’t purchase a single fabric for this quilt!  I’m not so happy to say that there doesn’t seem to be any more room in my stash than there was when I started this quilt.  I’m not quite sure how that works, but this seems to be a repeating phenomenon!