Twelve Quilts of Christmas – #1

I decided that this year there is someone whose body of work is definitely worthy of shining a huge spotlight on. And so, for this year’s Twelve Quilts of Christmas, we will be celebrating the work of Indiana quilter Susan Noakes McCord. To know me is to know my deep love for her work.  McCord was a design genius, a highly proficient needlewoman and an extraordinary quilter.  Her quilts are a testament not only to her artistic vision but to her tenacity in seeing that vision through to completion.  I am in awe of her and her work.  No other word will do.  It is complete and utter awe. Her quilts leave me nothing short of breathless.

The majority of antique and vintage quilts that have survived to today are made by anonymous makers.  It is exceptionally rare that we have the ability to study a large number of quilts from over a century ago, from a single maker, and especially one as gifted and prolific as McCord.  The Henry Ford Museum has 13 of her quilts in their collection and we are so incredibly lucky that so many of her quilts survived. Different family members who had inherited her quilts cherished them and eventually sold them to The Henry Ford Museum: ten in 1972-1973, one in 1992, one in 2004, and one in 2011.  I am so grateful they all did. I have shared two of them with you in past Twelve Quilts of Christmas:  here in 2022 and here in 2016.

Here’s a little bit of what we know about Susan McCord:

Born in Susannah (Susan) Noakes, on 7th of October 1829 in Indiana, she met school teacher Arvin Green McCord and they wed on the 2^nd of August 1849 in Decatur, Indiana.  They eventually settled in McCordsville, Indiana, a town settled by one of Green’s relatives, making their home on an 80 acre farm. Susan and Green had 7 children: 5 boys and two girls.  She was an ordinary farm wife who kept house, brought up her children, sewed and mended the clothing for her family, knitted accessories, embroidered linen and bedcovers, practiced homeopathic medicine, read her bible through each year, participated in sewing bees, tended the vegetable and flower gardens, took care of the cows and chickens, and participated in community gatherings – and in whatever small slices of time she had, she also made exquisite quilts. Exceptional quilts.  The museum writes: “McCord used traditional materials, techniques and patterns—but her considerable skill at manipulating fabric, color and design turned the traditional into something exceptional. McCord’s bed coverings stand as the extraordinary legacy of an otherwise little-known Indiana farmwife.”

Tragically on December 6, 1909 McCord was kicked by a cow she had been milking and lay on the frozen ground for hours before someone found her.  She contracted pneumonia and died 6 days later on December 12, 1909.  Susan and her husband Green are buried in the Oaklandon Cemetery in Marion County, Indiana. 

We know that there is at least one more quilt and other work by McCord that has survived, other than thirteen quilts at The Henry Ford. There is a photo in the collections of The Henry Ford, of a McCord relative holding a Drunkard’s Path crib quilt.  And there are two other photos of large sheets that McCord extensively embroidered.  More testaments to the fact that she was not an idle woman.

The first quilt this year, is Susan McCord’s Triple Irish Chain with Border.

The museum writes: “Susan McCord’s Triple Irish Chain demonstrates her considerable skill at manipulating fabric, color and design to turn a traditional quilt pattern into something extraordinary. Choosing carefully from her bag of scraps, McCord sewed thousands of very small fabric squares of varying colors together, resulting in a remarkably balanced, pleasing whole. Then she surrounded it with her unique vine border.”

The precision of her piecing in the quilt is impressive, her great attention to detail evident. And absolutely her color choices are pleasant and harmonious.  This traditional design has been expertly executed and it results in a lovely “centre composition”.   It is said there are 3, 630 pieces in the quilt, but I don’t think that includes all of the pieces in the borders.  We really need to talk about those borders … her trademark vines … the vines that make her work unique and readily identifiable.  She was very fond of these borderss and used them on numerous quilts.  They undulate and calmly meander around the border, with multitudinous leaves, buds and flowers exploding off of them. 

But look closely, because what you will see is that many of those leaves are not ordinary appliqued leaves made of a single piece of fabric. No, many of them are in fact individually string pieced (absolutely no strata here, despite the instructions in the famous book about her quilts), some of them using anywhere from two to six stings to make them.  These leaves render me dumbstruck, heart palpitating Every. Single. Time. I. See. Them.  They are stunning, simply stunning and unique to Susan McCord.

Not to be totally taken up with the sting leaves, we can’t miss that all four borders are different.  And she doesn’t even try to resolve the corners with the vines.  Instead one vine heads off this way, another heads off that way.  None of that matters.   You can tell she was having a marvellous time, playing as she went, using her keen eye to maintain a balanced composition for the whole. Can we just have a group sigh of delight as we look at it!

Some other facts about this quilt:

Condition:  Good/moderate use

Hand pieced and hand appliqued

Borders: Sides are 3.75” and top and bottom are 4” 

Solid cotton back, hand sewn, three pieces, 2”, 33” 33” (common width for the era was much narrower than today. That 33″ indicates she was using the full width of the fabric in piecing the backs)

Thin Batting, hand quilted with white cotton thread at 10 stitches per inch using floral motifs, single parallel lines and outline quilting in the borders.

Binding:  No binding.  Handsewn, the back and front have been turned in … what I call a knife edge binding.  

So …. What do you think of Susan McCord’s Triple Irish Chain Quilt?

PS: The curation of this collection of antique quilts each year is my gift to you all. Please feel free to share this gift and send this post to your quilting friends far and wide. The more people joining us, the merrier.  And please join in the conversation in the comments. I would love to hear from you!