DECEMBER 20, 2023
I see this quilt and I can’t help but struggle to put together the concept of making this quilt with what I wrote on day 1:
“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.”
How did she have the time, let alone eek it out, to make these incredible qulits?
Because are you ready for this? This handsewn quilt … hand sewn! … has …
16,896 pieces … … … NOT including all the pieces in the border!
Maybe the secret of how she made all these quilts lies in this one quilt.
The ocean wave blocks were repetitive, not requiring a super amount of focus; they could be picked up and stitched on for a bit and then put down, without fear of losing the creative thought process. Make one of the lozenges/pieced sections and put it aside. Make another one.
The borders, she wasn’t stressing about them being perfect. Again, none of the borders match exactly. I love how she did her own thing in each of them. I love how vibrant they are against that pink outer border. I love the bits of cheddar in the leaves … because I am a sucker for cheddar.
She was having fun, planning as she went. I don’t think she pulled out the previous border to make sure she was doing it the same. Maybe as she made the top border, she said to herself, oh yes, I put a flower in the other border like this one, and so put one flower on the top border and when she had all the borders out and saw they were different, she didn’t feel the need to go back and “correct” things and add another flower to have things be the “same”. All the vines in the borders just wander where she wanted them to wander at that moment. She placed the leaves were they pleased her eye. Maybe it was this freedom that let her just get on with the task. Winter was coming … and quilts were needed for the bed.
A good philosophy I think. What about you?
Some other facts about this quilt:
Condition: Good/Moderate Use
Inscription: Mrs. C. M. Cannaday (label with ink) on back
Construction: Hand pieced, hand appliqued
Borders: Appliqued inner border: Top and bottom 4 inches; Sides 4.5 inches. Outer border 2.5 inches on all sides.
Back: cotton muslin. Solid/plain, handsewn, 3 pieces (32.5 in; 32.5 in; 5 in)
Batting: thin, cotton, with milling debris
Quilting: hand quilted, white cotton thread hand quilting 8-10 stitches per inch, ½” to 1” between lines. Overall motifs are straight lines, outlines, florals, and grid/crosshatch
Binding: No separate binding, handsewn, turned in (what I call knife edge)
DECEMBER 19, 2023
I wouldn’t change a word of what I wrote about this quilt in 2016: “The mid-nineteenth century saw many fine examples of quilts with exuberant bouquets in urns, usually in a four-block setting. Susan McCord elevates this style with her nine blocks filled with whimsical flowers. she defined borders her own way … all four different … thank you very much … who said they all have to be the same! And just in case you are wondering how small you can go with tiny grapes, yes, those teensy grapes (or berry blossoms as I know like to refer to them in 2023!) are individually hand appliquéd. Her signature string pieced leaves appear again in this quilt, and she goes to town with layered circle/dots on her larger flowers. Oh, and that narrow pink binding … divine!”
I will add a few words though!
Susan McCord’s attention to detail … Blows. Me. Away!
Unlike the Harrison Urn Quilt, every single urn composition is the same in every way. The colour placements are the same, even in the string pieced leaves under the principle flower, she has placed the colour and value in the same position in each leaf. The same is true for the string pieced leaves in the borders. The only variations? The addition of three red flowers in place of pink ones. Can you find them? But overall … incredible! These, shall we call them nuances, are what endears this work to us even more.
She stitched a delicate line of embroidery to connect the little tiny blue berries that dangle off of the flowers that cascade downward from the urn. There are also a delicate lines of embroider connecting the green leaves and string leaves to the nearby stems that flow from the urn. And connecting the very teeny dots that hang off the flowers in the top border.
Not only does she include her trademark string pieced leaves in this quilt, she also uses, again, borders that don’t match. I’m okay with that. Are you?
I love that when Susan McCord wanted to be exacting she could and when she wanted to go wildly free with her designs she flew!
Remember Quilt #4, Turkey Tracks. The colours in that border match very well with the colours in this border. Did she have left overs, or was there another quilt? What do you think?
Some other facts about this quilt:
Condition: good/moderate use
Construction: Hand pieced, hand appliqued
Additional: Some embroidery
Borders: Pieced borders. Top and bottom borders 7.5 inches. Side borders 9.5 inches.
Backing; White cotton muslin back, solid/plain, handsewn, 4 pieces (24 in; 24.5 in; 25 in; 8in)
Batting: Thin, cotton, some milling debris but no seeds visible.
Quilting: hand quilted, 9-12 stitches per inch, 5/8 inch and ¾ inch between lines. Diagonal lines, crosshatch grid pattern, double outline quilted around the appliques, borders double outline quilted around appliques, additional leaves quilted on either side of vine
Binding: Separate binding applied, straight of grain, handsewn, less than ½”, curved slightly around straight corners.
PSA: Find my handout on how to do Narrow Single Fold Bindings on my website here.
DECEMBER 18, 2023
This is not the first Susan McCord Crazy Quilt that I have featured during the Twelve Quilts of Christmas. There was this fabulous one in 2022.
I was and still am very much captivated by McCord’s Fan Variation Quilt that I shared last year. At the time I wrote that to be honest other than her Fan Variation Quilt, I didn’t have a fondness for crazy quilts and that in fact, I could happily leave them all and not give them any time. However, as I have been looking at McCord’s other Crazy Quilts, I can report that I am softening on this a bit. I don’t know that one has made it to my bucket list, but today’s quilt has opened my eyes to how intriguing one can be when executed with her skill and artistic sensibilities.
This quilt is not over the top with embroidered details as is typical of crazy quilts of the era. McCord restricted the embroidery to the edges of the individual pieces and the blocks using a herringbone pattern and I like the subtlety of that detail.
I also like the very obvious block layout in this quilt, compared to other crazy quilts, and how it gives a sense of more defined edges. This element creates a wonderful rhythm to what can otherwise be the chaos I typically sense with looking at other crazy quilts. I am intrigued by her design decisions. She had enough of the string type/vertically/linearly composed blocks to create a border on the right, like the one on the left, but she chose not to. She visually anchored the top and the bottom of the quilt with the large piecing used in the four centre blocks on those rows. Look and you will see gentle curves thrown in here and there in some blocks; this softens the whole composition and is a delightful juxtaposition to the blocks that are more linear in design.
McCord’s colour palette intrigues me as well. She did not choose the typical somber colours of the era. Instead she chose to use a significant amount of white and add moments of light blue and vibrant royal blue throughout the quilt. This choice by McCord, enhanced by the moments of deep black and eggplant, makes this quilt glow and gives a sense of lightness to the composition. And that one piece of rich red on that deep black (third row from the left, third column from the left) … that wee moment of intensity … it fits right in. Unlike those somber affairs that crazy quilts from this period typically are, there’s an exuberance and joy within this quilt … and I find that very enticing.
What do you think about Crazy Quilts? Is one on your bucket list of quilts to make?
Some other facts about this quilt:
Condition: very good/almost new
Fabric: cotton, wool and silk flannel and velvet and some machine embroidered dress trim
Construction: Hand pieced, foundation pieced
Embroidery: wool thread and other embroidery.
Batting: no batting
Quilting: no quilting
Binding: Edges turned under and finished with blanket stitch
DECEMBER 17, 2023
The museum writes about this quilt:
“Susan McCord’s unique vine design meanders along the border on one side of this Turkey Tracks pattern quilt. This quilt was probably made with a specific bed in mind — a bed with one long side against a wall.”
They also wrote:
“Because the background fabric appears different in the applique border, and it was repaired before the quilt was assembled, it may indicate that this border was from another quilt or was left over from another quilt and added to this one.” That white spot that you see on the appliqued border, by the fourth set of leaves down, is the repair … with a whiter fabric than the original backing.
Did she recycle it from another quilt? The colours of that appliqué border on this quilt are a good match for the quilt that you are going to see on Day 6, so you are likely going to want to toggle between the two then to compare (spoiler alert … it has all of it’s border). If it is recycled from another quilt, my big question is, what did that quilt look like and what are we missing seeing? What other wonderful creation did she make? I love that she did not stop herself from using it that border, just because the background colours don’t match. It is not something I immediately noticed until I read their description. I might have picked up on it sooner if I had seen it in person.
There are so many other fascinating details about this quilt. One is that the 1” wide, pink “garden maze” sashing is not pieced or inset. It is actually appliqued onto the top. I love that she made that choice!
For the borders, she made some more interesting choices. The top and bottom of the body/blocks portion of the quilt, have a single border that runs the width of that section; pink on the top and green on the bottom. The next set of borders on the top and bottom run across the full width of the quilt. Notice how the widths and colours on top and bottom are switched around, and how the addition of the extra green border on the bottom adds visual weight to the bottom of the quilt (that green is not a binding).
McCord also used multiple binding techniques. The top, bottom and the applique border side have the edges turned in; there is not separate binding. The right side, opposite the applique border, the notes say that the front has been turned to the back, but I would take that to mean that it is essentially a binding, as that piece had to be added on.
All these border choices and binding decisions mean that all four “borders” are different!
What do you think about all the choices she made while making this quilt?
Some other facts about this quilt:
Condition: very good/almost new
Hand pieced and hand appliqued
Borders: Top border measuring from inside to outside: 1 inch; 2.5 inches; 2.5 inches. Bottom border measuring from inside to outside: 2.25 inches; 2.5 inches; 1 inch. Proper right border is pieced and appliqued with a 4.75 inch.
Back: Cotton muslin, solid/plain, handsewn, 7 pieces (32.5; 32.5; 7.5)
Batting: Thin, cotton, will milling debris visible.
Quilting: hand quilted with hand quilted with white cotton thread at 19-12 stitches per inch, ½” between quilting lines; echo, single parallel lines, feathers and grid/crosshatch
Inscription: label with ink on back reads Mrs. C. M. Cannaday
My gentle PSA!
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!
DECEMBER 16, 2023
The museum writes: “This popular patchwork pattern is called Diamond Field. In Susan McCord’s hands it becomes a marvel of workmanship and design — tiny pieces of different fabrics expertly arranged and sewn together. The quilt top is evenly faded and the batting thin — it has seen much use and washing. Perhaps the quiltmaker or a family member slept under this quilt
Unfortunately some of the reference photos for the McCord quilts were taken many years ago and so are a lesser resolution than we might get today. This makes a deeper study, like fabrics used, a bit more challenging. However we can still focus on colour and value. I can see that she was working to create “rows” of colour in her composition, but sprinkled substitutions throughout and that there is some gradation happening with her “rows”.
I can also discern that she used a broad range of “reds” in the “sashing” hexagon pieces, from a medium pink through to a darker burgundy. She arranged the colour of the sashing also in rows, starting with a lighter pink on the bottom and moving to darker reds on the top, finishing off with the medium pink again, but she made lots of substitutions where she needed to. Mc Cord also added on darker streak on the right-hand side of “sashing” hexagons.
Note that the centres of each of the “diamonds” all seem to be on the light to medium side in terms of value, and that they are rather randomly distributed … no attempts at creating the same “rows” with them.
What I love about this quilt is how she used her keen eye and sense of design in combining all the different colour values and substitutions into a beautiful assymetrically balanced quilt. The result is that this rather simple block design has been transformed into a visually engaging composition full of surprises!
Does this quilt tempt you to make some hexagon diamonds? What do you think of her composition?
Some other facts about this quilt:
Condition Good/Moderate Use
Hand pieced
Borders: 1.25 inches on all sides.
Backing: Solid/plain cream cotton, hand sewn, three pieces (35 in; 35 in; 4.5 in) (inscriptions on back: PREMIUM / FINE / SHEETINGS / LL / (printed eagle))
Batting: Thin, cotton
Quilting: hand quilted, white cotton thread, 6-8 stitches per inch, elbow/fan quilting pattern, lines 1” apart.
Binding: Edges turned in, no separate binding
