Red and Green Tulip Quilt, Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. c. 1800-1849. 70” x 82”, Sarah “Sally” Hull Perkins. Quilt Index Record number 40-38-640.
Bold and folky in feel, you can’t help but look at this quilt and feel happy!
Sally Perkins and her family travelled over the Oregon Trail in 1844. What a journey it must have been. I think you have an idea of her spirit of exploration looking at this quilt.
The wonderful blue that she used really makes the green and red colours absolutely pop. And do you see the tiny bit of cheddar orange that she added to each of the tulips? It is just a small part of this overall design, but it has a huge impact even though you many not notice it at first. Can you imagine this quilt without the cheddar moments? What would the impact on the design be if the cheddar was replaced with red? What colour would you replace it with if you decided to do so?
The narrow binding is perfection for me. Just the right delicate frame to the quilt design and it balances off the chunkiness of the design beautifully. Of course, you all know by now what a sucker I am for a narrow single fold binding. You can find a tutorial page you can print off on my website here, so you can try one yourself. The switch in colour of the binding at the top of the quilt suggests some repairs lovingly executed.
And finally, the quilting. Fan quilted … right. through. the. appliqué. Yes! Did you know the arching lines of fan quilting are easier to quilt than straight lines that follow the grain of the fabric? It’s true.
And what do you think of the way she resolved the setting grid at the top? Do you think it works in the overall design?
If you are new to this Christmas tradition of mine, welcome. I am so glad you have stopped by. I would love it if you could share this tradition with all your quilt loving friends. It is my gift to all of you during this holiday season.
This year’s Twelve Quilts of Christmas is the better late than never edition. When life happens, sometimes you just need to adjust to keep a tradition alive.
For 2024, we are celebrating Tulip Quilts! When I was doing my research I kept track of some numbers for my own curiosity and I thought I would share them with you. I know I look at tens upon tens of thousands of quilts as I scour through my books and through various websites. In the end here is how I got to where I landed in my research and got to my final 12 … well sort of.
Short list of tulip quilts to consider: 283. (This number is the grand result of gathering all the options from what I have seen. I don’t try and edit before this. It is helpful to see trends and detect personal bias.)
First elimination round: 58
Second elimination round: 26
Third elimination round: 17
Fourth elimination round: 15-22 some jumping back in.
Final: 13. And it stayed at 13 until today. I was still humming and hawing between two choices for the final pick, but in the end, the photo of one quilt was just not going to be great, so I was glad to have that extra one in my back pocket. All that being said I am saying it is in my back pocket because in verifying some information today, I saw another potential candidate and, well … you get the idea. They truly are never definitely decided until I hit publish some years.|
Truly every year is a struggle to pare down the options, but it is a struggle in the best way. In the pursuit of variety (the short list showed very clearly my personal bias for crossed tulip designs) I was propelled to consider other options and in doing so I expanded my design vocabulary. That is a very good thing!
The tulip motif can be found in design going back centuries, so it is no surprise that it continued to be popular as a quilting motif. During the past 13 years of The Twelve Quilts of Christmas, tulips have certainly appeared in the quilts highlighted. You can find some examples here, here, here, here, and here.
I am so glad that you are joining me again this year as we continue to soak up some amazing tulip quilts and tons all of ingenuity from the makers that have come before us.
This red, cheddar and dark green, on white background, quilt is a wonderful example of the power and potential of exploring a design using a single motif. I love the detail of the four “unstemmed” flowers in the middle. What is really interesting is that the maker was extremely comfortable with her sewing machine and she straight machine stitched down all the appliqué components on this quilt.
The graphic nature of this quilt is compelling. Do you see the “x” that interplays with a centre square on point. And the bit of extra fabric she added on to the top and bottom of the quilt is a delightful addition, that doesn’t bother me at all or detract from the design. Toes had to be kept warm!
Her Vine Quilt has been called her “undisputed masterpiece” and stunningly beautiful. It is her most famous quilt.
How it came to be in the public view, goes back to the 1970’s. The upcoming bicentennial sparked an interest in history and traditional crafts, including quilting. Around this increased interest, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City held a seminal quilt exhibition in 1971 that changed how the world viewed and what they thought about quilts, by taking them off beds and hanging them on the walls of a world renown art museum. I wrote about one of the quilts in that exhibition here. And I covered that exhibition here, on my post about Why Quilts Matter.
As a result of this renewed interest in quilts, groups began organizing quilt documentation days in various states. Many others followed later. With requests for ordinary people to look in their attics and cupboards and bring in their quilts to be photographed and documented, people looked at their family quilts in a different light … they were important pieces of history.
It is during this time that the quilts of an ordinary Indiana farmwife, Susan Noakes McCord, who had “an extraordinary genius for designing and making quilts”, came to light. In 1972 Ruth Canaday, brought ten of her grandmother’s quilts to The Henry Ford. They were extraordinary. Between 1972 and 1973 the museum bought them. The Vine Quilt was among that group.
McCord’s quilts were on exhibition at The Henry Ford during the 1970’s. McCord rightly became “known for her innovative designs and exquisite craftsmanship.” The Vine Quilt continued to be exhibited after the 1970’s. In 1981 it was featured near the entrance to the exhibition American Quilts, A Handmade Legacy at the Oakland Museum of California and described as the “Sistine Chapel of quilts”. It was displayed again in 1983 World of Quilts exhibition at Oakland University, Michigan, which included the best 100 examples of quilts from public and private collectors. The Henry Ford included it in two exhibitions. The 1988 exhibition Susan McCord’s Quilts: A Farmwife’s Legacy and the 2004 exhibition Quilting Genius. The Vine Quilt’s image graced the pages of magazines and numerous books highlighting antique quilts. Gratefully it is in the hands of the museum being carefully preserved for future generations to enjoy.
When I was studying the quilt highlighted yesterday, McCord’s Feathered Star, I asked myself if maybe I liked that one more. Some have said it is their favourite. It didn’t join the collection at The Henry Ford until 1992, so the Vine Quilt had a bit of a head start on garnering attention and accolades. I decided however, that I remain steadfast to The Vine Quilt as my all-time favourite. You cannot see what the full glory of the Feathered Star quilt was nor McCord’s original design goals … fading has seen to that. That is not the case with The Vine Quilt … the colours of this masterpiece are clear, it’s condition relative to age is good, and most importantly there is limited damage, fading or age marks. This means that Susan Noakes McCord’s intent and her creative vision is still clearly visible for all to see. And what a vision she had!
That vision rests on the trailing, undulating vine design which is unique to Susan McCord. She used this vine and leaves design on many of her other quilts, as you have seen, but in this quilt, the vine design has become perfection and is a work of genius. It demonstrates in every stitch, the freedom that I was referring to when writing about quilt #7 and how she might have found the time to create such incredible works of art. The Vine Quilt is the ultimate example of what I call “Quilting with Abandon” … quilting with such joy and spirit flowing that it is visible to all.
I had the immense privilege of being able to study many of the McCord quilts in 2012. What I saw in her Vine Quilt when I was looking at it was her tenacity. She had a vision of what she wanted to create and she was going to see it through despite what might have been barriers to others; barriers enough to make them never even start.
McCord’s Vine Quilt is created with 13 panels of muslin separated by pink sashing. On each of those panels she appliqued her undulating vines. Each of those 13 vines has over 300 appliqued leaves. Many of those over 300 leaves are string pieced, with most leaves having between 2 and 6 pieces per leaf. She used 4 different colours of thread to applique those string pieced leaves down. She did not create large sheets of strata to cut her leaves from. Each leaf is industriously hand pieced. To have cut them out of larger strata she would be cutting through her hand stitching rendering the task of appliqueing them down a monstrous affair, as the stitching would start to unravel from being cut.
She used printed cottons and calicos, floral, plaids, strips and solids for her leaves. She used a palette of blue, cheddar, maroon, pink (including double pink), purple, red and white. It was noted in some curatorial document that “sizing from mills still apparent on the muslin indicates maybe never washed.” The curatorial notes also indicated that in examining the stitching on the quilt there may have been two people involved in the execution of the applique. It was Susan McCord’s vision though.
And after this wonderful deep dive into the quilts of Susan Noakes McCord, what I know for sure is that The Vine Quilt has been and will remain, hands down, my favourite quilt.
Here are the final Some Other Facts About This Quilt:
Quilting: hand quilted, white cotton thread, 9-10 stitches per inch in outline around leaves and with diamond/grid in sashing
Binding: Edges turned in/no separate binding; hand sewn
I am so glad that you joined me this year. I have enjoyed having a really good look at all of Susan McCord’s quilts and being able to share what I discovered about them with you.
As we head off into a new year soon, I would like to ask a favour of you. Would you please do me the honour of leaving me a comment on this post and telling me what you have liked about the Twelve Quilts of Christmas. Do you have a favourite theme? Is there a theme you would like me to cover? What have you taken away from looking at these quilts? Has what you have learned changed how you approach your own quilting practice? Your feedback will help guide me as I go forward. And your comments will be exceptionally helpful to me in sharing them with guilds or groups that might want to hire me in the future to speak about all that we can learn from antique quilts.
I would truly love to hear from you! And I thank you most sincerely in advance for taking the time.
I wish you and yours the merriest of holidays and the send my very best wishes for a happy, healthy and peaceful year to come.
“Prince’s Feather, often called Princess Feather, was a popular mid-19th century appliqued quilt design. McCord’s graceful version of this feathery pinwheel pattern features her distinctive striped leaves, expertly pieced from tiny colorful scraps of fabric.”
McCord’s mastery! Her ability to create a bold graphic that at the same time feels weightless and ethereal. It is a delight! Her ability to reimagine a traditional design in such a unique fashion. Simply exquisite.
And by now you well know how I feel about Susan McCord’s string leaves. And she has worked her magic with them once again.
I’m taking a pause to catch my breath. You can too. Is your heart beating just a bit faster looking at this quilt?
She has used a very tight colour palette for this quilt. The poison green stands out as it creates the spine of each feather and the tips of some leaves where they join the spine. For the string pieced leaves McCord used various shades of red, pink, purple and chambray blue. The long skinny leaves that for the most part rhythmically punctuate the design between string pieced leaves, and they are one piece of fabric, not string pieced, and they are predominantly red or pink.
Where the feathers look a little sparser, like leaves are missing, McCord did not leave those leaves off, they are indeed there. They are visually missing because the fabric was dyed with an unstable synthetic dye that has faded out over time to the palest of cream which is blending into the background. At the beginning of the production of synthetic dyes, many colours were unstable, such as purple, green, reds and some blues, and they all faded to various shades of tan through cream. You can see some purple prints in the quilt that are fading to tan. My guess is that those faded leaves were also red or pink. The “four point star” in the middle of each feather star has also faded to the same pale cream and was perhaps red or pink. These leaves and stars I think were solid colour fabrics as no remnants of print pattern is discernible from looking at the photograph.
I have to wonder if the border has done the same thing and faded due to fugitive dyes. I am pondering this while only looking at a photograph not the quilt itself, so it’s a curiosity question, but it does seem to be a similar shade to the centre stars. What would you think if the quilt had a pink or red border? Would you like it as much? Can you imagine it with red or pink stars in the middle of each feather block?
Will you dream of this quilt tonight?
Some other facts about this quilt:
Condition: Fair/worn
Construction: Hand pieced, hand appliqued
Borders: Top and bottom borders 1 inch. Side borders 1.25 inches.
Quilting: hand quilted, white thread, 11 stitches per inch; appliqued leaves and buds are single outline quilted against a background of diamond crosshatch
“In the late 19th century, decorative “crazy” quilts—made from silk, velvet, and wool scraps stitched together “crazily” and embellished with embroidery—were all the rage. Susan McCord made three crazy quilts—this is only one she completed. McCord pieced the top, embroidered nearly every block, added filler and backing, and then tufted the three layers together with wool yarn.”
I have to say, now that I am on quilt number 3 of her crazy quilts I am quite enjoying the whole concept of this genre … at least in her skilled hands. Thank you Susan McCord!
I really like the asymmetrical layout she chose, placing the circular bits to the right side. And those two almost unpieced blocks in the middle of all that wow? Well just wow! I love all the different types of fabrics she used: Wool in solid colours, woven plaids, strips and floral, cotton fabrics and wool and silk combination fabrics.
One of the things that appeals to me about this quilt is the red “binding” that frames the whole composition and is a quiet retainer of all the energy going on in the quilt top. To me it is the perfect finish. Other options would be drab. I don’t mind that on some sides the binding is thicker/wider than others as it adds to the interest of the quilt.
In this McCord crazy quilt, she has again included white moments of brightness with a few individual pieces in the blocks, and with the embroidery she has added throughtout the top. The spike heads of wheat in the quarter circle on the right are incredibly detailed. And other blocks are sprinkled whimsically with other flower and leaf elements.
The quilt is tufted/tied with wool yarn. A wise choice given the thick fabrics and the thickness of the batt she used compared to her other quilts. The tufting adds to the texture of the quilt, creating its own secondary design overlaying, so to speak, all of her piecework and embroidery. I do not see tufting/tying at all like a cheat of a way to “quilt” this work. It adds so much to the whole composition. However, it wouldn’t be allowed into many shows today because of it.
Do you think tufted or tied quilts should be allowed in quilt shows?
What are your thoughts on crazy quilts?
Some other facts about this quilt:
Condition: Very good/almost new
Construction: Hand foundation pieced, hand embroidered with silk and wool thread and “other embroidery”
Borders: Top border 3 inches. Bottom border 3.75 inches. Proper left border 2.5 inches. No border on proper right side.
A quiltmaker, fabric designer, teacher, and speaker, Mary Elizabeth is also co-author of two best-selling books, “Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts” and “Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts“. She has been a featured guest on The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. And her work has been shown at international quilt shows and featured in many international quilting publications.
Mary Elizabeth believes in “Quilting With Abandon”, stretching traditional boundaries and creating quilts with a subtle salute to the past. She is enthusiastic about our quilting heritage and the lessons to be learned from the antique quilts she studies and collects. Her recent work examines the interpretation of traditional quilt designs through “gestured appliquéd lines” and the quilting stitch.
