“Susan McCord pieced this Pine Tree pattern quilt top, but never finished it. Her descendants later had it quilted so that this bedcovering could be used. It is one of McCord’s later quilts, and includes many turn-of-the-twentieth century fabric scraps. A close look reveals some fabrics seen in other McCord quilts. Purple calico sashing sets off the scrappy pine trees nicely.”
One of the first clues that this is a timespan quilt and not finished in Susan McCord’s time, is the width of the backing fabric. Small details matter in quilt study! This fact has been confirmed by the family’s history about the quilt, when it was donated. The quilting design choices were in keeping with McCord’s own quilting designs she used in her quilts. The choice of batting is the only significant difference. Polyester batting was so appealing when it came on the market as a choice for batting. It is much easier to “needle” … to draw the needle through all the layers. Cotton is harder on the hands. I am a purest. Since my first four quilts, I haven’t used polyester battings … but I digress.
This is such a happy quilt! Her colour choices are responsible for most of that. You know I am going to mention the cheddar … she uses it in every block but two! It’s such a lively colour and really pops. This palette of colours is what I think of when I think of a Susan McCord quilt … indigo, poison green, red, pink, “shirtings”, browns, blues, purples, cheddar, blacks.
Those two blocks that don’t include cheddar, I wonder what their story is? Test blocks and then she decided to change direction and to spice the colour up a bit. She dug deep into her stash because I think each of the trunks on those two blocks are pieces of fabric that are older than the rest of the trunks. Or is it the other way around with those blocks and they weren’t test blocks but maybe blocks that were made with the dregs from her scrap bag (a point perhaps hard for us to imagine with the abundant availability of fabric today)? I’m just so glad she put them in the quilt anyway. They don’t detract at all and that is a huge lesson it in itself for us!
The purple sashing from a distance might make you think 1930’s, but a closer look shows it to be a print and colour that was common for the period McCord pieced the top.
A quick trip through Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Quilt Patterns shows a block example that could be a match for McCords (although she made a bit of a variation) and it dates around 1894, with most of the pattern variations happening much later. (I know I am geeking out!) McCord was also consistent in her orientation of the trees within the block. In the layout, the trees in one row seem to zoom past an “approaching” tree in the next row, and gives the overall quilt design lots of visual movement and energy!
So many things she considered either consciously or unconsciously. And like I said, such a happy quilt!
There’s something else about those blocks? Do you see it?
“Indiana farmwife Susan McCord, like other frugal housewives of the era, sewed her quilts from fabric she had on hand, mostly clothing scraps. McCord expertly pieced this top from small 1-1/4 inch hexagons arranged in concentric rings. A close look at the small-scale prints reveals an encyclopedia of inexpensive clothing fabrics popular during the late 19th century.”
McCord certainly loved small pieces and detailed work. And her skill at both does not disappoint with this Hexagon Mosaic Quilt, a pattern also known by the name Honeycomb Quilt.
An interesting point to note is that by the 1870’s there were thousands of woolen mills in the United States and hundreds of cotton mills. This meant that fabric was much more readily available. At the same time the United States was celebrating it’s centennial. Sue Reich records in her book, The Quilts of Yesteryear: 1000 Pieces And Counting, that there was an informal, nationwide competition to see who could make a quilt with the most pieces and the piecing feats were well recorded in the papers of the day with mentions of quilts made of 6,000 pieces, 8,000 pieces and more! This “competition” continued right up to the 1900. It is safe to say that frugality was a factor in McCord making her small pieced quilts, but I wonder if she was also caught up in this small piecing fever. I have not counted how many hexagons in this quilt. Anyone want to venture a guess?
This quilt seems like such a simple design, but in her hands, she creates a quilt with delightful visual movement and depth.
The only place “cheddar” orange that appears in the quilt is in the centre. That colour draws you past everything and draws you right in like a beacon. Her use of value in multiple rounds, to create larger “rings” of hexagons, helps create texture and interest.
In some of rounds of hexagons she clearly had to make substitutions of fabric or colour, but she did so in a way that doesn’t disrupts but instead lends support to the overall design of the quilt, reinforcing the rhythm.
Some of the fabrics used have a prominent print, like in the 10th round from the centre (the white moons on pink) and in the 13th round where there is clearly some type of large scale blue print on white. These printed fabric details add to the quilt’s interest, as do the plaids and solids that she used.
Look at all the substitutions she made throughout round 26. She was using what she had on hand and using it as masterfully as possible to contribute to composition as a whole. This is a master at work.
These hexagons are a bit tempting? What do you think?
Some other facts about this quilt:
Condition: very good, almost new
Fabrics: Plain cottons, novelty prints, florals
Construction: Hand pieced
Borders: Inner border (double pink fabric) 1.75 inches. Outer border (on sides only) 2 inches. Also notice how on both the left and right sides she added a strip of hexagons as a type of border, breaking the pattern before adding the borders.
Thin Batting, hand quilted with white cotton thread at 10 stitches per inch using
Quilting: hand quilted, white thread, 5-7 stitches per inch, single parallel lines following overall hexagon design.
Binding: Top and bottom edges are turned in; on sides front fabric is turned to the back, binding is less than ½” on sides where it is turned to the back.
May I Ask A Favour:
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!
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.
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)
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.
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.
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
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.
