TRAILING VINES
AN INTERPRETATION OF SUSAN MCCORD'S VINE QUILT
I'm thrilled to be able to share my pattern for my version of the incredible vine quilt made by Susan McCord. The quilt was made sometime between 1860 - 1890. You can see the original and read a little more about the quilt here, on the Quilter's Spirit blog and a close up of a portion of applique can be viewed at The Quilter Community. Click on that photograph twice to get a really large view.
Jeansophie also has some photos on flickr that you may have seen.
Fons and Porter have a book called Quilts From The Henry Ford in which they present a couple of lovely photographs and the basis of making your own pattern. There are also photos in a couple of older books that I know of.
My version of this quilt has panels 1/2" wider than Susan's quilt for the applique and is longer as well so it will fit a large bed. I will be providing my pattern which includes the leaves for download on this page.
Panels will be available for download only by the links on this page.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright is an important issue that I have to mention as it applies to anything that I'm offering for free. Please be respectful of any of my notes and drawings that I have provided. You are free to use them for your own personal use but you are not permitted to share, distribute or copy them for any other reason.FABRIC REQUIREMENTS AND CUTTING LIST (click to download the PDF)
PREPARING PANEL AND STEMS
PHOTOS ON FLICKR
ERRATA
When taping the pattern together, please make sure that the stems extend to the full 83" length and allow extra stem on your background fabric for seam allowances. A couple of the early panels may not be the full length, I apologise for any inconvenience.
PANEL ONE Please ensure you print out with your printer set on ""none for page scaling and also that the shrink to fit page is not ticked.
PANEL TWO Applique this panel the same as the first one. After trimming to size, it will be oriented upside down as will all the even numbered panels.
PANEL THREE (click to download)
PANEL FOUR (click to download) Orientate panel upside down, same as panel
two. Extend main stems to full length of panel.
PANEL FIVE (click to download)
PANEL SIX (click to download) Orientate panel upside down when joining to
sashing and other panels already completed.
PANEL SEVEN (click to download)
PANEL EIGHT Click the properties when printing and select A4 to print the full pages.
PANEL NINE Click to download.
PANEL 10 Click to download. Orientate panel upside down when joining to rest of quilt top.
PANEL 11 Click to download
PANEL 12 Click to download. Orientate panel upside down when joining to quilt top.
PANEL 13 Click to download
Making the strip pieced leaves
You may choose to make strip sets for your leaves and cut them out that way to save time. The way I've chosen is to make each leaf separately and that's just because I wanted to get the same effect that Susan used in her quilt.
I have my scraps and pieces of fabric on a table so that I can cut small pieces for the leaves. Once I've selected the pieces for strip piecing, I line them up next to the machine with the matching freezer paper template.
I set the machine to sew a smaller stitch, around 1.70 on a Bernina. I then sew a narrow seam. If the seam allowance is too large, trim it back to roughly 1/8" or a little more.
When sewing more than two pieces together for one leaf, I pace the template on the right side and fold back the fabric at the same place as the drawn line on the template.
Trim the seam allowance.
Place the next piece to be joined, right sides together and sew. Absolute accuracy is not necessary. The lines on the templates are guides.
The last step is to draw around the template with your chosen marker and trim ready for applique.
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31 comments:
Hi Janet
Looks like you have done a superb job... a speedy learning curve too! Well done!
Not sure if I'll ever get to this project but one hopes science will invent a way of adding an extra 6-7 hours to a day so I can get as much sewing done as I would like.
:o) K
I have stumbled across your blog while websurfing....and I have to do this vine quilt. It looks amazing. I love applique too! Keep up the good work. Cheers Janine in Perth WA
I'm going to follow along, but I don't think I can start this right now. Thank you for sharing your expertise and have fun with this!
I love to have some hand work to be done in the evening while I am sitting watching television.
Janet, Thank you so much! I know how much time you invested on this project! Do you sleep? You must have a full time house keeper!
Wow....I can't wait to start this project....it will take me much longer than you, but it's alright because I love appliqué and it will be a take along project.
You have done such a great job reproducing such a beautiful quilt. Thanks for all your hard work.....
Thank you for all of your effort. I can't wait to get started.
Heartful THANKS, dear Janet ! How wonderful, and how lucky we are ;>) Oooh I just can't wait being back to Belgium and get started (although I do love our Spanish vacations!)
So gratefully,
XOXOXOXOXOXO
NADINE
Oh! This is so exciting! Thank you for all the hard work!
Thank you so much-I am so excited to work on this with you. I have watched this quilt come to life and really love how you are using so many fabrics-my spraps will love this new quilt!
Thanks for all you hard work!!!! Can't wait to get started!
Lisa
Thank you so much for all your hard work. I have admired the original quilt for years. Don't know when I will be able to start my own - too many UFO's piled up.
I think this is absolutely lovely and am downloading the patterns. It is definitely on my wish list, but not sure when I can start!! Thank you for all your hard work.
Thank you for the patterns. I am have all the fabrics ready and starting now. Everything you post is just beautiful.
I've got my background and leaf fabric. Today I will go shopping for the border and vine fabric that I have picked out. I am housesitting next month and will have long nights to sit and stitch so I have got to get started on my preparation. Thank you so much for doing this for all of us.
Denise in Sacramento
Thank you so much for the
Trailing Vines part 4 - this is such a colorful and joyful quilt to work on. You are so sweet to share this - it is a treasure to me. Many thanks!!!!!
I never thought I could tackle something like this but as I work more I am of the thought I might just be able. Thank you for sharing your work. I've been a long time admirer and visitor. After tackling my current project, this just might be doable for me now. Once again, thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful pattern. I've got my fabrics and am ready to begin the journey. I've decided to take a slightly different approach and will use Westminster fabrics. I hope it's as beautiful as yours - in a slightly different way.
Thanks Janet. I'm almost ready for the 5th panel. I hoped to have it finished for the end of the year and now I find out my son's new house could be ready October. They don't know about the quilt, so I can be late, I guess. Dorothy
I can't tell you how excited I am to start this quilt!! I have downloaded the patterns and now I am leaving work early to get stitching!! Thanks you so much for the time and effort that went into this pattern! Kerry
I'm having a little difficulty leaving this comment, so I hope it won't show up twice! I'm just now getting started, much later than everyone else, and my experience is limited but I'd love to do this. I apologize if you've already answered this, but how do you handle the leaves? Are you making individual patterns for each one before putting them on the background?
Ethereal, if you go to the labels on my right side bar and click on vines quilt, way back I did show how I tackled the leaves. You can always email me for questions too.
Thank you, Janet -- found it!
Thank you so much for taking the time to create and post this pattern. I've just jumped on the bandwagon and am preparing vine #1.
Greetings from Texas! I'm about to start Vine #4, and I'm having a fabulous time! Thank you so much for making this available!
Thank you for all your hard work & for sharing. I just watched Bonnie Hunter's Quilt Cam in which she sews "crumb" strips. I plan to use her technique then use the crumb strips for the strip pieced leaves. The only change I'm making is to make the strips 3" instead of 2.5".
Hi, Are there going to be any more panels? I've been saving in OneNote & you originally said there would be 13 panels 1 available on the 15th of the month. Has something changed that I missed?
Just wondering if you've finished your quilt. I'm still working on mine, slowly but surely --
Hi I hope you get this message. I am so pleased that I found your site I've spent 100s of hours in my head trying to work out my quilt pattern and here you are Thank you so much for taking the time to do this I hope after a few years that you will get my message. Helen Nottingham UK xcx
Is t it strange that after so long I still got notification of this latest comment by email.
How are you? And did you get your quilt finished?
Dorothy’sthreads of life.blogspot.com.au
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