Trailing Vines

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.

You can see the leaf with four fabrics joined this way below.
The last step is to draw around the template with your chosen marker and trim ready for applique.