An Upcountry Legacy: The Black Family Quilts
Laurel Horton, Seneca, SC
Construction:
Mary's quilt is also typical of southern quilts of the era in that the blocks are set solidly within a grid of wide fabric strips, called "sashing." She quilted around the edges of the appliquéd motifs and added further rows to echo the contours of the larger pieces. The background is quilted in "hanging diamonds," that is, rows of horizontal lines crossed with rows of diagonal lines, and the sashing and border are quilted diagonally. The edges of the quilt are bound with a strip of green fabric.
Mary appliquéd the tulip motifs by hand, but she joined the blocks and sashing using a sewing machine. The binding is inexpertly attached with a single row of machine stitching. We don't know when the Snoddy family bought their sewing machine or what brand they had, but sewing machines were widely used in this era. An ad for J. K. White, a local store, in the Spartanburg Herald on May 19, 1875, offered "Singer's celebrated sewing machines, the cheapest and the best sewing machine, for sale on easy terms." In the same issue, McK. Johnstone advertised his cleaning and repair service: "Bring in your sewing machines and have them made good as new."
The fabric on the back of the Tulip quilt is a fine plain white cotton, stamped with the words "Granite Shirtings." The Graniteville mill, near Aiken, was the first South Carolina textile mill to successfully develop a national market for its products. Southern mills produced primarily plain fabrics for most of the nineteenth century. The shirting Mary chose to back her quilt was a finer and comparatively more expensive fabric than the sheetings that were more often used for quilt backings in South Carolina throughout the nineteenth century.
Mary appliquéd the tulip motifs by hand, but she joined the blocks and sashing using a sewing machine. The binding is inexpertly attached with a single row of machine stitching. We don't know when the Snoddy family bought their sewing machine or what brand they had, but sewing machines were widely used in this era. An ad for J. K. White, a local store, in the Spartanburg Herald on May 19, 1875, offered "Singer's celebrated sewing machines, the cheapest and the best sewing machine, for sale on easy terms." In the same issue, McK. Johnstone advertised his cleaning and repair service: "Bring in your sewing machines and have them made good as new."
The fabric on the back of the Tulip quilt is a fine plain white cotton, stamped with the words "Granite Shirtings." The Graniteville mill, near Aiken, was the first South Carolina textile mill to successfully develop a national market for its products. Southern mills produced primarily plain fabrics for most of the nineteenth century. The shirting Mary chose to back her quilt was a finer and comparatively more expensive fabric than the sheetings that were more often used for quilt backings in South Carolina throughout the nineteenth century.
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