Cochise County, Arizona

Block identified in the Encyclopedia of Applique:

#19.31

[Print this and enlarge it for a pattern]

The magazine Ladies' Circle Patchwork Quilts

used to send Myron Miller and Carter Houk around

to museums to photograph quilts. What a gig! (as we used to say.)

One memorable design they photographed

was captioned Cochise County in the magazine.

Cochise County by Cora Viola Howell Slaughter (1860-1941 

and Edith Stowe (?-1938),

Slaughter Ranch, Cochise County Arizona, c. 1890. 

Collection of Arizona Historical Society.

See a large picture of this particular piece on 

Lynn's blog from the last time AQSG met in Arizona

http://quilts-vintageandantique.blogspot.com/2009/10/tobacco-flannels-quilt-made-by.html

The quilt was pictured in the Arizona Project's book Grand Endeavors. They called it Feather Plume with Coxcombs in the book.

My friends and I were quite taken with the block. Nice four-way symmetry, fits the square gracefully and it's neither too complex to keep track of the pieces nor too hard to sew. Nancy Hornback wanted to know where it came from. Terry Thompson wanted to make a copy. I wanted to start a file. I found another example in an album quilt from about 1850.

Terry did a pattern for her Four Block Series.

This repro quilt block is by Lila Taylor.

Another example  residing in Arizona,

recorded by the Arizona Project and the Quilt Index.

Is that a dark claret-colored red from the 1890-1920s?

And another from the Arizona Project.

All three of the Arizona examples look to be about 1890 by

the fabrics. This one features a claret red and a green that has turned khaki.

Perhaps this was a pattern with a regional popularity there after most

quilters had given up applique.

We collected photos of quilts in the design. 

In my file I have lots of earlier examples from other states.

By Catherine Johnson Cover, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Three below from the Quilt Index.

This version

in the collection of the Tennessee History Center

looks a little earlier.

 Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum collection.

Collection of the Hawks Inn Historical Museum in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Well worn but looks 1840-1870 style.

Most have slight variations in the leaf (plume) or the floral

Most of the red floral on the north & south lines

had 6 petals, three going one way, three the other.

From Skinner Auctions---a little extra red on the leaf end.

From the International Quilt Study Center and Museum

#2012.013.0009

Thought to be from Ohio,

date-inscribed 1856, the earliest dated example I've found.

One of the few with the blocks on point.

Skinner Auction with 5 red petals.

From the Iowa Project with five petals.

From Cowan's Auctions.

The differences are subtle.

I could go on----and I will.

Source?

More color than most. Is this the same quilt at the top of the page?

From Vintage Blessings

Dated 1873 on a label, made by Mary Love Carwood. 

Another example with four red petals

and some petals added to the end of the plume.

The original Cochise County had 4 red petals

Bonhams sold one that looks to be 20th century

almost exactly like Cochise County.

Same center, 4 petals, different color sashing

A terrific 20th-century example from Fourth Corner Quilts.

One in a sampler with curves converted to straight lines.

Another octagon in the center.

What to call it?

No mid-19th century name seems to have survived.

I've always liked "Cochise County" but I see 

Susie at Cow Hollow Antiques

calls it a Mexican Rose.

She's sold this great crib quilt version (49" x 46").

https://www.rubylane.com/item/988931-970/1800x27s-Crib-Quilt-Applique-Mex78ican-Rose

And why not call it Mexican Rose? It does have a plume similar to the one

you see in the design called Mexican Rose.