Quilt, Pieced Double Wrench

Dateca. 1885

Maker Mary Tibitha Sugg (1867-1951)

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Greene County, Snow Hill

MediumPlain and printed cottons

DimensionsOH: 76 1/2" x OW 77 1/2" (194.3 x 196.9cm)

Credit LineGift of Bradley S. Parris

Object number2014.609.7

DescriptionThis is a pieced quilt created from plain and printed cottons in shades of red, blue, black, and white cotton. It consists of 25 blocks, each block made up of pieced squares and triangles forming a pattern known as "Double Wrench.” It has red cotton sashing and it is backed in a plain-weave white cotton. The quilt is bound in a folded blue strip of cotton. The quilting pattern consists of diagonal parallel lines and crosses in squares, 6 running stitches per inch.

Label TextConsisting of twenty-five blocks of pieced squares and triangles, the pattern for this quilt is known as "Double Wrench.” The negative/positive aspect of the design helps create the pattern. Names of quilt patterns often derived from daily life and activities. Quilt patterns reflected the work of woman, but also the hard labor of men. A double wrench is an adjustable jar wrench popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for heavier tasks.

By the 1890s, quilt patterns were no longer dictated by a particular regional style because published catalogs included patterns. From busy urban center to an isolated farmhouse, a quilter could be creating the same quilt. The donor of this Double Wrench quilt recalls that the quilt was used on his grandparents bed in 1928, when they lived with his great grandmother, Mary Tibtha Sugg Albritton, the maker of the quilt, in the remote town of Snow Hill, North Carolina.
ProvenanceFrom quilt maker, Mary (Mamie)Tibitha Sugg (1867-1851) (later Mrs. George Edgar Albritton) of Snowhill, Greene County, North Carolina, to her son and daughter-in-law Jack Albritton (1896-1943) and Geraldine H. Myers Albritton (1905-2002) to their grandson Bradley Stuart Parris.

History of Quiltmaker:
Mary (Mamie) Sugg (1867-1951) was the oldest child of Hardy Sugg (1836-1915) of Greene County, North Carolina, and Martha Ann Pridgen (1833-1912). She married George Edgar Albritton on February 1, 1887. Family oral tradition states that the quilt was made by Mary prior to her marriage. The couple had eight children: Ethel F. (b. 1888); Frederick C. (b. 1889); Gerald Edgar (b. 1891); and Nancy May (b. 1894); Jack (1896-1843); James Marvin (b. 1900); Charles Hopton, III (1903); and Aquilla Sugg (b. 1905). the 1930 and 1940 censuc records show Mary living with her son Aquilla. Mary Sugg Albritton died on February 8, 1951, and is buried in the Sugg Family Cemetery in Snow Hill, Greene County, North Carolina.