Saturday, March 21, 2009

Chantels Crazy Quilt A.K.A. The Quilt of Despair






A couple weeks ago the boys and I went way up north to visit our friends. They live on a 100 plus something acre ranch. It is an awesome place to visit. I wish I lived there. My girlfriend cut and placed pieces of fabric for her crazy quilt while we chatted.

Her husband is in Texas for a month at a time for work. Since it is difficult for her to have him gone for that length of time she decided that this is a good time to FINALLY work on this project that has been in her head for many years.

She very much admired her relative who was very skilled at making those amazing crazy quilts from the past but she was never able to master the intricate stitching. She wished for years that she could make them and one day she realized that she could improvise and use the zigzag stitch on her sewing machine to piece it together. It would not have those amazing stitches and embroidery that varied with each piece of fabric, but she could get a similar look.

Crazy quilt are usually pieced together at the seams, my friend under and overlaps the edges and corners of her pieces to add interest. She also uses black thread and a zigzag stitch for contrast. I like that look a lot.

The crazy quilt was originally created out of necessity. When fabric wore out the salvageable pieces were saved and put together to create clothing and blankets. Later, crazy quilts were made from luxurious fabrics like velvets and taffeta and embroidered with gold thread. Each piece was embellished with embroidery, lace, buttons and other beautiful things. For many years she has been saving scraps and ends from clothing and old projects for this quilt.

There is a good deal of thought and planning that goes into a traditional crazy quilt. It is not just put together in a random fashion. Each piece has an original work of art hand embroidered on it and a different stitch is used to stitch around the edges. The patches were put together in squares and when then the completed squares were attached together to create the quilt.

When a crafter became proficient in the art of crazy quilting through the practice on the squares she would plan a masterpiece in the form of a full quilt rather than pieced squares. They would often be shown and judged at the county fairs.

It is a neat tradition was to embroider a tiny spider so it would be hidden somewhere on each square for an admirer or child to find. Chantel used fabric with pictures, like a cow or butterfly as the focus of the scrap to create sort of an "I Spy" quality to her quilt.

I never thought I would have the patience nor the ability to create a crazy quilt, but I am inspired to use her method and put the many odds and ends of fabrics that I have stashed away to create one of these "Crazy Quilts" for myself.

Scraps placed and waiting to be sewn



this is my favorite square





















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