Crazy Quilting
From LoveToKnow Crafts
Crazy quilting is an American invention, inspired by Asian art and popularized in the Victorian era. These quilts included little randomly shaped pieces of beautiful, bright colored fabrics decorated with an insane amount of embroidery. The beautiful results certainly show off the skill of the crafter. These quilts are still popular today as a way to recapture the spirit of Victorian times and to hold on to an old art.
The Crazy Quilting Craze
According to the Our Sewing Heritage website, crazy quilting began as a response to the beautiful crazy ceramics found in the Japanese pavilion at the Philadelphia Continental Exposition in 1876.
Seeking to imitate the shattered look of those pieces, women took to their sewing baskets and sewed random pieces of fabric together in haphazard ways, decorating all the sewing lines with embroidery.
Crazy quilts originally were made by upper class women and thus were made out of scraps of silk and other luxury fabrics. As the craft trickled down to lower class crafters, flannel, denim and cotton were incorporated into the designs, and not all crazy quilts of this type were embroidered.
The quilts made in this manner were often showpieces more than useful items, though they might have been used as lap quilts as well as being draped over a piece of furniture to show off the lovely stitching.
Crazy quilts were popular from the 1880s to around 1910, though they never entirely went out of style. Crazy quilting is a great way to do something a little different to decorate a pillow, embellish a jacket or make a stunning silk scarf (maybe from scraps of old neckties?).
Crazy Quilt Embroidery
The embroidery used on crazy quilts was and is very beautiful. A basic glossary of a few of the stitches used in crazy quilting can be found here.
The stitches traditionally ran along all of the stitching lines on the quilt, and decorative motifs could also be stitched into the blank space of the fabric pieces. Spiders and spider webs were popular in Victorian times, as they were thought to bring luck to the quilter.
Asian designs were also popular, as well as fans, flowers and animal motifs. This page shows how a few simple stitches can be combined to make crowns, flowers, baskets, feathers and more.
Crazy Quilt Embellishments
Additionally, all sorts of other items could be include in a crazy quilt beyond just fabric and thread. Little bits of lace, buttons, ribbons, charms, beads, yarn, brooches, even iron-on patches could be included in a crazy quilt.
These quilts offer a splendid opportunity for a talented crafter to express himself or herself using scraps, bits and baubles. It’s a great way to practice embroidery techniques and to make something really stunning out of bits of fabric you might not have otherwise used. You don’t even necessarily have to like the fabric you use in a crazy quilt—just cover it up with embroidery.
This type of craft is a wonderful way to express your creativity and a great group project. Just get together with a few friends and their scrap stashes. Trade bits, cut bigger pieces into smaller ones so everyone can share, and see what each person comes up with from the same pile of stuff. I can promise you no two crazy quilts will look even remotely alike.
Related resources
- Crazy Quilt Central has lots of good information on crazy quilting. Check out the project gallery for inspiration (especially the little Christmas ornament, which would be a great first project!)
- Caron offers a great tutorial on how to make a crazy quilt block and different embroidery stitches, using Caron thread, of course.
Related articles
This page has been accessed 6,921 times. This page was last modified 11:41, 30 April 2006.
© 2006-2008 LoveToKnow Corp.
