Crazy Quilting

Ruby's Purse

Who can resist the amazing appeal of a gift made especially by hand?  A gift just for you.  Whether it is a painting, a carving, a quilt or crazy quilt, a bit of Silk Ribbon Embroidery, ceramic, wood, fiber or stone, anything made by hand is a unique and valuable thing!

It is said, in so many ways, that when someone creates something by hand, they wind up incorporating a bit of their own spirit into it.  I think that is very true.  When someone makes something for you with you in mind, I think that investment becomes even stronger.

What mother could ever not treasure some of the funky hand-made ornaments, sculptures, drawings, valentines and other things their children create for them?  I know I have a whole pile!  Every time I go through them I remember their young faces when they proudly gave them to me – not merely a treasure, but a piece of a special time in both our lives.

I have always enjoyed making things by hand.  Most often these things have been Quilts, Crazy Quilted pieces, Embroideries, dolls, and paintings.  Whenever I make something for a person, I think particularly of them, what they like, how I love them, what they mean to me.  I hope that all these things become somehow “fastened” into the piece I have made, and that this is communicated to them whenever they see it.

Even if you don’t make a project for someone in particular, you always instill some of your own heart into it.  Somehow that makes your piece really “glow” with your very own essence, and style.

Make something by hand (and heart) for someone!  The satisfaction of it will make you feel wonderful!

Carolyn

Crazy quilting is one of the most fun, uninhibited means of self-expression around, and it will leave you satisfied and fulfilled from a creative standpoint. Still, there are a number of essential items every crafter needs before getting to work. You might find it convenient to keep your crazy quilting supplies in a knitting basket or a handy, compartmentalized box.

Before you begin, locate and arrange the following items within arm’s reach: embroidery threads, backing fabric, a measuring tape, needles, straight pins, thimbles, some basic thread, scissors and muslin sheets. Remember that even though your quilt doesn’t need to conform to an overarching design – in fact, it shouldn’t – you should still use quilt squares of a uniform size.

To my mind, completing a crazy quilt is a bit like playing the childhood game of telephone. In that game, kids sit around in a circle and one person whispers a sentence into the ear of the person on his left. From that point on, one crucial piece of information is changed about the sentence as it’s passed from one child to the next. By the time it gets all the way around the circle, the structure and meaning of the sentence has changed completely.

With a crazy quilt, I start out with some inspiration and a few disparate pieces of fabric. By the time I’ve stitched them together, more ideas have entered my mind and I go off in an entirely different direction. I like to embellish the stitching with pieces of hand dyed silk ribbon, buttons, lace and other eye-catching accoutrements. The best part about it is that you can’t go far wrong. While it’s important to keep some sort of overarching theme in mind, there’s nothing wrong with going off on a creative tangent during the course of your embroidery.