Crazy Quilts With a Difference

Late 19th Century American Pieced and Embroidered Silk and Velvet Crazy Quilt, Giclee Print
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Quilt made from vintage aloha shirts - from Wikipedia Commons - in the Public Domain
I think this quilt was made somebody who wasn't interested in symmetry. There seems to be no pattern to the way different colours have been put together. Maybe the person didn't care or perhaps they thought it would look better this way.

Mostly I use squares and rectangles for patches. I cut them into different sizes and proportions. Usually I position them so they overlap each other, unlike the quilt illustrated above.

I use overlapping patches for two reasons: I want to avoid symmetry, I want a purely random effect and I think it produces a stronger finished quilt. The one pictured above might tend to tear along the edges of patches.

Because I make these quilts in sections, as mentioned above, it's easy to get the size exactly right. I can put the sections down in the way I intend to sew them together. I do this with a sewing machine and I make sure it's a strong join. This is particularly important on the corners where four sections meet.

I cover the joins, both back and front of the quilt, with strips of fabric. Sometimes I use the same fabric for both, other times, I use one fabric on the front and the strips from the backing fabric to cover the reverse so that they blend in. It usually depends if I have enough to make the strips.

Sometimes I sew them on by hand, sometimes I use the sewing machine. It just depends on how I feel.

I cover the edges with the same fabric I use for strips on the patchwork.

Then the whole quilt, particularly the joining and edging strips needs pressing well.

As I said earlier, I really don't have the patience to quilt the three layers together in the traditional way, ie by hand, at the end of the patchwork process. Sewing the patches on through all three layers produces a kind of quilting effect as you can see in this picture of the back of a quilt.

I have another confession to make. I don't embroider the crazy patches which I should do if I was doing a real crazy quilt. The only time I embroider them is for cushion covers which are small enough for it not to become a chore.

I can almost see traditional quilters shudder in horror. I admit it's not the 'correct' way to do it but it suits me. I quilt for relaxation and pleasure. I love handling the fabrics and choosing the colours, textures, shapes and patterns that will go next to each other.

If I made them the right way, quilting would become work not pleasure and I would give up.

This quilt by Kaffe Fasset was exhibited in an exhibition of the designer's work in 2005 in the Textile Museum of Canada. The quilt featured in one of his early Quilting books and it has always been one of my favourites