Crazy Quilt

Sounds like a wonderful thing to have gotten! I love crazy quilts, the more colours and shapes the more interesting in my eye. I can't help you with your question though, but I would love to see pictures! Any crazy quilts I have seen have been embellished with fancy stitches around the fabrics and tied. I have my husbands' grandmothers quilt that needs some repair done in that manner. ~KK in BC~

welcome out of lurkdom, Sandra. :) is this made from the usual assortment of odds and ends of fabric types or is it all cotton? the content of the fabric makes a difference to what you can do with it. all cotton scraps is a whole lot different than velvet, silk, etc. i've not done any crazy quilting with the fancy fabrics. with cotton you can quilt it anyway you fancy, same as with any cotton quilt designs...its yours to quilt as you like. not a lot of help there, sorry. just checking on the fabric content, in case no one else thot to do so. cheers, jeanne

Nice to see you out of lurkdom, Sandra. From what I have learned about crazy quilts, just do what Julia said - embroider the seams on the top. If you are going to put on a backing, then it might be a good idea to stitch in the ditch round the blocks - for stability. Then if you tied at each corner and in the centre of each block that would probably be enough. If Lisa is reading, she will give you some expert opinion. . In message , crosspatch writes

Welcome out of lukerdom! I don't have any suggestions for the crazy quilt blocks but wanted to welcome you!

Tricia

Hi Sandra, Crazy quilts weren't generally made for practical use but to display the embroidery skills of the lady of the house, so batting isn't necessary. You might want to try birthing this quilt and tying it or stitching/embroideriing heavily in the center of the block. If you decide to use machine embroidery, make sure the bobbin matches the backing fabric. Rayon thread is a good choice for the top as it has a slight shine and shows up embroidery beautifully. Let us know what you decide. Good luck. Morag in Detroit

Hi, Sandra! We had a CQ in our quilt show over the weekend, it was gorgeous! And heavy. She used a tapestry fabric for the backing AND the binding. I can't imagine cutting a bias binding out of that stuff, but it was perfect. She must have had a foundation piece too and that's what she sewed everything to because there wasn't any type of holding stitches or ties using the back fabric. It was just loose but it didn't matter. It's like someone else said, this isn't a quilt you were going to use AS a quilt but something to display. I get the impression that the backing is more or less to cover the unsightly back of the blocks themselves.

Cindy

What I do is tie from the back without coming all the way thru the front. Usually the tie just goes thru the foundation. So, put on a backing and a border and then tie.

I'd also love to see if you put it on a photo site.

thank you ladies for your suggestions and welcomes, I have an old machine that does some embroidery stitches and will maybe try and get it working, my regular machine does only basic stitches and my embroidery skills are sadly lacking. The quilt is mostly cotton, or cotton/poly blends, with a few pieces of 70's style polyester and some flannel. I don't know how to post photos, but will look into it.

Sandra

Crazies are almost always tied. You can use perle cotton (comes in lots of colors, very durable) or wool yarn or even silk ribbon, but the latter is mostly decorative. If you want to add buttons, use them as "ties" and sew on through all the layers. If you have trouble doing hand work, use your machine to make single fancy stitches -they make good "ties". E.g. a single tiny heart or flower motif. Crazies were seldom meant for use on beds, but thrown over a sofa to show off fancy work. Roberta in D

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Are you serious? Just to LOOK at?? After all that effort I would be using that sucker till every last thread fell off it I am sure! LOL

Seriously though, they are one gorgeous piece of art to drool over. The time, dedication and attention to detail that a crazy quilter puts into the piece is just amazing to me. I don't have the patience to make something that stunning.

~KK in BC~

there are a few online free pix places you can use. i use webshots.com as do some others here. there is also picturetrails.com and yahoo photos too. all free. no pix can be posted to this group directly. it wasnt set up yrs and yrs ago to accept any pix. just find one to use, register there, post your pix and then let us know the username you've got, with a link for us would be good. then we'll all go oooooh and ahhhhh and give you our considered opinions. glad to hear that your blocks are mostly cotton. this will make sewing them on the machine much easier. as for your hand embroidery skills. you only need to learn a half dozen stitches, all simple ones, then mix and match them and you'll have enough variety to use on any good crazy quilt. tho using your machine stitches would be faster if you've got that all worked out. good luck, jeanne

it can be done in cottons with fancy machine stitching or hand embroidered stitches. tho not your velvet, silk and lace (oh you can too easily put on some bits of lace) it would still be pretty if the right threads and fabrics are used. the machine stitching could also be the quilting. try a small one, maybe a wee handbag and see what you come up with. jalynne and i made a wee tea cozy that way with all her blue scraps of fabric. very cute it turned out. theres a pix of it on my webshots. :) cheers, jeanne

uploaded pictures to Yahoo

Hope this works, I had trouble with it using Firefox, so had to go through IE.

As I said the quilt is mainly cotton, I'm just wondering if I need to do anything else to it?

Sandra

oops, Sandra, i tried a few diff things and still see no pix in your yahoo photos album. check that you made them open to 'public' view rather than 'private' . i dont use yahoo photos so not sure what is wrong nor now to fix it. anxiously awaiting to see your quilt, jeanne

"Try this, maybe I got it right this time, if not i will have to wait for my son to come to help me

Sandra

i got it showing now. those are lovely blocks.

so what would you like to do with them? how will you use the quilt? on a bed? on a wall? theres many ways to approach any quilt project. fancy machine stitching thru the top, batting, backing as the quilting. join the blocks as is or put sashing and/or cornerstones between the blocks. this makes the quilt bigger, then quilt as you please. how big is each block now? how big would you like this whole quilt to be? just need to talk it all thru. here is always a good place to do just that. just gotta think about what could be done and how you want it to look when finished. all things are possible. this is the place with all enough info/links/opinions to help you finish these blocks into a quilt. cheers from nz, jeanne

nzlstar at yahoo dot com nzlstar on yahoo msg'r nzlstar on webshots

oooooooh I love it! Bright and cheery! Whatever you decide to do with it, it is going to be cherished.

~KK in BC~ getting the bug stronger and stronger.... next area of clean out and use is gonna be my sewing room!!!

Thanks for the view! Very cheerful (I love scrap quilts.) Forget everything I said. This piece has a very smooth surface: quilt it! If it already has a heavy cloth foundation, you might not want any batting. Or maybe a thin batt of cotton flannel (wash fIrst in Hot water and tumble in a Hot dryer to beat into submission.) Or just use the flannel as the backing. Then quilt all over by machine to give it lots of texture. Use it on a bed or on your lap. Roberta in D

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