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Once You Have Your Crazy Quilt Blocks Made, You'll Need to Sew Them Together Now you can learn how to sew your quilted blocks together. Whether you are making a crazy quilt or other type of quilt as you go project, this resource will show you two different methods for turning your blocks into finished quilts - quick and easy! |
Crazy Quilting
With the interest developing in crazy quilts, I thought I would take a moment to share some tips for designing and sewing a crazy quilt.
A word about design:
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| This crazy quilt appears to have velvet, cotton and brocade fabrics as well as others. Each piece is a different shape. |
As crazy as the quilts look, you will be happier with your crazy quilt, if you include some repetition in your design.
Whether it is a repeating color, fabric, texture or shape, ensure that it shows up in several places in your quilt. As you do that, be sure that your design isn't too repetitious or symmetrical - otherwise you will lose the "crazyiness" of the quilt.
Balance is also a key part of these quilts. You'll want to have design elements show up in the various parts of the quilt - top, bottom, etc. But, again, don't make it too structured, otherwise it may look like a patchwork block quilt.
Be sure to include a combination of solids and prints as well as mixing up the textures - silk, velvet, brocade, etc. As you place the fabrics in your quilt, keep in mind the stitches you will be using as embellishment, and remember that the busy prints may overpower your stitches.
By placing a busy print next to a solid and moving your stitches across both patches, you will still be able to highlight the fun stitches. If you place two busy prints next to each other, your stitches won't show as much.
Mix up the textures in your quilt. By placing a silk next to a velvet or nubby wool, your quilt will be more interesting. Remember, too, that the fabrics with a nap (velvet or corduroy) will tend to hide your stitches. By placing one of those next to a satin or silk (which has no nap) and creating curved stitching betwee the patches, your stitching will show and you will have created a very interesting effect on your quilt.
Remember lace, cotton, chintz, and moire fabrics work in crazy quilts, too. As you are shopping for fabric - whether it is in a store looking for new fabric or a thrift shop, check out the drapery and upholstery fabrics.
As you make your selections, look at how easy or difficult a particular fabric will be to work with. Some fabrics are stiff in order to accomplish their purpose. For example, a drapery fabric may not be very pliable, and if you use it in your crazy quilt, you may end up with a wrinkled mess.
Also, keep in mind the purpose of your crazy quilt. If it is a garment and it will need to be cleaned periodically, be sure that all of the fabrics can be cleaned in some manner - whether it is in the washer or dry cleaning.
These are fun quilts to make and use, and although they look totally random, there are some design elements that make them more or less successful.
Bonnie Hunter gave us some tips for shopping a thrift shops for fabric for quilts.
For additional information about crazy quilts and instructions about making a crazy quilt, you might want to check out some of these resources at amazon.com:
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
Penny is a quilter of more than 27 years who seeks to interest new
quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create
beautiful quilts.
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com
This article courtesy of http://www.How-to-Quilt.com.
You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter
provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain
intact.
©2009, Penny Halgren
