adventures in crazy quilting

i'm trying my hand at crazy quilting. this was tonight's attempt!

i've always wanted to do crazy quilting, but could never quite imagine how it all went together. doing foundation work seemed entirely too hard. i found though once you get it started, even if it's not as structured as some other quilting techniques, it's not too hard. you just have to think about it differently; it simply doesn't work the way traditional quilting does.

you can see it coming together here. the shaping of the edges into new, clean lines with which to work with was the most difficult for me. now that i have an example to refer to, i can see ways to make that easier. there are lots of things in any new craft project that don't make sense until you work it out for yourself.

here's the square being built up. i used some seam binding (some of it lacy, some more like ribbon) to accentuate the lines. you can aslo see how i made a fairly large mistake in the choice of two fabrics; i thought the pink and peach fabrics were different enough that they would both work in one square. they don't. luckily, when i do some embellishment over the top with embroidery, it should hide that a bit better. next time i'll be much more careful when i choose my fabrics.

here's what the back looks like. you can see the lines that i've sewn down, because i used red thread. i actually use only red thread when i sew, even if it doesn't match. unless, of course, i'm sewing on red, then i use orange so i can see it. i just really like red.

the finished bit so far! there are a few gaffes that need to be fixed, and it hasn't been embroidered or otherwise embellished, which is what makes a crazy quilt "crazy." it also pulls all the pieces together and makes a wonderful texture on top. i can't wait to get to that part. this will end up just being a small sampler, a trial run. i might make it a wall hanging, we'll see.

Comments

[Thea]

I just had to comment on how good it looks so far. I'm a fan of crazy quilts. I hope you finish it!

[Mary-Frances Main]

Welcome to the crazy world of crazy quilts. I know I'm hooked....the good news, you never get bored! :-) Great blog!