Crazy Quilts: History, Techniques, Embroidery Motifs

by Cindy Brick, Nancy Kirk (Foreword)

The crazy quilt was anything but "crazy." It began with necessity and ingenuity, the piecing together of any odd scrap of fabric that outlasted its first (or even second) use, and evolved into an art form in which the finest silks, satins, and velvets, stitched together with elaborate embroidery, attested to a quilters rich imagination and artistry.
 
This beautiful book traces the bewitching history of the ever-changing but ever-popular "Crazies" from their earliest origins to the present day. Distinguished quilting teacher, lecturer, appraiser, and restorer Cindy Brick follows the crazy quilt through colonial times, the Civil War, and the Victorian era. She describes the crazy quilts influence on modern-day quilts. And she decodes the meaning of the curious images stitched into these quilts, from flowers to fans and farm animals.

Along with this history, the book includes a detailed how-to section on constructing crazy quilts. Brick outlines approaches to planning, piecing, and embroidering or embellishing your quilt. She also offers numerous helpful tips that only an expert could provide. Exquisitely illustrated with images of crazy quilts over time, this book is as delightful to page through as it is instructive to read.

Genres: Quilting, Sewing, Crafts, Art, History

159 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2008

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and well-illustrated book, author Brick traces the origins of the Crazy Quilt to its heyday in the late 19th century to current trends including “art quilts”. The author devotes the last half of the book to creating a crazy quilt, offering lots of fabric choice info, three different construction techniques, as well as giving many embroidery motif designs. A great resource for anyone interested in Crazy Quilting.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complete with detailed history, various techniques of crazy quilting, and lots of embroidery motifs. Loaded with pictures and motifs that you can copy and embroidery. This book is more on the historical side and light on the embroidery side. Very interesting and one that I will be refering to many times. It would be a wonderful addition to your needlework bookshelf.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

In researching something else entirely I came across the notion of crazy quilts, which are decorative and decorated patchwork quilts. I grew up sleeping under patchwork quilts from grandmothers and aunts, etc. I didn’t know that people made Quilts for any reason other than to keep themselves warm but apparently they do. So I found this book to see what I was missing.

My own conclusion is that a quilt that is not functional is way too much work for me, but they are fascinating. As Nancy Kirk says in the foreword, “Crazy quilts are to patchwork quilts what jazz is to a symphony”. This book includes the history of Crazy quilts which is colorful plus a meaningful picture of people’s lives in days gone by. There are copious photographs of truly interesting quilts.

There are examples of patterns and embroidery work to use so that you could try it, but this book is more about history of crazy quilts and what they are than it is about how-to. OOPS. I just checked the Table of Contents. It’s half and half history and how-to. Perhaps I’m just more interested in history.

Beautiful quilt on p 48. I love the colors, the inclusion of actual pictures, the absolute craziness of the pattern ( no blocks). Underwater design on 95. Beautiful embellishment work p 98. Crazy pattern for a block on page 111.

[Rach Denholm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and delightful insight into a detailed history of crazy quilting, followed by a technical and inspirational section on planning and creating your own crazy quilt. A broad range of styles of quilts are photographed, highlighting how fashions revolve and identifying the modern quilt movement's reworking of the old into contemporary. An enjoyable and educational book that can be read in entirety or revisited as a reference text.

[Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need crazy quilting for dummies! While I enjoyed the history and the gorgeous pictures, this was not the book for me. I need instruction not geared toward an already experienced quilter but for a beginner.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am trying to gather materials and threads to make a kaleidoscope quilt.
This book gave a nice history of material in the United States as well as the history of crazy quilts.