Machine Embroidered Crazy Quilts
Use your embroidery machine to become a crazy-quilting expert. If you have scraps of fabric, thread, and an embroidery machine, you can easily create these colorful quilt blocks. Wondering how? All the patches, stitches, and elegant embroidery are programmed into the design. The process is extremely gratifying!
First a brief history lesson: Crazy quilting became popular in the late 1800s. Small, random patches of fabric were hand-stitched together and then embellished with elaborate embroidery. My great-grandmother Alice Lea Larson hand-stitched this quilt. The fabrics are leftover silks, wools, cottons, and anything that could have been salvaged from worn-out clothing and her fabric stash.
The quilt, without a backing, was given to me several years ago by Alice’s daughter. Before finishing the quilt, I took a photo of the backing fabric—old tablecloths cut into squares. Waste not, want not.
Fast-forward to today. Crazy quilting can be totally created using an embroidery machine. Eileen Roche, embroidery specialist and editor of Designs in Machine Embroidery, has mastered the technique using 21st century technology and is my guest on the two-part Sewing With Nancy series, Today’s Crazy Quilting with Your Embroidery Machine. Watch online or on PBS.
Preview of Crazy Quilting with Your Embroidery Machine
- First select fabric; either silks or cottons are best. Solid colors showcase the decorative embroidery. Eileen and I chose silk fabrics for our projects.
- Then, check out the embroidery designs as found in the book/CD combo, Today’s Crazy Quilting with Your Embroidery Machine. There are numbers that are only stitched on the stabilizer to provide the sewing sequence, straight stitching lines to stitch down the fabrics, and then the embroidery stitches.
- Hoop a tear-away stabilizer and stitch the initial thread color of the embroidery, only on the stabilizer—the outline of the block and the numbers.
- Roughly cut out fabric pieces and position right sides together on the stabilizer. The machine will stitch the pieces in place. How easy is that!
- Before adding the next fabric piece, flip previous piece to the right side.
- Stitch the decorative embroideries, which have characteristic Victorian styling.
- Learn how to personalize the crazy-quilting blocks, adding dates or initials.
- Unhoop the fabric, cut along the final stitching lines, and the blocks are ready to add to a project.
- Select cotton fabrics as another option for crazy-quilting.
Today’s Crazy Quilting with Your Embroidery Machine, it’s a book with a CD
You too can duplicate your great-grandmother’s crazy quilting designs the easy way with Eileen’s book Today’s Crazy Quilting with Your Embroidery Machine. The 80-page book includes a multiformat CD that features 23 embroidery designs: three different block designs, 12 accent designs, and eight designs to complete three in-the-hoop projects.
Watch Today’s Crazy Quilting with your Embroidery Machine (Part 1 and Part 2) on Sewing With Nancy online.
Bye for now,
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BevM
Thanks for an interesting topic.
How is Nancy’s health now? Hope she is doing well.
Lillian K
I love the look of the crazy quilting. I must try this.
Judy G
When I was a child we had several wool fabric crazy quilts that my grandmother made. Unfortunately, none survived as they were well used in our (at the time) woodstove heated home, but they are remembered fondly.
Jean
What a wonderful treasure you have with your Great Grandmothers Alice’s quilt. You have her ingenuity! I really enjoy all your wonderful ideas. Many thanks!
Berenice
One of the first projects I ever embroidered was a crazy quilt patch. My grandmother was teaching me to embroider. The patches we made were added to a quilt that was raffled off to raise money for March of Dimes in the early 70;s. I hope that quilt is still being loved!
Gail Beam
I love the look of your crazy quilt with all of the different fabrics and stitches. My mother once had a quilt that her grandmother had made her, but somehow it was lost on one of our moves. You are so lucky to have such a special quilt. I would love to have this book and CD on how to make a crazy quilt.
Cindy Cooke
I love the way crazy quilting grabs you and reels you in. Quite a few years ago, I tackled making a mage’s cape for my then son-in-law, who was heavily into role-playing games. I wanted to make him a great Christmas gift; and I bought a cape pattern, cut it out in muslin, and proceeded to use up a garbage bag full of velvets, suedes, satins and glam fabrics that I’d gotten 2nd hand from an evening gown maker to embellish it. I worked on that floor length, hooded cape for about 200 hours, sewing down meticulously and then covering seams and patches of glittering fabric with fancy stitches on my sewing machine. Patches of material averaged 2×3 to 5×7 inches,Then I lined it in purple satin and created large pockets that he could use to hide tools of the trade, and added an embroidered name patch like you’d do a fur coat. My daughter was stunned at the quality, and he must have been overwhelmed, because that cape became legendary in his gaming environment. Last I heard, he’d donated it to the guild, and it was encased in glass for everyone to see but not touch…
Karen Poole
I love this embroidery collection and book! I recently purchased this set and have been collecting silks to make the projects. I can’t wait!
Michelle Hall
I have always wanted to try crazy quilting and this makes it look pretty easy to achieve good results
Michelle Hall
I have always wanted to try crazy quilting and this makes it look easy to achieve good results
Linda
When we purchase software like the crazy quilt software, I assume it works on any embroidery machine. Is that correct? I have a Husqvarna Viking Diamond that is about 5 years old.
Nancy Zieman
Linda, yes the embroidery designs are compatible with your machine!
fran renzi
Hi just watched the crazy quilt videos and was wondering about the block outline on your sewing machine how did you get that in the machine ? does it come with dvd? please respond as I really want to make one but confused by how to get the outline in my machine I have Phaff.thank you
Nancy Zieman
Fran, yes the outline is included with the embroidery design.
Nancy Zieman
HI Fran, Yes the block outline stitch is included on the CD which comes with the book, Today’s Crazy Quilting with your Embroidery Machine by Eileen Roche.
http://www.nancysnotions.com/product/todays+crazy+quilting+with+your+embroidery+machine+book+and+cd.do?extid=fbnz&code=NNOADV-1310