There was a lot of wild and crazy weather in our area yesterday and it made me wonder if I would be able to hang a quilt on the line. But mid-afternoon, there was a bit of a break in the rain and storms and I went out to my little "clothesline in the woods" and took these pictures. This quilt is as crazy as our weather and very unpredictable. I don't know who made it but it's got a little bit of every kind of fabric in it's blocks.
One thing that can be said for it, is that it's "colorful". Oh, and it's not really a quilt because it's just blocks sewn to fabric and so it's just a "top". When I first hung it on the line, the wind was calm, so I got the photo above. I wanted a couple more and so, of course, the wind picked up.............
In the photo below, you can see the backing on each block, which in most cases is blue chambray cotton.
The amount of shocking pink satin in this quilt top makes me wonder if it's someone's old prom dress or a really awful bridemaid's dress.
You may also note that there are drapery fabrics in this top that could only have come from the 1950's or 1960's. :-)
I loved watching the quilt top blow back and forth in the wind!
And then the wind died down again..........
and so I took some close-ups..........
My favorite fabric in this old vintage "very, very crazy patchwork" top is the floral with the navy background. It's jersey or some other type of fabric. I cannot imagine who made this but it truly fits the term "crazy quilt"!
Now, I need some advice. This quilt top is unfinished but it needs to become a finished project. I am thinking that it should be "embellished" but how? Should I add embroidery to it and do it only in black perle cotton? Or should I do the embroidery on it in colors that compliment the fabrics? Or should I do nothing and just add a backing and border and be done with it? Oh, and one more thought I had..........maybe I could ask each of my crazy quilting friends to embroider a block area and then note who did which blocks? Tell me what you think as I think this one needs to have a happy ending and become a finished crazy quilt. Then I think it will need a name. What would you call this very crazy patchwork quilt?
To give you an idea of the wild weather we had here in Minnesota yesterday, here is the sky to the west of us mid-afternoon Sunday. We could see the menacing storm clouds as the rolled north to Minneapolis where the tornadoes hit. It has certainly been a stormy spring.
Just a few minutes after I took the photo above, I took this photo out our back door and looking to the southeast. It was amazing to me that it could be so gloomy to the west and so sunny out to the southeast!
Speaking of sunny......It was like sunshine amidst the rain on Saturday when I went to the mailbox and found these little beauties in a package from my friend, Jane. She's a member of my Wooly Buddies Yahoo group and sent me these lovely handmade treasures as a thank you for such a fun group. And we do have fun, even though most of us have never met. I realized recently that Jane is one of many on-line friends that I have stayed connected with for almost three years. Yahoo groups and blogging is like the pen-pal groups when I was a kid. I just love the work that Jane did on the little needlecase and then the matching scissorscase and the little flower that holds emery for sharpening pins and needles. My thanks have been sent to Jane, but I'll say it again...Thank you, Jane!!
That's all for this day! I'll have some more crazy quilting things to share this week and next week. Plus, I'm going to go back through my photos that I've taken lately and see what I may have missed. I have some spring flowers to share tomorrow that could inspire a future design or two!
Have a great Monday!
Sandi
10 comments:
Okay....I like the black perle cotton AND having your crazy quilting friends personalize blocks. As for a name, I'd call it "Gone With The Wind" as the project will be done (gone)soon and you first showed it to us when it was windy on your line.
Very interesting quilt! I personally love all of the different fabrics in quilts like this one, but it makes it a tough one to care for? Good luck finishing it. The sky pictures were cool, and your little package was the best!!
Not quite crazy enough.. it does need some embroidery.. to distract from the hot pink satin LOL. I certainly think it would improve things.
All of your ideas are good ones. However, if it was my quilt I would embroider and embellish it in the traditional way. I think you have a real treasure to work on and it's wonderful that you are going to complete it.
I love the idea of having friends embroider a block. That really does look like prom dress/bridesmaids dress - YIKES!
I would say how much embellishing needs to be done should be based on how much you love this quilt. I'm wondering how lost the fancy stitching will be lost in the "unique" fabrics. If it were me, I would put fancy quilting in each section instead....but that's just me LOL.
Crispy
I think it would be lovely to have crazy quilting buddies personalize it! It could be called "Combined Effort" then! I think fancy stitches and embellishments are perfect ideas! It is a fun project, and will be a treasure when it's done.
Jacque in SC
quiltnsrep(at)yahoo(dot)com
I agree, those do look like 50's -60's fabrics --the chambray on the back possibly from old work shirts? The black perle cotton would help unify it and make the work go faster, but having the friends personalize the blocks would really make it go faster as well as being a fun time and record of that fun tie. How about "Tornado Allee" or "Winds of Change" or a gentler "Friendship Zephyrs," referring to the embellishing friends.
Have fun! --and stay safe!
I would guess the top smelled good once you brought it into the house. Can't wait to hang clothes outside again. I noticed a lot of large open spaces of the same fabric. I think I would add some large applique to break up the pieces. I personally like color threads and the name Pat gave the quilt "Gone with the Wind".
The storm clouds and the contast to the south are amazing. The weather this spring is really testing all of us this year. So many tornadoes, flooding and even lack of water in other places.
I love that you get gifts also. I love Jane's work....so pretty
When I think about quilts that I've seen in antique stores that are crazy pieced that way, they are often done in one color, and sometimes only in one stitch. However, I think if it were mine, I would do whatever I felt like on every piece, and maybe ask friends to do bits of it, as well.
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