Crazy Doll Quilt :: Freedom Session :: Third Street Salvage Yard

Crazy quilts are known as the quilts that anyone can make as the techniques used in traditional patchwork are largely abandoned in this type of quilting.  I've read several books focusing on crazy quilting that I borrowed from the library (check out Very Easy Crazy Patchwork by Betty Barnden, available in our Reader's Cafe), and the basic gist of it is that you take randomly shaped pieces of fabric and using a series of overlapping and layering, you sew them to batting.  There is no piecing, no necessary measuring, no seam allowances to be considered, and pretty much none of the precision that accompanies traditional patchwork.

Inspired by the liberating allure of crazy quilting, I decided a while back to try my hand at making a crazy doll-sized quilt to use as a display piece for craft shows. 

This quilt was assembled entirely of scrap pieces.  I overlapped two pieces of Warm and Natural cotton batting that I had left over from a previous project and began raiding our bag of scrap cotton pieces.

Delightfully, the techniques for assembling crazy quilts vary, but the most wonderful and alluring thing about crazy quilting is that there is no real hard-fast rules - you just do it.  Working directly on my ironing board, I used small strips of fusible web to temporarily adhere the scrap cotton pieces to the batting piece until I was ready to stitch them down.

The crazy quilts that I love feature raw edges, decorative stitches and bold colours displayed in a coll ague-like fashion.  I have a pretty basic machine with a small selection of stitches, but as any sewer knows - when it comes to creative sewing, results are limited only to the capabilities of your machine and to your skills as a sewer, and largely to your own creativity. 

I think that it is a worthy speculation that when it comes to the longevity of a quilt, crazy quilts may not prove to be as sturdy as traditional quilts, due to the substitution of seam allowance patchworking with raw edge piecing, as demonstrated in this particular quilt.  But I think that with good care and love, these quilts can become heirlooms just the same as other quilts. 

Either way, crazy quilts make excellent doll quilts because - let's face it - dolls are pretty easy on their quilts!

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