Allie Aller and Valerie Bothell have worked together to bring out a book on crazy quilting that has a slightly different take on the topic.
Quilting – Just a Little Bit Crazy: A Marriage of Traditional & Crazy Quilting
Quilting – Just a Little Bit Crazy includes 10 projects, 5 from each author. They range in in size and complexity. There are photo instructions for the basic crazy quilt stitches and the basic silk ribbon embroidery stitches which means a new hand to this form of quilting has enough information to start embellishing their quilts.
Other techniques covered are foundation piecing, stabilizing with interfacing, applique, embellishing with ribbons, trims, and pre-made flowers. There are more techniques I simply list the key ones.
An important difference with this book is that there is a good section on blending hand-stitching with machine embroidery. Most books on crazy quilting focus on hand embroidery alone but there are lots of opportunities to combine machine and hand work together and this book focuses on techniques that enable that.
The main strength of this book is the combination between hand techniques and modern machine techniques. There are also loads of illustrated instruction and tips for combining crazy quilt machine piecing and embroidery. There are not many quilters who have combined these techniques and I cant think of another book that tackles the topic so well.
If you are a quilter who is interested in introducing some hand embroidery elements into your quilt but dont want to be swamped with all the hand techniques Quilting – Just a Little Bit Crazy will be ideal for you. If you are a traditional crazy quilter who is interested in being able to incorporate more machine work in your quilts you will find this book a good addition to your library.
I have been doing this for years,find the denser stiches work very well with hand work & they seem to work very well together.If I knew how to put pictures on the computer,I would show one of my favorite projects & all of the embroidery is out of my head,Sometimes things are just meant to turn out but I
am just not that tech savy.I love the handwork though as it is so relaxing & you do feel as if you are making a real treasure.Thank you for all of your projects that you share.It fascinates me the different color ways that different people choose & how they all seem to work.Your work shows just how far you can go to produce what I would term a masterpiece.
Please keep this blog going,so inspirational.
Do you think you will ever do your Sumtuous Embroidery classes on a DVD now that you will no longer be teaching them? Evan tha
“bare bones” would help those of us that were not fortunate enough to get into your last class.I only found this site in Feruary/2014.
Thank you again,Shirley
thanks Shirley – I dont think i will do a dvd as these things always take more time that anticipated and I really wnat to clear the decks a bit and do other things
Hey Sharon, I have this book on its way to me, and to read that you have been put in the top 4 of the crazy world is brilliant, and exactly where you ought to be. Congratulations !!!!
I’m looking forward to reading this book as I have never quilted before and feel I could benefit learning from the sane world as well as crazy.
I got this book last week Sharon and it was good to see that Allie puts you where you belong as one of the big four in the crazy quilt world
Margaret when I read that in the acknowledgements form Allie I was so tickled that I rang Jerry work and read it out to him! I honestly dont think of myself as big at anything other than having to lose weight! Thanks for the compliments
In the plant world they say that crossing two varieties can yield “hybrid vigor”. We hope it does in quilting too! Thanks again, Sharon. 😉
i like the crossover idea