Block 74 has a bright colour scheme. I think of these ‘brights’ as jewel tones. On its own it looks a bit gah! But it sits ok in the quilt itself. As usual click on the block to see a larger view In the top left corner is a piece of stretch lace (piece 7) which was a bit of challenge but I was going through a stage of convincing myself and others that you can use just about any fabric in crazy quilting. There is a few block on this quilt where because I wanted every piece of fabric to be different I really had to test this. I use a piece of cotton under the stretch lace to stabilise it.
Fabrics and Items used on Crazy quilt block 74
Regular readers will know that I made this quilt with the challenge to use 2001 unique pieces of fabric, lace, braids, charms, buttons or ribbons as a Y2K quilt. In this series of articles, the on going item and fabric count listed below is the count to date.
- Piece 1: Cotton
- Piece 2: Cotton
- Piece 3: Velvet
- Piece 4: Satin
- Piece 5: wool
- Piece 6: Silk
- Piece 7: Polyester stretch lace
- Piece 8: Velvet
Item Count:
- Fabric: 8
- Lace, braid and ribbon: 3
- Buttons and charms: 7
- Total items on this block: 18
- Total tally of items on the quilt so far: 1415
The free Pattern for Crazy Quilt Block 74. Right click to save the image to your computer.
How I embellished Crazy Quilt Block 74
The first detail is a line of buttonhole stitch in perle #5 cotton. With a silk thread I added French knots and Cast on stitch loops. The seam was then finished with seed beads and bugle beads.
On piece #3 I first covered the seam with some yellow tatted lace. I added a seed bead to the centre of each of the tatted lace motifs. Along the edge of the lace I worked a line detached chain half flowers in perle #8 cotton. In the middle of each flower I added a seed bead.
On the seam that joins piece #3 to piece #1 is a line of feathered up and down buttonhole worked in silk thread. Before adding more seed beads I tucked bullion knots in between the spikes.
On this seam embellishment I first covered the seam with hand dyed purple lace before I worked a line of straight stitches in perle #8. Orange seed beads added to the ends of each straight stitch completed the simple decoration. Next I added beads to the lace and then finally the vintage purple button.
This is a cluster of buttons on the right hand side completes Crazy Quilt Block 74. I first worked couched down some knitting yarn that had an interesting texture. I then secured it further with straight stitches and seed beads before adding the buttons. The buttons are modern with the exception of the little blue button that has little flowers painted on it. This button is vintage dating from the 50’s.
The buttons and beads sort of took over, but if you look they are sitting on some hand dyed green lace also dating from the 50’s.
This block comes from the I dropped the button box quilt which is made up of 100, 6 inch blocks. Click on the image and you will see a larger version of the quilt. I have diagramed each block for my readers creating a series of articles about each of the 100 blocks, each with a free block pattern. Links in the article lead to tutorials on how to work the hand embroidery stitches that I used at the time which means the series has become a huge offering of free crazy quilt block patterns, techniques, and tips on how to decorate seams with hand embroidery. Links to these free pattern pages are listed on the CQ details FAQ page.
Have you enjoyed this series? If so you may be interested in a tutorial I have written on how to work decorative crazy quilt seams. When I converted it to a PDF file I realised how comprehensive it was. At 19 pages of information it is a mini ebook and resource worth investigating!
Have you seen my book?
My book The Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design: Simple Stitches, Stunning Results
superbe, mes yeux pétillent devant tant de travail impeccable !!!!!