Crazy quilt block 88 Pattern and embroidered seams details

Crazy Quilt Block 88 is made up of pink tones and is set off against the green shades of block 87. They contrast well against each other. ( If you want a larger photo click on the image of the block.)

Here is the block diagramed out so you can see the pattern. Many people are surprised by the lace on the top left hand side of the block because it is quite wide. As you can see the lace takes up quite a chunk of the block’s real estate. There are no rules in crazy quilting and this is another example of adapting what I had to fit the block.

The lace has a story. On one of my holidays I discovered this lace in a second hand store in Oxford, England. I was browsing the store when I spotted a roll of damaged laces. Someone had wound bits of lace on to a 6 inch length of broom handle and slipped a pin in to secure it then added another piece and another pin. They had added bits of lace until the roll was about 4 inches thick. Unfortunately the pins had now all rusted.

The wad of laces looked to me as if they were of 50’s vintage because that was what was on the outer layer. However since the pins had rusted, there was no real way of knowing what was in there. When I expressed an interest in it the shop keeper removed two pieces from the roll to discover the lengths were about 15 cm (6 inches) long and in removing them the lace was likely to tear. She offered them to me for a couple of pounds and I jumped at it.

When I got back home to Australia I was delighted because as I carefully unwound the lace from the wad I realised the lace was getting older and older the deeper I went. To my amazement I discovered the lace went back to the Victorian era if not older. Unfortunately every single piece badly damaged. The use of numerous pins to secure them had caused rust staining, mould had also caused stains, and worse the samples were often torn.

To be honest it did not bother me, as I wanted to use them for crazy quilting. If they had been in good condition I would not have used them but since they were damaged I felt there was no harm if reclaimed for crazy quilting. I dyed the badly rust stained, repaired what was worth repairing and in the case of the piece on this block covered a tear with beads. Basically I reclaimed what I could and made something of it.

These are the types of fabrics I used. As you can see I am no fabric snob I use what I have to hand. If it fits I use it, and if it’s pretty that is even better!

Fabrics used in Crazy quilt block 88

Piece 1: Velvet
Piece 2: polyester furnishing fabric
Piece 3: linen
Piece 4: Synthetic soft furnishing fabric
Piece 5: Synthetic soft furnishing fabric
Piece 6: Silk
Piece 7: Synthetic soft furnishing fabric
Piece 8: Cotton soft furnishing fabric

Item Count: My challenge with this quilt was to use 2001 unique pieces of fabric, lace, braids, charms, buttons or ribbons. The item count is a growing list of items used on the blocks.

Fabric: 8
Lace, braid and ribbon: 3
Buttons and charms: 10
Total items on this block: 21
Total tally of items on the quilt so far: 1678

Crazy quilt block 88 pattern

How I hand embroidered the seams on Crazy Quilt Block 88

The first seam detail I will feature is a line of hand embroidery that runs diagonally across the block. I worked the line in cotton perle #5. It is a small experiment in Knotted Zig Zag chain which I have not yet documented. I found the directions for this stitch in Jacqueline Enthoven’s The Stitches of Creative Embroidery. If you have a copy, the directions are on page 163.

Seam detail 576 is Cretan stitch worked in rayon ribbon floss.

This seam is another experiment as I used a fine ribbon to work herringbone stitch before decorating the row of stitches with seed beads and straight stitches.

The next seam is possibly one of the easiest as it is made by working is a line of Feather stitch that I decorated with novelty buttons. Each button is in the shape of a flower. These were fun to do!

This band of vintage lace sits in the top left hand corner of the block. This lace was actually damaged and I hid the damage by beading the flower motif which is part of the pattern in the lace.

Seam detail 580 is another button cluster. Both modern and antique buttons are on this block.

This article is part of a series that offers a free block patterns from my crazy quilt called I dropped the button box while also documenting each block which are listed on the CQ details FAQ page.

If you are new to this site the set of the I Dropped the Button Box Quilt consists of diagonal lines of colour. My challenge was to have all the crazy quilt blocks reading properly as I was pulling everything on the quilt from my stash! I wanted to use as many different pieces of fabric, lace, braids, charms, and buttons in the quilt as possible because the I Dropped the Button Box Quilt is a Y2K quilt so I was trying to use 2001 different items on the quilt.

Have you seen my Crazy quilters templates?

As a stitcher who loves crazy quilting I designed these templates with other crazy quilters in mind. With my Crazy Quilters Templates you can create hundreds of different patterns to embroider on your stitching and crazy quilting projects. They are easy to use, totally clear so you can position them easily and they are compact in your sewing box.