Crazy quilt block 97 is another favourite block of mine. As usual you can click on the photo to see a larger version. See the blue lace in the top left corner. It has a story attached to it.
I used some very old piece of lace which in junk shop in Oxford, England. I was browsing around the store when I spotted a roll of lace wrapped around a piece of broom handle. Someone had wound each piece of lace on to the broom handle and slipped a pin in to secure it then they had wound on another piece and slipped a pin in. They had done this until the roll was about 4 inches thick and 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. At the time I was curious about it and when I expressed an interest 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 I was delighted because these small pieces of lace got older as I carefully unwound them. I think they were samples from a lace maker as each was tagged. To my amazement I discovered as I unwound the samples they got older and they went back to the Victorian era if not older. Unfortunately they were all very badly damaged. The use of numerous pins to secure each piece of lace had caused rust staining, and worse the samples were often torn.
To be honest that did not bother me as I wanted to use the lace for crazy quilting. If it 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 reclaimed what I could and made something of it.
I have used many of these laces on this quilt and they influenced this quilt in another important way. Because I wanted to use the scraps I had salvaged I decided to make the blocks the size they are. I felt the proportion of the blocks to the laces, highlighted them better than if they had been used on larger blocks. Also many were too small to use on larger blocks.
Crazy Quilt Block 97 Fabric content:
Piece 1: Cotton
Piece 2: Crepe
Piece 3: Velvet
Piece 4: Velvet
Piece 5: Silk
Piece 6: Silk
Piece 7: Crepe
Item Count:
My personal challenge when I made this quilt was to use 2001 unique pieces of fabric, lace, braids, charms, buttons or ribbons as it is a Y2K quilt. The on going item count list below represents the items documented to date in this series of articles.
Fabric: 7
Lace, braid and ribbon: 3
Buttons and charms: 14
Total items on this block: 24
Total tally of items on the quilt so far: 1857
Crazy Quilt Block 97 free Pattern
How I hand embroidered the seams on Crazy Quilt Block 97
This seam is hand embroidered with detached chain stitch worked in cotton perle #5
This seam is covered with a braid. Along the edge I used Pistil stitch
The hand embroidery stitches that have been used above the lace is Feather stitch and Sheaf stitch.
This is Chevron stitch worked in soft cotton thread. I added bugle beads were added and topped with seed beads.
The button cluster on Crazy quilt block 97.
This series are great to learn crazy quilting techniques, give you ideas on how to embellish your blocks and what stitches to use on your Crazy quilt seams. Each block is documented alongside a free crazy quilt block pattern. With each block I explain which stitches I used to cover the seams and I link to tutorials in my Stitch Dictionary. The technical details are included such as what threads I used, on what type of fabric, dyes used and if applicable I include design notes.
If you want to learn Crazy Quilting here are the links to the free crazy quilt block patterns in the series:
Block 1, Block 2, Block 3, Block 4, Block 5, Block 6, Block 7, Block 8, Block 9, Block 10, Block 11, Block 12, Block 13, Block 14, Block 15, Block 16, Block 17, Block 18, Block 19, Block 20, Block 21, Block 22, Block 23, Block 24, Block 25, Block 26, Block 27, Block 28, Block 29, Block 30, Block 31, Block 32, Block 33, Block 34, Block 35, Block 36, Block 37, Block 38, Block 39, Block 40, Block 41, Block 42, Block 43, Block 44, Block 45, Block 46, Block 47, Block 48, Block 49, Block 50, Block 51, Block 52, Block 53, Block 54, Block 55, Block 56, Block 57, Block 58, Block 59, Block 60, Block 61, Block 62, Block 63, Block 64, Block 65, Block 66, Block 67 Block 68, Block 69, Block 70, Block 71, Block 72 , Block 73, Block 74, Block 75, Block 76, Block 77, Block 78, Block 79, Block 80, Block 81, Block 82, Block 83, Block 84, Block 85, Block 86, Block 87, Block 88, Block 89, Block 90, Block 91, Block 92, Block 93, Block 94, Block 95, Block 96, Block 97, Block 98, Block 99, Block 100
All articles in this series can also be found in the Crazy quilting category and the Crazy quilt details category
If you enjoy this series you may be interested in a tutorial I have written. How to work decorative crazy quilt seams is a comprehensive tutorial converted to a pdf file. When I converted it I realised how comprehensive it was. At 19 pages of information it is a mini ebook and resource worth investigating!
My book on Crazy Quilting
My book The Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design: Simple Stitches, Stunning Results shares detailed practical methods about how to design and make a crazy quilt.
From fabric choice, to balancing colour, texture, and pattern, in order to direct the eye around the block. I cover how to stitch, build decorative seam treatments in interesting and creative ways. This book is profusely illustrated as my aim is to be practical and inspiring.
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