Crazy Quilting For Newbies - Reference Material

I've been asked by several of my followers to write some articles on how to get started with Crazy Quilting.  I guess it can be overwhelming when you think about the process of creating a crazy quilt block. 

Just thinking about techniques, gathering supplies and choosing colors is enough to drive even a sane person crazy!  I of course, would not be one of those sane people!  LOL!!!!  There really is a lot to choose from when it comes to this beautiful art form.

I decided to break it down into manageable sections to keep us all from being overwhelmed.  I'll start with reference materials.

There are gobs and gobs of books on sane quilting.  How-to's, patterns, computer software and so on.  But when it comes to crazy quilting, the reference material is limited.  There just isn't the demand for it.  The following books are my recommendations for newbie crazy quilters:

The Crazy Quilt Handbook by Judith Montano

This, in my opinion, is the Queen Mother of Crazy Quilt reference books!

Running a close 2nd, The Magic Of Crazy quilting by J. Marsha Michler

If you have these 2 books, you've got everything you need from piecing, stitches, embellishing, SRE and color theory.

This is another book by Judith Montano that I highly recommend, Elegant Stitches:

Being that I am in no way a minimalist when it comes to my creative endeavors, another must have by Judith Montano is her Floral Stitches

This book covers the how to's of recreating in thread & ribbon, every flower you can think of!

For seam treatments, I have several recommendations..  For my seam treatments, I use a combination of techniques.  The first is a book by Carol Samples called Treasury Of Crazy Quilt Stitches:

Carol teaches how to create an unlimited variety of stitches and stitch variations.  I think you can see by the cover that this one will not disappoint!

Carol also offers a set of marking templates called, Dream A Seam Templates. I have these templates, I use these templates and I love them!  Unfortunately, I've spent the past 15 minutes searching for an online purchasing source but so far, I've had no luck.  I will send an email or two out and see if I can locate an online shop that carries them.  I'll update this post as soon as I find one.

The other technique I use to create my seam embroidery is my own technique devised in my days of designing charted counted cross stitch patterns.  It uses Waste Canvas aka Tear Away to create perfectly sized & spaced stitches.  I wrote a book on the technique called, Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments:



A complete guide to working Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments with Waste Canvas. Create perfectly spaced and sized stitches every time!

This book covers the how-to's of working with waste canvas on crazy quilt seams, what size threads to use, how to calculate, helpful hints and more.

Included are 72 charted border designs and 9 Bonus Feather Stitch designs.

This is an E-Book and is available as a  PDF file.  It will be sent your email address which I have to do manually.  The book is $17.00 US.  Payment via PayPal can be sent to my email address.

So those are the books that I recommend to start with.  And if you're into history, like me, here are few good ones:

Crazy Quilts - History, Techniques, Embroidery Motifs by Cindy Brick

This is a must have book for CQ history.  Well researched, well written and loads of photos!  Worth every penny!

And this, is the Holy Grail of Crazy Quilt history books, Crazy Quilts by Penny McMorris:

This book is long out of print so be fore-warned, if you want it, prepare to pay for it.  I bought my copy on Ebay for $50.00.  To me it was worth it as I collect every book on CQ that I can find but if you need to watch your money, like most of us do these days, the book by Cindy Brick is just as good if not better.

Finally, this little book is just cute & fun!  Quilting News Of Yesteryear: Crazy As A Bed Quilt

This book contains over 200 newspaper articles dating from 1880 to 1945.  All referring to crazy quilts.  It's just a sweet little book to have and can be rather amusing to read.

There are also a few good online sources for crazy quilting reference material.  First, is Sharon Boggon's Pin Tangle blog.  Sharon offers stitches diagrams and motif ideas with loads of links and photos.  Sharon updates her blog almost daily so I suggest bookmarking her site and visiting regularly.

Another good online source for Crazy Quilting is CQMagOnline.  This is an online magazine written for crazy quilters by crazy quilters.  It's published quarterly and well worth the time to visit.  Be sure to read the archives.  Of course, you'll be reading for hours and hours but the eye candy and tutorials are well worth the time.

So that's the list of reference material that I recommend.  I hope you find this post helpful.  In my next article on Crazy Quilting For Newbies, I'll discuss supplies.  What to purchase and where to find it.

Maple Leaf Brooches

A quick little update everyone.  Mom is doing well.  Not sure yet if she'll be home today or tomorrow.  As soon as I know, I'll post another update.  I'd like to thank everyone who left comments wishing mom well.  I will read all of your messages to mom when she gets home and settled.

As for me, I'm starting to think that 37 1/2 milligrams of Zoloft is a little too low. But I'm stubborn as a mule and will try to ride it out.  I certainly won't ask my Dr. to decrease it again, at least until after the holidays.  Geez, it's been almost 2 years now.  I'm really disappointed that the depression from the breakdown isn't gone yet but at least I know where I'm at with it.  So, still taking one day at a time.  I do think my eyes have stopped jumping as I can comfortably read now.  I can really tell though, that this is still here.  Maybe it'll be gone by Spring.

In other news, Kathi has made some beautiful needle felted leaf brooches:

These are in the shop now.  She also made some Oak Leaf Brooches.  I'll add them to the shop later today.

Finally for today, Angel Brooches with Roses:

These were for a custom order.  I may do a few of these for the shop for Valentine's Day.  I just love those little angels!

Update On Mom

The surgery went well and mom is doing fine. She was all excited about your messages and can't wait for me to read them to her when she gets home.  I'll keep you posted.  Due to mom's Bi-Polar, they want to keep her an extra day so she'll be home on Thursday.

I've not been feeling good the past few days.  Withdrawals I think.  This is getting old.  Anyway, I want to write a Crazy Quilting For Newbies post.  If I feel better later today, I'll get that up for you.

Fiber In The Park - Earlville, Illinois

Kathi and I drove about 1 1/2 hours south yesterday to the Fiber In The Park fiber show in Earlville, Illinois.  It was a gray, rainy and very dreary day but perfect for us little chipmunks who are diligently stocking up for Winter!  LOL!!!

So what's a fiber show you ask?  It's a gathering of vendors who produce a variety of supplies for spinners, weavers, needle-felters, knitters and mixed media artists.

Wool, alpaca, mohair, angora and other natural fibers are featured at these shows.  Here are my goody's from yesterday:

I'm rather fond of hand-dyed sheep curls also known as "Noils".    I bought quite a few last week at the Jefferson, WI show but of course, I had to have a few more!

I also picked up some Angelina Fibers which I'll talk about in future posts.  Oh, I have so many things that I can share with you!

Anyway, I picked up some mohair and as you can see, some specialty fibers which I like to use on just about everything I make!

So what do I do with all these things?  Well, if you look closely at this cuff bracelet that I made, you can see how I use some these things:

I'll explain further in a future post but for now, I just wanted to share my goody's!

Here are the links to a few of the vendors that I purchased items from. 

First, Esther's Place is where I bought some Angelina Fibers and the large cards of misc. yarns.  Esther's Place is located in Big Rock, Illinois and offers all sorts of wonderful supplies & classes!

Kitty Grrlz Knits & Spins offers gorgeous Hand Spun yarns & hand knits.  I bought the little bag of specialty fibers from Bobbi-Jean.  Beautiful yarns in that little bag!

KnitSpin Fibers and Yarns offers Handpainted Home Spun Yarns & rovings.  Kathi picked up some beautiful roving from this vendor.

It was a small show compared to the Jefferson, WI show last weekend but as you can see, it didn't stop me from finding some nice supplies for my projects!

Kathi packed a healthy lunch for us which I we ate in the car and then we headed back.  We stopped in DeKalb on the way back for "ladies room" break.  Little did we know we'd find some wonderful little shops there to look in!  After a Hot Chocolate at a nice little Coffee House, we roamed the antique shop and specialty shops on Lincoln Hwy in downtown DeKalb.  I picked up these little sweeties:

The little painted pictures are vintage and from the antique shop there.  I paid $6 for them and plan to use them in my Guest Room when I repaint it.  It'll be pink.  Are you surprised?  LOL!!!

I bought the little cat doll in another shop there.  It's made of vintage fabric from Japan!  I just fell in love with this little guy!

When we arrived back at my house, we sat and looked through our new stash and had an iced tea.  The perfect end to a lovely day.

Autumn Fiber Art Cuff Bracelets

The newest additions to my little corner of Etsy:

Lots of different fabrics, beads and embellishments.  I have got to make some more of these!  I can see them for all the different holidays and with a huge variety of themes.

I used elastic inside so there's no fiddling with fasteners.  They stay put!

In other news, I've been asked by several of my readers to do some articles on Crazy Quilting For Newbies.  Gladly!  I'll start on that series in the next week or so.  I've been working diligently at mom's on a variety of projects and haven't had time for much stitching lately.  But I'm itching to get back to it and I can most definitely feel the need for some down time.  Quiet, sit on my butt and stitch time!  Just me, my cats & my TV.

I'll be taking my laptop over to mom's today so she can write her Creatively Coping With Bi-Polar article.  I'll upload that as soon as we have it ready.

Tomorrow, Kathi and I are going to another fiber show.  I haven't used anything that I bought at the fiber show last week!  But Kathi and I look at this way, we're like chipmunks stocking up for Winter!  LOL!!!