On Crazy Quilting

Wow! It has been way too long since I've blogged but I'm going to make a concerted effort to begin again and blog frequently.

Since I last wrote I have fallen in love with the art of Crazy Quilting. I love the hunt for trims, threads, ribbons, etc. and the beautiful results that can be achieved with a minimal amount of practice. Of course, the more you do, the better you get... so that's the hook. Always looking for new ways to use the many items that you've hunted down. 

And then there's fabric.... The funny thing about Crazy Quilting is that the fabric is secondary, just a means to an end. As opposed to "sane" quilting, which I also love, where the fabric is the main event.

And best of all, there's the fellowship. We have a small group of crazy stitchers that meet once a month. We almost always have a Round Robin project in progress. A Round Robin is essentially a group project. There are many ways to do a Round Robin but recently we settled on the following method.  If you want to participate you must piece together one block for each participant. Then you embellish a "seed" block that sets the tone (colors, style, scale, etc.) for the rest of your blocks. Each month you embellish someone else's block and bring it to the meeting. This continues until all of the blocks have been embellished. The finished blocks are returned to their owner who turns the blocks into a finished product, usually a wall hanging off some sort. It's tons of fun and encourages you to do your best stitching. 

At our monthly meeting we always have time to share the projects we're working on, besides the Round Robin. Apparently we are very lucky to have such a group, we've heard that Crazy Quilting groups are few and far between. I cherish these friendships and have learned so much from them. 

Recently I was invited to the wedding of the daughter of our long-time friends, Bruce and Leslie Norton. The bride's a very feminine girl, a tall and lithe dancer whom I immediately thought would enjoy a small, crazy quilted purse. BUT I had never made one before, is that a problem? Not in my book. It did require a fair share of un-stitching and stitch lifting (copying another's stitches) and a large share of anxiety but it turned out lovely and now I want to make more. 
I'm so glad that I challenged myself to make that little purse, a feat I later learned that even my more accomplished crazy quilting friends had not undertaken.

Here is my first Crazy Quilted purse. I'm like a new mom, full of pride and joy at what I've created😁