The Crazy Quilt Wrap-Up

A journey we started six months ago came to an end last Saturday. We had the last class in our Crazy Quilt: Start to Finish series, and it did not disappoint. You can read about our students' progress over the last six months through the following links:

Crazy Quilting—Start to Finish
Crazy Quilting—Start to Finish; Session One: Constructing the Blocks
Crazy Quilts, Session 2: Marking and Stitching Motifs
Crazy Quilts, Session 3: Ribbon Fun
Crazy Quilts, Sessions 4 and 5: Progress

Every student had a different take on what they wanted their project to look like. Whether it was the fabric choices, colors, or motifs, all of the projects displayed the unique stamp and personality of their creators.

Joanne displaying her progress

Inspiration taken from Joanne's love of birds

Linda sharing her inspiration

Each of these blocks had a theme

The stitcher's birthplace

This is a block all about the creator; her love of cats, hats, and roses

What sweet ribbon roses made by Theresa, an avid gardener and flower arranger

Some of our ladies chose to stick with four blocks, while others had more ambitious plans—and one is preparing to do 42 blocks for a large crazy quilt!

Denise chose these lovely earth tones 
and is considering framing her four blocks

Betsy has nine wonderful blocks made with her stash

Laurel has already put together 12 of her 42 blocks and chose
black centers to be the common thread in each block.

Our Wednesday students completed their four block projects and definitely fulfilled the "start to finish" aspect of our class.

Norma's completed project contains some of her beautiful hardanger work.

Rebecca's gorgeous fairy tale crazy quilt, complete with border and binding

A beautiful variegated ribbon flower in the border

As one final lesson, we did a combination stitch, round-robin activity in class. A 7x5" piece of flannel-backed linen with two drawn lines was given to all, and we each had to stitch a "seam" stitch.

Our round-robin pieces

Then we passed our fabric to the next person and they put another stitch down to combine with the first one. We passed it two more times so that each piece had been stitched by four different hands. The goal of the activity was to help our students with the combination-stitch thought process. Folded in half, these would make simple needle book covers if left as is, or they could be embellished a bit with more combination stitches or even a few small motifs. 

A good practice for all the stitches learned

We have had an amazing journey with our students and have loved getting to know them and helping them bring out their crazy quilt creative side. Both Teri and I have been thrilled to share our love of crazy quilting and embroidery, not just with our students in class, but with you, our readers, as well.