What is a Crazy Quilt?
Even the advent of the crazy quilt is a lesson in creativity.
Prior to 1876, crazy quilts didn’t exist. Up until that year, other than the fabrics chosen, quilt making fell within established patterns. Don’t get me wrong. These quilts were intricate and beautiful and had names that were recognizable by their patterns. So what happened?
In 1876 the Centennial Exposition came to Philadelphia.
Japan had recently ended 200 years of isolation. During those 200 years, no foreigners were allowed in and no Japanese were allowed out. The world was curious and eager to view Japanese arts and culture. Japan participated in their first International Exposition in Vienna in 1873.
Three years later the exposition was held in Philadephia.
Within Japan’s exhibit were crazing ceramics. Apparently the public was enamoured with the glazed ceramics that looked as though they had shattered and been fitted back together. The light danced off the pieces as they caught the light and refracted it outward. Women were dazzled and the crazy quilt was born.
Crazing ceramics and quilts?
According to womenfolk.com, crazing means wild, broken, irregular – crazed into splinters. History credits the wealthy women of 1876 for attempting to simulate the look of crazing in their quilt making.
Purchasing exotic materials such as silks and brocades, they created quilts whose curves and lines appeared to be as random as the fabric and colors used. These quilts were works of art displayed as throws across chairs. Most were lap size as it was time consuming to piece together.
Once the quilt was constructed, decorative stitch was sewn around each piece of fabric. It didn’t take long for the technique to spread and women less well off began creating ‘crazy’ quilts with fabric collected from discarded clothing.
My Maternal Grandmother was a Seamstress
Below is a picture of her graduation from the Seamstress School. Unfortunately, there isn’t any date on the picture but it would be around 1908, give or take a few years.
Grandma K had a dressmaking business until she married at age 32. But her passion for creating didn’t end with marriage. She sewed clothes, often refashioning new clothes from the discarded. She crocheted. And she made quilts. For as long as I remember her usual quilt pattern was the log cabin, and then she made this crazy quilt.
The Crazy Quilt my Grandma Made
My Grandma was 88 years old when she made the crazy quilt that is featured in this post. I recognize many of the fabrics – dresses or blouses that my Mom and Grandma wore. Fabrics from my dad’s ties. Fabric from the bridesmaids dresses from several of my older sister’s weddings. Fabric from a favorite top I wore when I was in grade 10. From the fabric that my Grandma chose to the placement of the curves and lines, the quilt reflects a story.
I regret not asking enough questions of my Grandma. She lived with us for several months of each year while I was young and then moved in with my mom and dad after I left home at eighteen. It was then that she made this quilt for my mom.
I’ve looked for her usual signature – a strand of hair knotted into a stitch – a symbol of herself sewn into the design. It probably has fallen out. Sometimes a crazy quilt is just a crazy quilt. But as I look at the fabric that my Grandma chose to the placement of the curves and straight lines, I wonder what stories were told during the making of this quilt because always there were stories during quilting sessions. And I like to imagine that these stories are woven into the trail made by the herringbone stitch.
Creativity is the universal thread that connects us all through time and space.
4 Tips on Creativity from the Crazy Quilt
1. Study the experts
“The key to creativity is to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then to bring those things into what you are doing.” ~ Steve Jobs
Learn from the best both inside as well as outside your field of interest.
2. Connect what doesn’t go together
Connect and combine ideas and objects that are different from each other.
3. Be Observant
Look and listen for ideas and inspiration.
4. Change your perspective
“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are — or, as we are conditioned to see it. When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions, our paradigms.” ~ Stephen Covey
The first creator of the crazy quilt was able to look past her own perspective of quilt making, see the crazing ceramics, and envision a new quilt making experience.
Quilters of crazy quilts take disparate materials, disparate shapes, and craft them into beautiful, wild, broken, irregular patterns that reflect their story.
We are limited only by the bounds of our own imagination. We can break through those boundaries by implementing the 4 strategies above.
May you find wonder and inspiration today!
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Thanks for reading!
Priscilla
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Love this! It was so interesting learning the history of the crazy quilt and about grandma K and how to use inspiration from what you have experienced to develop your own creativity.
Glad you liked it! It was fun to write about.
Thank you!