{"id":16136,"date":"2011-07-11T01:31:25","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T05:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=16136"},"modified":"2014-12-12T02:10:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T07:10:05","slug":"antique-crazy-patch-quilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/11\/antique-crazy-patch-quilt\/","title":{"rendered":"Antique Crazy Patch Quilt"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the crazy quilt of life, I’m glad you’re in my block of friends<\/strong><\/em>. Author Unknown<\/p>\n

\"old<\/a><\/p>\n

We don’t come to our cabin in North Carolina as frequently as we did before the grandchildren were born.\u00c2\u00a0 After a lengthy absence from my favorite getaway, seeing the old treasures I placed\u00c2\u00a0 there is a little like seeing old friends. This quilt is an old favorite that brings back fond memories of estate sale-ing with my friend Suzanne.\u00c2\u00a0 One of those sales is where I found this oldie.<\/p>\n

I love antique textiles–good, bad and mediocre.\u00c2\u00a0 In the eyes of an expert\u00c2\u00a0 appraiser, this old crazy patch quilt is charming at best and crude at worst.\u00c2\u00a0 But I love it for its character, idiosyncrasies and history,\u00c2\u00a0about which I can only speculate.<\/p>\n

This beauty is more representative of the classic crazy patch style.\u00c2\u00a0 It is obvious \"Quilt1\"<\/a>that the cabin quilt is extremely primitive in comparison.<\/p>\n

Crazy patch quilting, you might know, became the needlework rage in America between 1870 and 1880, though historically its origins go back as far as 1160.\u00c2\u00a0 A brief overview of its history and progress as a legitimate form of needlework can be read here.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 http:\/\/www.quiltropolis.net\/articles\/crazy-quilts.aspair<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This excerpt from Crazy Quilts<\/strong><\/em> by Cindy Brick explains that crazy quilts of that period were made of luxury fabrics and lavishly embellished.\u00c2\u00a0 Each seam was covered with decorative stitching and most patches were embroidered with flowers, children\u00c2\u00a0or\u00c2\u00a0animals.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Cigar silks and\u00c2\u00a0even decorative ribbon in hat bands were\u00c2\u00a0 applique’d in place.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0For one\u00c2\u00a0susceptible to over stimulation, a well done crazy quilt could cause a migraine.<\/p>\n

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\"square<\/a><\/p>\n

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The crazy\u00c2\u00a0pieces were primarily decorative and rarely met the 3-layer standard for\u00c2\u00a0“real” quilts:, i.e.\u00c2\u00a0 1. a top, pieced or not, 2. filler of batting or whatever was at hand, \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0and 3.\u00c2\u00a0 a backing.\u00c2\u00a0 I have another crazy “quilt” which has no backing at all, which was common for these works.\u00c2\u00a0 The stitches of every seam and embellishment\u00c2\u00a0 are visible on the reverse side of a single layer.\u00c2\u00a0 Intended to be draped over the back of a sofa or chair, the back was deemed unnecessary.<\/p>\n

So what’s to admire or respect\u00c2\u00a0with this quilt?\u00c2\u00a0To me it is the quilter, a woman\u00c2\u00a0who needed both warm bedding for her family and an outlet for her creative spirit.\u00c2\u00a0This is a real quilt made by a real woman I would like to have known.<\/p>\n

Made of sturdy woolen and bottom weight fabric scraps with only a token\u00c2\u00a0 few fancy pieces,\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0this working class\u00c2\u00a0quilt\u00c2\u00a0 nonetheless has every seam\u00c2\u00a0 embellished, unnecessarily, with stitching.\u00c2\u00a0 Only one patch has embroidery. \u00c2\u00a0 Was this\u00c2\u00a0 piece embroidered in easier days and then incorporated into the quilt?<\/p>\n

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A heavy cotton batting is visible through tears in the worn top and backing.\u00c2\u00a0 It is hand tied every 2-3″ with the knots on the back instead of front.\u00c2\u00a0 Given its weight and wear,\u00c2\u00a0 it was made as a barrier between Jack Frost and someone dear.<\/p>\n

The miscellaneous pieces of fabric were likely genuine scraps.\u00c2\u00a0 There is no color scheme and the irregular shapes seem to have been cut to get the maximum amount of fabric from a discarded garment.\u00c2\u00a0 They certainly were not cut and joined to meet even low standards of creative balance.<\/p>\n

When I look at this crazy quilt (circa 1920)\u00c2\u00a0 hanging on a rack there, I am reminded of a quote Julia Golson shared with me.\u00c2\u00a0 As she was searching for meaningful needlework quotes for a book she was writing, she came across this, \u00c2\u00a0 but chose not to use it because it was so sad.<\/p>\n

A pioneer woman wrote\u00c2\u00a0to her sister, “I stitch as quickly as I can so my family won’t freeze and as beautifully as I can so my heart won’t break.”\u00c2\u00a0 Those words seems to be especially apropos for this vintage bed cover.<\/p>\n

The quilt\u00c2\u00a0no longer does the\u00c2\u00a0heavy work of keeping loved ones warm.\u00c2\u00a0 Like so many residents of the cabins on our mountain, it is tired and retired.\u00c2\u00a0 But it still gives me a warm feeling.<\/p>\n

Francis Bacon, Irish artist 1909-1992, said, “Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I would have to add, and old quilts to love.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the crazy quilt of life, I’m glad you’re in my block of friends. Author Unknown We don’t come to our cabin in North Carolina as frequently as we did before the grandchildren were born.\u00c2\u00a0 After a lengthy absence from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,3],"tags":[226,227],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16136"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16136"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32042,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16136\/revisions\/32042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}