Finally Crazy: a Saga

When Debra send me one of her machine embroidery motifs, I tried to use it as the starting point for a crazy block for Alz Quilts. I made it my goal to push on this--going on after I thought it was finished. (My less-is-more attitude is not well suited to crazy quilting.) This was interesting. Ordinarily quilters think in terms of color, value, and shape. Line is less important. I found that I had to think about line in planning this block. It was a new approach for me, and I could almost feel my brain growing!

I drew a block plan, using freezer paper templates. This works for me. When I have just done flip and sew in a truly crazy way, I've found I regret the fabric choices and have to figure out a way to compensate. This way allows me to audition fabrics.


Heres the basic block. I liked this, and would really have loved to stop. But I forced myself to go on.

First some machine decorative stitches. I'm learning the Janome here, killing two birds with one stone, to coin a phrase. Then I couched some fibers, and attached the ribbon flowers (The leaf in the upper left was knit by my mother; she made it for me to use several years ago. It was a natural-colored thread, to go with linen, and I painted it green to use here. The paint had the added virtue of stopping its tendency to curl.)



I intended to stop here, but realized it was still naked. So then came the embroidered vine thing, with French knots. I'm stretching the limit of the embroidery stitches I remember here. Then I painted some lace motifs (not well done--I should have cut them out before painting), and added them, then I did a bit more embroidery, and then finally the yo-yos and little butterfly, something I usually wouldn't do.


Here's the finished version. I'm happy with it, although I didn't originally visualize such a 70's mix of avocado and harvest gold! Maybe those colors are classic.


Thanks to all you crazy quilters out there. Whenever I thought I'd had enough, I looked at some of your pictures, and realized I hadn't even started!