Handmade Crafts For Sale

	Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting: Modern Piecing & Embellishing Techniques for Joyful Stitching List Price: $29.95 Sale Price: $13.90 Used From: $16.65
	Allie shows readers how to make crazy quilting more contemporary with an array of easy-to-master techniques. Show your customers how to combine traditional methods with modern fabric tricks. The photo gallery reveals just how creative and modern crazy quilting can be-and anyone can do it.

A true crazy quilt, like they made during the Victorian Era, is usually made with luxury fabrics like silk, satin, velvet, and lace. There are two parts to a crazy quilt - the fabrics, which are sewn to a foundation fabric, often muslin, and the embellishments.

For the fabric portion, you need squares of muslin cut 1/2" larger than your finished block size (12" is a good size for a beginner). Start with a small piece of fabric and place it near the middle of the muslin, right side up. Place another piece of fabric on top of it, WRONG side up, aligning one edge. Sew approximately 1/4" from the aligned edge. Fold the second piece of fabric back along the seam and press. Now place another piece of fabric on top of the squares, align an edge, and sew. Press open. Continue, working around the block adding fabric until you have covered the entire square. Baste around the edge about 1/8" from the edge of the muslin, then trim any excess fabrics. After you've made as many blocks as you want, sew them together.

The second part is the embellishment. You can add as much or as little embellishment as you like, but Victorian crazy quilts had a LOT of embellishments. You can use embroidery floss, silk ribbon, metallic threads, beads, buttons, lace, charms, and anything else you can think of.

Once you've embellished the top, you can layer the quilt top with another fabric for the backing and sew it together. Traditionally, crazy quilts were not quilted, because the tops were so heavily embellished.

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